Social Glue
No path is long with good company.
What binds people together? What creates the conditions for collective flow?
Why Social Glue Matters
If you want to feel good, help someone else. The self-help industry obsesses over individual optimization. But the peak state — the deepest flow — comes from coordination with others.
Social glue is what makes that coordination possible. Without it, we're isolated agents optimizing alone. With it, we become masterminds, teams, communities that achieve what no individual can.
The Vehicles
| Social Glue | What It Creates | How It Binds |
|---|---|---|
| Third Places | Collision space | Serendipitous encounter |
| Games | Shared rules, shared stakes | Competition and cooperation |
| Fashion | Visible alignment with movement | "I see you're one of us" |
| Food | Belonging, home | Breaking bread together |
| Music | Emotional coordination | Feeling the same thing at once |
| Nature | Shared awe, sacred space | Smallness before something larger |
| Sport | Purpose through competition | Bodies coordinating in real-time |
| Travel | Expanded perspective | Shared adventure, shared discomfort |
The Test
How do you know if something is social glue? Does it create shared experience that can't be replicated alone?
- Eating alone vs eating together
- Listening to music alone vs concert
- Running alone vs team sport
- Working alone vs shipping with a team
The activity might be the same. The binding is what changes.
How can we build better spaces for sparking creative collisions that lead to stronger connections?
Successful Society
What does a good society look like where humans coexist with trillions of AI beings?
What is the key to making meaningful progress in a society that rewards good intentions while isolating and rewiring those that fall prey to antisocial instincts.
Dunbar's Number
How many people can you truly hold strong connections with?
How will people gather in sustainable communities in the future?
How many customers do you need to make a good living?