Yihui

as much as i’d like to say friendship comes easily to me, it takes a lot for me to call someone my friend — a sense of belonging, intimacy, and trust. even when big tech has produced dopamine-rich ways of keeping our eyes glued to each other’s lives with rarely any effort, i know that friendship is beyond being a witness. it requires hard work. it ... See more

technology has made it easy to access the best parts of people’s lives. the part where we’re booked and busy. the part where we’re in the streets and the night is always young. the part that we want people to see. so it’s easy to assume that what we’re seeing is the truth. maybe, like me, it deters you from reaching out to people because you think ... See more

“inconvenience is the cost of community” I repeat to myself as I climb 6 flights of stairs for my friends birthday party for her cat

being annoyed is the price you pay for community.

it means having guests when you'd rather be alone. it means letting someone live with you even when they get on your nerves. it means showing up for events that you'd rather not go to. it means turning the other cheek.

Technology already takes care of the truly tedious things—a gold star to Microsoft Excel—but we’re still inventing, faster and faster than ever. The tech industry seems to have tasked itself with a mass excavation of everything “effortful”, and with every day that passes, the human hand becomes slightly more redundant.

I just don’t think this is ho... See more

For our community, the pandemic was an inflection point in the latent sense of disconnection that had been simmering for a generation. We awoke from the fever dream of Covid to find that the city had transformed around us, offering no shortage of trendy spaces to photograph a perfect matcha latte or sip a $25 dirty martini. But amid this abundance ... See more

If ever we feel a lack of community, I want us to take a step back before rushing to the internet to solve it. We shouldn’t rely on brands or strangers online to create community for us. Instead, let’s recognize and appreciate the ways community already shows up in our everyday lives — and reflect on how we can nurture it and continue caring for th... See more

Historically, a community has required mutual effort, accountability, and shared stakes. At its soul, true community isn’t just about common interests. It’s about a shared physical space where people actively participate and connect through authentic experiences. Online, we have the luxury of logging off, abandoning causes, or remaining passive obs... See more