Simon Sinek and Vanessa Van Edwards discuss how technology has eliminated casual social encounters where we once practiced basic skills like asking for help or handling rejection. When we order groceries through apps instead of talking to neighbors, or ask AI instead of calling friends, we lose the awkwardness that builds resilience.
I used to try things out at dinner parties. I used to try things out sitting on the plane, talking to the person next to me.
Yes.
People think I'm this expert because I'm just naturally good at it. No, I practice and practice and practice and practice, but I practice in these very safe environments where the stakes were zero.
That's it.
Those places are gone.
Unless you create casual collisions.
Yeah.
We've gotten rid of a lot of those casual interactions. If I need sugar, I'm not going to a neighbor. I'm ordering it on an app. If I need to learn something, I'm looking it up on YouTube as opposed to calling a friend. I remember having to call someone and be like, how do you Do you do X? Those were ways to practice I don't know something.
Yeah.
Saying I don't know is a skill. Like, I call my mom less. I used to call my mom when I had a question about something.
Yeah.
And now I don't wanna bother her, so I ask AI, and that worries me.
There's a repetition that goes with it, and whether you like it or not, you learn it, and now you don't have to learn it. You can swipe right. You never know that you've been rejected, so you don't have the awkwardness of rejection, which by the way, really important to learn. Yes. Especially later in life. Things are not going to go exactly according to plan, and having the ability to like fall over and get back up is a learned skill.
Yes, I think we are in the most critical time that if we don't learn it on purpose, we never will. That's a scary thought. It's terrifying.
