Offline Adventures

Hope you are having a sunny wonderful week.

I met my friend Mahesh for dinner last week and he had me laughing and thinking. It was a surprisingly profound conversation.

We reflected on how few interactions happen in person now. We’d not seen each other in person in a few years. Our whole former work team used to gather regularly.

He was wondering what is real any more and is it okay that he feels good and really doesn’t miss interactions. He works over Zoom, where it feels wrong to discuss anything personal. He plays basketball and swims with friendly people but doesn’t have friendships with any of them outside of the gym. He listens to podcasts and follows people online that feel real. He listens to recordings of authors long dead and reads books like Jack Kerouac, and those characters feel real. He always considered cat people to be crazy, but now had a cat who he talks to and treats like a human …

And as we spoke he pondered who are the real people I talk to anymore? I don’t miss talking to real people. And is this okay?

Out of that conversation, he started an experiment to see.

I just checked in with him and he said it has been delightful. His mind feels more coherent and he feels reconnected to everything.  I told him he needs to do TED talks with this experiment. He said he is going to start the 90s Club- a place for the offline minded.  I think it it’s brilliant and would be an amazing club I’d love to join. If he does it, I’ll share it with you.

I’d gone to meet him expecting a wildly different conversation. Loneliness is a huge problem in the US, but he is a gregarious, charming, creative, software developer who didn’t feel lonely in his work from home life.  However, he’s finding life much richer as he spends less time online and reconnects with people more in person.

For me, Zooms with friends and in writing or other classes where we dive deep into the personal, do feel as good as meeting in person, just missing the hugs. But he’s right, work zooms are not usually so intimate. 

I have been out reconnecting and networking more myself lately to reconnect with friends in person in the gorgeous weather and to drum up business. As I am leaning into this, I found myself behind on these emails, for the first time this year. I am going to shift to less frequent notes in an experiment of my own. I hope you’ll like this new format.

And, to inspire you to go talk to some real-life people, this week’s GPT is the Offline Adventures GPT. Type in your zip code, how far you’d go explore, interests, and timeline and get a few ideas to try to connect with people. https://www.choosemyhappyplace.com/aiplayground .

Best wishes,

Rose