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That swing is the headline, not the signal. The signal is quieter: The most patient capital in the world has already decided who will own the infrastructure, before the rest of us can even see the walls."}],"markDefs":[{"_key":"2593c4c91c24","_type":"link","href":"https://finance.yahoo.com/markets/stocks/articles/spacex-erases-post-ipo-gains-152135762.html"}],"style":"normal"},{"_key":"e95b7d34c44d","_type":"block","children":[{"_key":"665db479bf2a0","_type":"span","marks":[],"text":"Consider the chess pieces moving right now. Anthropic is targeting "},{"_key":"665db479bf2a1","_type":"span","marks":["bce974b6cc9a"],"text":"a near-trillion-dollar valuation"},{"_key":"665db479bf2a2","_type":"span","marks":[],"text":". Alphabet recently raised "},{"_key":"665db479bf2a3","_type":"span","marks":["a65c070642ee"],"text":"$85 billion in equity"},{"_key":"665db479bf2a4","_type":"span","marks":[],"text":" to fund its "},{"_key":"665db479bf2a5","_type":"span","marks":["279d1f75515e"],"text":"AI"},{"_key":"665db479bf2a6","_type":"span","marks":[],"text":" compute infrastructure — with Berkshire Hathaway anchoring $10 billion of it. Even through the post-IPO sell-off, SpaceX continues to cement its position as the ultimate landlord of an outer infrastructure economy."}],"markDefs":[{"_key":"bce974b6cc9a","_type":"link","href":"https://www.cnn.com/2026/06/01/tech/anthropic-ipo-filing"},{"_key":"a65c070642ee","_type":"link","href":"https://techcrunch.com/2026/06/03/alphabets-record-breaking-85b-raise-for-googles-ai-business-is-a-helluva-good-signal/"},{"_key":"279d1f75515e","_type":"link","href":"https://chief.com/category/ai-the-future-of-work"}],"style":"normal"},{"_key":"958b86cc1084","_type":"block","children":[{"_key":"adeb725957710","_type":"span","marks":[],"text":"Read all this as a speculative frenzy and you will draw exactly the wrong conclusion. Look instead at "},{"_key":"adeb725957711","_type":"span","marks":["em"],"text":"who"},{"_key":"adeb725957712","_type":"span","marks":[],"text":" is moving, and "},{"_key":"adeb725957713","_type":"span","marks":["em"],"text":"why"},{"_key":"adeb725957714","_type":"span","marks":[],"text":"."}],"markDefs":[],"style":"normal"},{"_key":"03a5ffcb1662","_type":"block","children":[{"_key":"c1d211903bed0","_type":"span","marks":[],"text":"Berkshire Hathaway does not chase momentum. Under Greg Abel, its discipline remains unchanged: buy infrastructure once the survivors are obvious and cheap. So when Berkshire commits $10 billion to anchor an equity raise earmarked for AI infrastructure "},{"_key":"c1d211903bed1","_type":"span","marks":["em"],"text":"during"},{"_key":"c1d211903bed2","_type":"span","marks":[],"text":" the buildout rather than after it, it isn't enthusiasm. It is a judgement. The most patient capital in the world has concluded the winners are already identifiable, and it’s willing to break a decades-old aversion to tech to back them."}],"markDefs":[],"style":"normal"},{"_key":"dabe576e6103","_type":"block","children":[{"_key":"6a43d3e80a440","_type":"span","marks":[],"text":"While many still like to create headlines of red numbers and talk bubbles, the signal says infrastructure consolidation, financed by the people who fund railroads, not features."}],"markDefs":[],"style":"normal"},{"_key":"bda8b42fd2cd","_type":"block","children":[{"_key":"5239c9a04fb80","_type":"span","marks":["strong"],"text":"The Macro Reality: Landlords and Tenants"}],"markDefs":[],"style":"heading2"},{"_key":"e1f624401a96","_type":"block","children":[{"_key":"62b48d3208d30","_type":"span","marks":[],"text":"At the macro level, this new economy is binary: You are either the landlord writing the lease or the tenant paying whatever the landlord decides to charge."}],"markDefs":[],"style":"normal"},{"_key":"a11f1acdc9ac","_type":"block","children":[{"_key":"a2a3e6c693480","_type":"span","marks":[],"text":"Most leaders assume they sit safely in a third category. They do not. A handful of AI enablers captured the overwhelming share of recent market profit growth. Strip them out and the rest of the market is remarkably close to flat."}],"markDefs":[],"style":"normal"},{"_key":"d0c78398f64a","_type":"block","children":[{"_key":"927449d3f7b20","_type":"span","marks":[],"text":"The reason is uncomfortable: Most companies are buying AI while clinging to legacy processes and legacy tools. They are spending millions to rent capability while changing nothing about the terms on which they operate. That is the posture of a tenant. More rent, same building, someone else’s name on the door."}],"markDefs":[],"style":"normal"},{"_key":"cf2c9709182c","_type":"block","children":[{"_key":"18959444b4020","_type":"span","marks":[],"text":"But becoming a landlord is not a switch you flip. You cannot claim it by putting \"infrastructure\" in a press release. Landlords win by accumulating a form of dependence that others eventually have no choice but to rely on."}],"markDefs":[],"style":"normal"},{"_key":"25c374e03571","_type":"block","children":[{"_key":"d06005cf9ccd0","_type":"span","marks":[],"text":"Google didn't just build a search engine; it accumulated so much usage and data that the rest of the web had to rent its ecosystem."}],"markDefs":[],"style":"normal"},{"_key":"6ae73cd44c1c","_type":"block","children":[{"_key":"728abe2c0c1a0","_type":"span","marks":[],"text":"Constellation Energy didn't build new tech. It recognized that its massive nuclear fleet held the one thing the AI buildout desperately needed: 24/7 power. By locking Microsoft into a 20-year contract to "},{"_key":"728abe2c0c1a1","_type":"span","marks":["bad0a679994c"],"text":"restart Three Mile Island"},{"_key":"728abe2c0c1a2","_type":"span","marks":[],"text":", it was instantly re-rated from a sleepy utility to an infrastructure landlord."}],"markDefs":[{"_key":"bad0a679994c","_type":"link","href":"https://www.cnbc.com/2024/09/20/constellation-energy-to-restart-three-mile-island-and-sell-the-power-to-microsoft.html"}],"style":"normal"},{"_key":"bebd0b4c0bc0","_type":"block","children":[{"_key":"479e2fbfebd10","_type":"span","marks":[],"text":"It recognized the dependence before the market did. That is the exact market read this moment demands of every corporate leader."}],"markDefs":[],"style":"normal"},{"_key":"4602141d81f1","_type":"block","children":[{"_key":"70eef86942500","_type":"span","marks":["strong"],"text":"The Micro Playbook: The Three-Layer AI Strategy"}],"markDefs":[],"style":"heading2"},{"_key":"eed14fabbfb0","_type":"block","children":[{"_key":"809f5f2cb1520","_type":"span","marks":[],"text":"Faced with a market run by powerful landlords, how do you position your own business? You cannot own all the infrastructure, but you cannot afford to blindly rent your entire future either."}],"markDefs":[],"style":"normal"},{"_key":"a5bbbb199c13","_type":"block","children":[{"_key":"e850130961d90","_type":"span","marks":[],"text":"To locate yourself honestly before the market locates you, you must deliberately map your operations into a three-layer AI strategy:"}],"markDefs":[],"style":"normal"},{"_key":"93effc2c5230","_type":"block","children":[{"_key":"64557f8948b00","_type":"span","marks":["strong"],"text":"The Core (what you protect and compound)"},{"_key":"64557f8948b01","_type":"span","marks":[],"text":": This is your uncaptured intellectual property, proprietary data, or structural workflow advantage. This is the dependence that is genuinely yours to own. If you give this away to a LLM vendor, you are volunteering to become a tenant of your own IP."}],"level":1,"listItem":"bullet","markDefs":[],"style":"normal"},{"_key":"8ffc48b1afc5","_type":"block","children":[{"_key":"623b1d8037f60","_type":"span","marks":["strong"],"text":"The Peer Layer (what you partner and pace)"},{"_key":"623b1d8037f61","_type":"span","marks":[],"text":": This is where you trade usage for efficiency to keep pace with the market. Here, strategic partnership beats outright ownership, provided you know exactly what value you are getting back for what you put in."}],"level":1,"listItem":"bullet","markDefs":[],"style":"normal"},{"_key":"ba4f8d1033bc","_type":"block","children":[{"_key":"c3a4bfeeb99b0","_type":"span","marks":["strong"],"text":"The Outer Layer (what you outsource)"},{"_key":"c3a4bfeeb99b1","_type":"span","marks":[],"text":": Everything here is interchangeable and commoditized. The only honest question is “cheapest or best?” Renting here is entirely rational."}],"level":1,"listItem":"bullet","markDefs":[],"style":"normal"},{"_key":"e20a7a4e5a07","_type":"block","children":[{"_key":"90a5acbdbad80","_type":"span","marks":[],"text":"The mistake most organizations make is not financial, it is failing to be honest about which layer a capability actually sits in."}],"markDefs":[],"style":"normal"},{"_key":"c802eb21de50","_type":"block","children":[{"_key":"bf40bd7b83390","_type":"span","marks":[],"text":"Take a much-discussed alliance: Microsoft’s "},{"_key":"bf40bd7b83391","_type":"span","marks":["b6e65ccf4fc1"],"text":"partnership with OpenAI"},{"_key":"bf40bd7b83392","_type":"span","marks":[],"text":". It cleverly lifted Azure’s growth at a time where the main number being scrutinized by the market was cloud growth. But when OpenAI later prioritized access to premium compute terms to "},{"_key":"bf40bd7b83393","_type":"span","marks":["fe0ae01b828e"],"text":"SoftBank, Oracle, and AWS"},{"_key":"bf40bd7b83394","_type":"span","marks":[],"text":", the reality confirmed that OpenAI’s capabilities are not in Microsoft’s Core but sit in its outer layers. A perfectly viable strategic choice — but a dangerous one if leadership misdiagnoses it as an exclusive asset."}],"markDefs":[{"_key":"b6e65ccf4fc1","_type":"link","href":"https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=67993"},{"_key":"fe0ae01b828e","_type":"link","href":"https://www.wsj.com/business/openai-oracle-sign-300-billion-computing-deal-among-biggest-in-history-ff27c8fe"}],"style":"normal"},{"_key":"918f1732f221","_type":"block","children":[{"_key":"84ae56bcd0690","_type":"span","marks":["strong"],"text":"The Landlord’s Question"}],"markDefs":[],"style":"heading2"},{"_key":"fc1bf6f4ef81","_type":"block","children":[{"_key":"cc901d4ba3db0","_type":"span","marks":[],"text":"Without drawing these lines deliberately, your Core will erode into the Outer Layer by default. You will wake up one day renting your future from a landlord who understood the value of your dependence earlier than you did."}],"markDefs":[],"style":"normal"},{"_key":"2a390e23d56f","_type":"block","children":[{"_key":"ced87ce874560","_type":"span","marks":[],"text":"When the most disciplined money in the world treats compute and connectivity as a utility, “wait and see” stops being prudence. It becomes a decision to rent."}],"markDefs":[],"style":"normal"},{"_key":"17ad013acced","_type":"block","children":[{"_key":"6742d700341c0","_type":"span","marks":[],"text":"Before your next AI investment review, stop asking “how much” and “how fast.” Ask the landlord's questions instead:"}],"markDefs":[],"style":"normal"},{"_key":"1de705583a80","_type":"block","children":[{"_key":"735bc89bd53f0","_type":"span","marks":[],"text":"What are we accumulating that others will eventually have to depend on?"}],"level":1,"listItem":"number","markDefs":[],"style":"normal"},{"_key":"eab283f3e7b3","_type":"block","children":[{"_key":"d24d39d701000","_type":"span","marks":[],"text":"Are we compounding that advantage or giving it away to our vendors?"}],"level":1,"listItem":"number","markDefs":[],"style":"normal"},{"_key":"fddb5d40a415","_type":"block","children":[{"_key":"56da3a8d224d0","_type":"span","marks":[],"text":"Are we deploying capital to take part on someone else’s terms or to set our own?"}],"level":1,"listItem":"number","markDefs":[],"style":"normal"},{"_key":"26221abf019f","_type":"block","children":[{"_key":"28e8211e87260","_type":"span","marks":[],"text":"The landlords of this economy will not win by spending the most or announcing the loudest. They see early what the world will depend on, and they secure it while it still takes conviction rather than confirmation."}],"markDefs":[],"style":"normal"},{"_key":"8860f59a160e","_type":"block","children":[{"_key":"974e0d65a77b0","_type":"span","marks":[],"text":"Clarity comes first. 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That's Why It Stopped Working.","article":{"title":"We Made Connection Frictionless. That's Why It Stopped Working.","description":"Even as connection gets easier, loneliness continues to rise. Learn a Gather, Ask, Do framework for building real relationships in a frictionless world.","slug":{"current":"why-frictionless-connection-stopped-working"},"isPodcast":null,"megaphoneLink":null,"articleAuthor":{"name":"Susan McPherson","slug":{"current":"susan-mcpherson"}},"byline":null,"publishDate":"2026-07-07","episodeImage":{"imageAltTag":null,"asset":null},"heroBackgroundColor":null,"heroImage":{"caption":null,"attribution":null,"altText":"Illustration of wavelength pattern representing friction","asset":{"id":"image-cf5adbc4f74434758e8fcf084316fc141f1775d7-2400x1256-png","url":"https://cdn.sanity.io/images/xcsyo6gw/production/cf5adbc4f74434758e8fcf084316fc141f1775d7-2400x1256.png"}},"id":"-86092265-d1fc-54f8-bb3e-205ccea9e802","category":null,"editorialCategory":{"id":"-659c21de-f56d-598c-bea6-fed9100a0d1c","title":"Power Moves","slug":{"current":"power-moves"}},"podcastDescription":null,"podcastTranscript":null,"isSponsored":null,"_rawSponsorship":null,"_updatedAt":"2026-07-07T14:15:49Z","content":[{"_key":"3afa8aa5510f","_type":"block","children":[{"_key":"b64a667744370","_type":"span","marks":["em"],"text":"Chief Members: Dig deeper into intentional relationship-building with Susan McPherson during her virtual workshop, How to Meaningfully Connect in a World That's Gone to Sh**, on Thursday, July 16. "},{"_key":"b64a667744371","_type":"span","marks":["324d9481ada5","em"],"text":"RSVP via the Chief app"},{"_key":"b64a667744372","_type":"span","marks":["em"],"text":"."}],"markDefs":[{"_key":"324d9481ada5","_type":"link","href":"https://members.chief.com/events/b3df2950-d940-49ae-ba15-005571b45b62/details"}],"style":"normal"},{"_key":"cff739e44475","_type":"block","children":[{"_key":"4216227ac64d0","_type":"span","marks":[],"text":"I could go an entire week speaking only to my doorman and my super. And I'm supposed to be an expert on connection."}],"markDefs":[],"style":"normal"},{"_key":"5c7749575c7a","_type":"block","children":[{"_key":"50f952e278e30","_type":"span","marks":[],"text":"You check your phone roughly "},{"_key":"50f952e278e31","_type":"span","marks":["408afe0fe077"],"text":"186 times a day"},{"_key":"50f952e278e32","_type":"span","marks":[],"text":" and still feel more alone than you did five years ago. You have 1,000+ LinkedIn connections and can't name five people you'd call if something went wrong tonight. Only about "},{"_key":"50f952e278e33","_type":"span","marks":["59ea0a98c25e"],"text":"a quarter of Americans"},{"_key":"50f952e278e34","_type":"span","marks":[],"text":" say they know most of their neighbors. Nearly "},{"_key":"50f952e278e35","_type":"span","marks":["d10159db83a0"],"text":"half of adults under 30"},{"_key":"50f952e278e36","_type":"span","marks":[],"text":" don't feel part of any community at all."}],"markDefs":[{"_key":"408afe0fe077","_type":"link","href":"https://www.reviews.org/mobile/cell-phone-addiction/"},{"_key":"59ea0a98c25e","_type":"link","href":"https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2025/05/08/how-connected-do-americans-feel-to-their-neighbors/"},{"_key":"d10159db83a0","_type":"link","href":"https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2024/05/08/americans-are-less-likely-than-others-around-the-world-to-feel-close-to-people-in-their-country-or-community/"}],"style":"normal"},{"_key":"fda96cad200b","_type":"block","children":[{"_key":"3a74dde365e30","_type":"span","marks":[],"text":"This isn't a personal failing. It's the predictable result of 20 years spent removing every ounce of friction from human contact at the exact moment everything else — politics, the climate, the economy, the news cycle — feels like it's gone to sh**. We built technology to connect us, and yet it has delivered infinite ways to help us avoid each other while feeling perpetually overwhelmed. Post-pandemic, a lot of us simply lost the muscle memory for intentional connection, including, frankly, the professional kind that's used to build careers."}],"markDefs":[],"style":"normal"},{"_key":"37220df99342","_type":"block","children":[{"_key":"94b89a835eaa0","_type":"span","marks":[],"text":"Here's what I've learned from building a 13-year-old consultancy, writing a book on connection, and watching rooms full of accomplished women nod along when I say this: Most of us know exactly how to "},{"_key":"94b89a835eaa1","_type":"span","marks":["0826c694a5a3"],"text":"network and connect"},{"_key":"94b89a835eaa2","_type":"span","marks":[],"text":", but we've optimized all the friction out of it and friction was the part that made it work, made it sticky, and made it meaningful."}],"markDefs":[{"_key":"0826c694a5a3","_type":"link","href":"https://chief.com/category/power-moves"}],"style":"normal"},{"_key":"ca7fae0d219a","_type":"block","children":[{"_key":"a701a502b18c0","_type":"span","marks":["strong"],"text":"The formula nobody can automate"}],"markDefs":[],"style":"heading2"},{"_key":"d273b99147fb","_type":"block","children":[{"_key":"4cd6cd6c2dc70","_type":"span","marks":[],"text":"The formula is simple to say and hard to practice: "},{"_key":"4cd6cd6c2dc71","_type":"span","marks":["strong"],"text":"empathy plus friction equals connection."},{"_key":"4cd6cd6c2dc72","_type":"span","marks":[],"text":" Empathy is listening to what someone actually needs. Friction is choosing to inconvenience yourself to support them and deliver it. An algorithm can process someone's stated preferences in a tenth of a second. It cannot notice what you didn't say out loud and act on it anyway. You can't train a platform to inconvenience itself for someone else's benefit. That's a human move, and right now it's a competitive advantage, because fewer people are bothering to make it."}],"markDefs":[],"style":"normal"},{"_key":"4af545bac8bc","_type":"block","children":[{"_key":"71d6ee0802980","_type":"span","marks":[],"text":"This is the core of what I call "},{"_key":"71d6ee0802981","_type":"span","marks":["strong"],"text":"Gather, Ask, Do"},{"_key":"71d6ee0802982","_type":"span","marks":[],"text":", the framework I created after years of watching which relationships actually held up over time and which ones evaporated the moment they stopped being convenient."}],"markDefs":[],"style":"normal"},{"_key":"9f953b77f76c","_type":"block","children":[{"_key":"837fbb8661470","_type":"span","marks":["strong"],"text":"Gather"},{"_key":"837fbb8661471","_type":"span","marks":[],"text":": "},{"_key":"837fbb8661472","_type":"span","marks":["strong"],"text":"Widen your table"}],"markDefs":[],"style":"heading3"},{"_key":"11abe7b93f4f","_type":"block","children":[{"_key":"a78c88b60d010","_type":"span","marks":[],"text":"Gather means resisting the urge to network only within your existing lane. It means opening your world to new ideas, new connections, and new opportunities. The instinct, especially in mid-career, is to deepen ties with people who already look like us, work like us, or sit at our level. That's comfortable, and it's also how networks calcify. The stronger move is to deliberately "},{"_key":"a78c88b60d011","_type":"span","marks":["ed37e055c783"],"text":"widen your table"},{"_key":"a78c88b60d012","_type":"span","marks":[],"text":" for a vendor, a junior hire, or someone two industries over, because those are exactly the connections an algorithm will never surface for you and exactly the ones that produce the unexpected opportunities down the road."}],"markDefs":[{"_key":"ed37e055c783","_type":"link","href":"https://chief.com/articles/personal-board-of-advisors-women-leaders"}],"style":"normal"},{"_key":"158e361be4b9","_type":"block","children":[{"_key":"1197e58236e50","_type":"span","marks":["strong"],"text":"Ask"},{"_key":"1197e58236e51","_type":"span","marks":[],"text":": "},{"_key":"1197e58236e52","_type":"span","marks":["strong"],"text":"Get specific"}],"markDefs":[],"style":"heading3"},{"_key":"347415fc9d1b","_type":"block","children":[{"_key":"5991ac145e370","_type":"span","marks":[],"text":"Ask is the part of the framework most accomplished women skip. We'll do enormous favors for other people without hesitation and then go quiet when it's our turn to need something. Asking specifically, instead of vaguely, is what makes the ask usable. \"Can you help me?\" puts the burden of figuring out "},{"_key":"5991ac145e371","_type":"span","marks":["em"],"text":"how"},{"_key":"5991ac145e372","_type":"span","marks":[],"text":" back on the other person. Most people won't do that work, not because they don't want to help, but because the request takes too much translation. \"Could you introduce me to someone on your team in finance?\" gives them somewhere to start. Additionally, learning to ask meaningful questions of others opens doors for you to get to the next phase, the Do."}],"markDefs":[],"style":"normal"},{"_key":"84454447cc26","_type":"block","children":[{"_key":"8de1e379af390","_type":"span","marks":["strong"],"text":"Do"},{"_key":"8de1e379af391","_type":"span","marks":[],"text":":"},{"_key":"8de1e379af392","_type":"span","marks":["strong"],"text":" Close the loop"}],"markDefs":[],"style":"heading3"},{"_key":"23c5f9c14eaf","_type":"block","children":[{"_key":"751fcad60e060","_type":"span","marks":[],"text":"Do is the follow-through, and it's where most networking quietly dies. Someone makes an introduction, you have a nice conversation, and then nothing happens for six months until you need something again. Closing the loop with a real update, a thank you that's specific about what came of it, an offer to return the favor, is what turns a one-time transaction into a relationship someone will keep investing in."}],"markDefs":[],"style":"normal"},{"_key":"1f9502512181","_type":"block","children":[{"_key":"a93de939d64b0","_type":"span","marks":["strong"],"text":"We're not choosing comfort, we’re defaulting to it"}],"markDefs":[],"style":"heading2"},{"_key":"470924e979fa","_type":"block","children":[{"_key":"900e970d8e200","_type":"span","marks":[],"text":"When connection was scarce — one phone line, a manual typewriter, an envelope you had to lick — intentionality was built into the friction itself. You couldn't reach 50 people by accident. Every gesture required effort, which is exactly what made it mean something."}],"markDefs":[],"style":"normal"},{"_key":"f7ec58bdbe87","_type":"block","children":[{"_key":"0c1b30dc34e60","_type":"span","marks":[],"text":"Now that connection is frictionless, the intentionality doesn't show up on its own. We need to consciously and deliberately put it back in. If we don't, we default to the path every app is optimizing us toward: easy, shallow, and forgettable."}],"markDefs":[],"style":"normal"},{"_key":"c7d568529dd7","_type":"block","children":[{"_key":"3bc214c8f3240","_type":"span","marks":[],"text":"That's true in our personal lives, and it's just as true in our professional worlds. A LinkedIn message costs you nothing to send, so it carries almost no information about how much you value the relationship. The thing that used to separate the people who got remembered from the people who didn't was never charisma. 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"},{"_key":"b64a667744371","_type":"span","marks":["324d9481ada5","em"],"text":"RSVP via the Chief app"},{"_key":"b64a667744372","_type":"span","marks":["em"],"text":"."}],"markDefs":[{"_key":"324d9481ada5","_type":"link","href":"https://members.chief.com/events/b3df2950-d940-49ae-ba15-005571b45b62/details"}],"style":"normal"},{"_key":"cff739e44475","_type":"block","children":[{"_key":"4216227ac64d0","_type":"span","marks":[],"text":"I could go an entire week speaking only to my doorman and my super. And I'm supposed to be an expert on connection."}],"markDefs":[],"style":"normal"},{"_key":"5c7749575c7a","_type":"block","children":[{"_key":"50f952e278e30","_type":"span","marks":[],"text":"You check your phone roughly "},{"_key":"50f952e278e31","_type":"span","marks":["408afe0fe077"],"text":"186 times a day"},{"_key":"50f952e278e32","_type":"span","marks":[],"text":" and still feel more alone than you did five years ago. 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Nearly "},{"_key":"50f952e278e35","_type":"span","marks":["d10159db83a0"],"text":"half of adults under 30"},{"_key":"50f952e278e36","_type":"span","marks":[],"text":" don't feel part of any community at all."}],"markDefs":[{"_key":"408afe0fe077","_type":"link","href":"https://www.reviews.org/mobile/cell-phone-addiction/"},{"_key":"59ea0a98c25e","_type":"link","href":"https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2025/05/08/how-connected-do-americans-feel-to-their-neighbors/"},{"_key":"d10159db83a0","_type":"link","href":"https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2024/05/08/americans-are-less-likely-than-others-around-the-world-to-feel-close-to-people-in-their-country-or-community/"}],"style":"normal"},{"_key":"fda96cad200b","_type":"block","children":[{"_key":"3a74dde365e30","_type":"span","marks":[],"text":"This isn't a personal failing. It's the predictable result of 20 years spent removing every ounce of friction from human contact at the exact moment everything else — politics, the climate, the economy, the news cycle — feels like it's gone to sh**. We built technology to connect us, and yet it has delivered infinite ways to help us avoid each other while feeling perpetually overwhelmed. 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Friction is choosing to inconvenience yourself to support them and deliver it. An algorithm can process someone's stated preferences in a tenth of a second. It cannot notice what you didn't say out loud and act on it anyway. You can't train a platform to inconvenience itself for someone else's benefit. That's a human move, and right now it's a competitive advantage, because fewer people are bothering to make it."}],"markDefs":[],"style":"normal"},{"_key":"4af545bac8bc","_type":"block","children":[{"_key":"71d6ee0802980","_type":"span","marks":[],"text":"This is the core of what I call "},{"_key":"71d6ee0802981","_type":"span","marks":["strong"],"text":"Gather, Ask, Do"},{"_key":"71d6ee0802982","_type":"span","marks":[],"text":", the framework I created after years of watching which relationships actually held up over time and which ones evaporated the moment they stopped being convenient."}],"markDefs":[],"style":"normal"},{"_key":"9f953b77f76c","_type":"block","children":[{"_key":"837fbb8661470","_type":"span","marks":["strong"],"text":"Gather"},{"_key":"837fbb8661471","_type":"span","marks":[],"text":": "},{"_key":"837fbb8661472","_type":"span","marks":["strong"],"text":"Widen your table"}],"markDefs":[],"style":"heading3"},{"_key":"11abe7b93f4f","_type":"block","children":[{"_key":"a78c88b60d010","_type":"span","marks":[],"text":"Gather means resisting the urge to network only within your existing lane. 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We'll do enormous favors for other people without hesitation and then go quiet when it's our turn to need something. Asking specifically, instead of vaguely, is what makes the ask usable. \"Can you help me?\" puts the burden of figuring out "},{"_key":"5991ac145e371","_type":"span","marks":["em"],"text":"how"},{"_key":"5991ac145e372","_type":"span","marks":[],"text":" back on the other person. Most people won't do that work, not because they don't want to help, but because the request takes too much translation. \"Could you introduce me to someone on your team in finance?\" gives them somewhere to start. Additionally, learning to ask meaningful questions of others opens doors for you to get to the next phase, the Do."}],"markDefs":[],"style":"normal"},{"_key":"84454447cc26","_type":"block","children":[{"_key":"8de1e379af390","_type":"span","marks":["strong"],"text":"Do"},{"_key":"8de1e379af391","_type":"span","marks":[],"text":":"},{"_key":"8de1e379af392","_type":"span","marks":["strong"],"text":" Close the loop"}],"markDefs":[],"style":"heading3"},{"_key":"23c5f9c14eaf","_type":"block","children":[{"_key":"751fcad60e060","_type":"span","marks":[],"text":"Do is the follow-through, and it's where most networking quietly dies. Someone makes an introduction, you have a nice conversation, and then nothing happens for six months until you need something again. 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