Scott, your point that the best thing you can do for your career is build relationships has hard data behind it. A 2022 study in Science followed 20 million LinkedIn members over five years and found that moderately weak ties, people we know but rarely talk to, were the most likely to lead to a new job. Not our closest friends. The acquaintances we rarely think about.
That makes loneliness a career risk, not just a health risk. When people pull away, they lose the very connections that carry opportunity to them.
I see this every week with career changers and laid-off professionals. The ones who land fastest are rarely the most qualified on paper. They are the ones someone remembered and recommended.
Rhenda Strub’s extra season ticket is a lesson for every job seeker. Invite someone in. Comment on a former colleague’s post. Reconnect before you need anything.
Cooperation built our species. It still builds careers. Each other is the strategy.
As a New Yorker with homeless people right outside on my block, I'd rank this second in society-wide American failures, a cultural marker both obvious and ignored in plain sight.
First place goes to mass murder of school children, ongoing now for far too long,
and nothing and no one to stop it.
Have we really lost the will to solve our most shameful problems?
GLP1 drugs seem to relieve addiction so maybe they need to test it more with drug users who are homeless. Maybe these drugs will lead to others that will help other mental conditions. Hormones should be the focus.
It is interesting to see Scott write about the intractable homeless problem in LA the same week that the NY post had this article about Carol Adelkoff and the crazy wages and benefits that she received as the CEO of 1736 Family Crisis Center. Stories like this make the public more jaded about providing more resources to solve the problem since they just assume that the resources will be squandered by mismanagement or will be lost to fraud and grifters.
I credit the "work from home" phenomenon exacerbated by the covid pandemic for accelerating the loneliness felt by working people. I remember back in the 70's and early 80's when corporations shared their profits partly by providing a rich company culture that included programs, company-wide events, corporate sport teams, education incentives and social clubs, etc. There was a real feel of belonging and in many cases the relationships built in this environment went on to last a lifetime.
My kids now 25 and 31 years old , and living on their own, are both in office environments for the first time (after working from home and going to online college). I see a marked change in each of their attitudes and outlooks. I hear stories about the people they are meeting and the funny things that happen as their relationships are being built. It's not all perfect but the improvement is palatable. I agree that loneliness and isolation can be devastating and I'm just so thankful that "real life" option is there to fill what is missing from the online, door dash, algorithmic life that so many are caught up in. Let's hope the real life option catches on and employers reinvest in the well being of the work force.
I think about this every single day. Community is everything. Building community is the answer to most of society's problems, and eroding community is the cause of almost all of them.
The idea that every policy should run through a "does this bring people together" filter is exactly right...and not just every policy. Every innovation, every new product. How can we change the incentive so that money is made not by dividing us, but by uniting us?
I'm dumbfounded when I see the suggestion that tech and AI can alleviate loneliness- it can give the illusion of that, but AI isn't going to be there for you if you're living on the streets. It's not there for you if you need to get to work and can't afford a car.
What a great world it would be to see innovation and investment in community-building. Instead we have a flying Tesla Roadster.
This is one of the reasons I’ve unofficially become the “social coordinator” for both my company and the board of an industry nonprofit. Many of our employees work remotely, from home, or embedded with our customers, so they rarely get the chance to connect socially. I value remote work and the reduced stress of working from home (especially since I live about 100 miles from my office). But I think we’ve lost much of the social side of simply hanging out with our peers.
Scott, your point that the best thing you can do for your career is build relationships has hard data behind it. A 2022 study in Science followed 20 million LinkedIn members over five years and found that moderately weak ties, people we know but rarely talk to, were the most likely to lead to a new job. Not our closest friends. The acquaintances we rarely think about.
That makes loneliness a career risk, not just a health risk. When people pull away, they lose the very connections that carry opportunity to them.
I see this every week with career changers and laid-off professionals. The ones who land fastest are rarely the most qualified on paper. They are the ones someone remembered and recommended.
Rhenda Strub’s extra season ticket is a lesson for every job seeker. Invite someone in. Comment on a former colleague’s post. Reconnect before you need anything.
Cooperation built our species. It still builds careers. Each other is the strategy.
As a New Yorker with homeless people right outside on my block, I'd rank this second in society-wide American failures, a cultural marker both obvious and ignored in plain sight.
First place goes to mass murder of school children, ongoing now for far too long,
and nothing and no one to stop it.
Have we really lost the will to solve our most shameful problems?
GLP1 drugs seem to relieve addiction so maybe they need to test it more with drug users who are homeless. Maybe these drugs will lead to others that will help other mental conditions. Hormones should be the focus.
It is interesting to see Scott write about the intractable homeless problem in LA the same week that the NY post had this article about Carol Adelkoff and the crazy wages and benefits that she received as the CEO of 1736 Family Crisis Center. Stories like this make the public more jaded about providing more resources to solve the problem since they just assume that the resources will be squandered by mismanagement or will be lost to fraud and grifters.
https://nypost.com/2026/10/13/us-news/la-homeless-nonprofit-paid-for-ceos-swanky-apartment-new-bmw/
Thanks Scott Galloway. I’m a man who feels more in tune by the influence of the man I admire in you. You’re intelligent compassion rocks.
I credit the "work from home" phenomenon exacerbated by the covid pandemic for accelerating the loneliness felt by working people. I remember back in the 70's and early 80's when corporations shared their profits partly by providing a rich company culture that included programs, company-wide events, corporate sport teams, education incentives and social clubs, etc. There was a real feel of belonging and in many cases the relationships built in this environment went on to last a lifetime.
My kids now 25 and 31 years old , and living on their own, are both in office environments for the first time (after working from home and going to online college). I see a marked change in each of their attitudes and outlooks. I hear stories about the people they are meeting and the funny things that happen as their relationships are being built. It's not all perfect but the improvement is palatable. I agree that loneliness and isolation can be devastating and I'm just so thankful that "real life" option is there to fill what is missing from the online, door dash, algorithmic life that so many are caught up in. Let's hope the real life option catches on and employers reinvest in the well being of the work force.
Latest available homeless rates vary widely.
Houston: 52 homeless per 100,000
Los Angeles: 748 per 100,000
You compare a bunch of repetitive studies done by pinhead academics.
Compare actual programs and model the successful ones.
Houston focuses on actual placement in actual housing. LA has zero focus.
Houston’s regulatory environment is supportive of purpose built solutions.
LA SPENDS 10X of Houston per homeless person.
Houston has a 84% 2-year success rate.
It’s the bloody leadership. It’s the waste of and lack of accountability for tax funds. And it’s the fraud and corruption.
It’s also an illegal alien issue w illegals absorbing housing and populating homelessness itself.
It’s a California leadership crisis. Y’all never actually solve anything. Cause your woke leaders suck.
I also highly recommend reading the book ‘human kind’ by Rutger Bregman!
Lots of interesting stuff about us humans.
I think about this every single day. Community is everything. Building community is the answer to most of society's problems, and eroding community is the cause of almost all of them.
The idea that every policy should run through a "does this bring people together" filter is exactly right...and not just every policy. Every innovation, every new product. How can we change the incentive so that money is made not by dividing us, but by uniting us?
I'm dumbfounded when I see the suggestion that tech and AI can alleviate loneliness- it can give the illusion of that, but AI isn't going to be there for you if you're living on the streets. It's not there for you if you need to get to work and can't afford a car.
What a great world it would be to see innovation and investment in community-building. Instead we have a flying Tesla Roadster.
The woman who shared her Mariners tickets--what an uplifting idea! Thanks for sharing...
This is one of the reasons I’ve unofficially become the “social coordinator” for both my company and the board of an industry nonprofit. Many of our employees work remotely, from home, or embedded with our customers, so they rarely get the chance to connect socially. I value remote work and the reduced stress of working from home (especially since I live about 100 miles from my office). But I think we’ve lost much of the social side of simply hanging out with our peers.