SOLO | Make Money with the 6 Pillars for Advancing Social Connection

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I also think there's some holes in here. So let's talk through it. Number one, the first pillar

that the surgeon general gave for combating the loneliness epidemic. Strengthen social

infrastructure and local communities. Social infrastructure refers to the programs such as

volunteer organizations, sports groups, religious groups, member associations, the programs,

policies and physical elements of a community, libraries, parks, green spaces, playgrounds,

stuff like that that support the development of social connection. My thoughts here, it's not

debatable. I mean, this is all extremely helpful. Obviously, the local communities that we're

all engaged in need to become a priority for all of us. And I'll admit, I am not great at this

because I travel a lot when I'm home. I like to stay home, but it's something that I am trying

to get better at as of late, just to be more involved with my local community. This is, I mean,

this is this is strong and but it only speaks to the social isolation piece of this. It's not going

to really do much on the loneliness side. So yes, I think that there's not really a way to argue

this social infrastructure is is really helpful when it comes to local communities being able to

develop a sense of belonging amongst themselves. Pillar number two, that the Surgeon General laid

out enact pro-connection public policies. Policy makers understand that while the effects of social

connection may be most evident for health, the drivers of connection and disconnection can be

found in all types of policies from transportation and zoning to nutrition and labor. A connection in

all policies approach recognizes that every sector of society is relevant to social connection,

which is what we talked about on the show, which was mind blowing, and that policy within each

sector may potentially hinder or facilitate connection. Conversely, the government has responsibility

to use its authority to monitor and mitigate the public health harm caused by policies,

products and services that drive social disconnection. So here's my thoughts about this one, okay.

Well, I am typically a less government is better kind of guy. There's some obvious measures

that should be taken due to, you know, to undo the damage that the government has already created,

especially within the health department, even the health books that I was taught from in school,

you know, still taught the food pyramid. And we've seen a shake up of some of those things recently,

but, but, you know, the health department was teaching the food pyramid, telling you to eat a ton

of grains, avoid fruit, limit red meat, and then at the same time, lucky charms are approved by

the American Heart Association. And, you know, pop tarts are actually being marketed as a real

breakfast food to children. And then, you know, kids can't sit still in class because they have a

sugar overdose from having, even if it's Cheerios with milk for a breakfast and not lucky charms,

it's still a ton of carbs and sugar in the milk. And then, you know, now they're prescribing met

in vitamins to kids who've been hopped up on sugar because they can't focus in class. And it's

like, well, maybe if they didn't eat sugar for breakfast, they would be a little bit more

attentive in class. I don't know, just, just a thought. So in this case, I agree that the

government has quite a bit of work to do on this front to actually be honest with us and not

given to lobbyists who stand to lose money because of the truth. So hopefully we see trend in this

direction. My only thing on this is that while I believe that the government has the ability to

affect change on this level, I just don't ever see the government actually being the solution to

the problem. And of course, this was written by the Surgeon General. So his sort of his duty to

point out what the government can do better. But I just don't think the government's actually

really going to solve these problems. I think it's going to be an individual basis. So hopefully they

can do something about this, but I'm not going to focus my time and attention on it because there's

not much I can actually do to impact their ability to make those decisions. Pillar three,

mobilize the health sector. Social connection is an independent protective factor and social

isolation and loneliness are independent risk factors for several major health conditions,

including cardiovascular disease, dementia, depression, and premature mortality from all causes.

While all organizations have a role in addressing social connection, mobilizing the health sector,

most notably health care delivery systems in the public health community is a core pillar of

the national strategy. It's critical that we invest in health care provider education on the

physical and mental health benefits of social connection, as well as the risks associated with

social disconnection. Must also create systems that enable and incentivize health care providers

to educate patients as part of preventative care, assess for social disconnection, and respond

to patients health relevant social needs. This can be accomplished both within the medical system

and by linking individuals to community-based organizations that can provide necessary support

and resources specifically designed to increase social connection. Public health organizations

can help track the community prevalence of social disconnection, promote individual best practices

in advanced community solutions. Look, obviously this is another thing that needs a shake up,

but in my personal opinion, I'm not sure our health care problems are going to be solved by

more government. There's already too much bloat, too many committees, too much wasted capital.

All of the expense of the taxpayers, and then after that, you end up with something that

functions worse than your local DMV, which is why I highlighted this last piece. The public health

organizations can track the community prevalence of social disconnection, promote individual

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It has a part of like this greater pillar here because it's much more effective to just

have these organizations track and report the data so that researchers who

inform entrepreneurs can help consult with those people to help solve the problem from this

bigger macro perspective. This is my personal opinion that I hold is that I think entrepreneurs

have a greater impact on our ability to solve some of these problems and the government does.

And the healthcare system is so broken from the top down and I have no idea what to do about

that. I am not a I'm not a healthcare expert by any means. All I know is that it's screwed up

completely and the whole the whole system needs to be revamped.

And I hope that a lot of this stuff happens. I have never in my life heard about a doctor

talking about social isolation or loneliness. I've never once in my life heard about it even

though the data suggests that it is one of the worst things that you can do for your physical

health. Never heard a doctor talk about it. So that might be a government thing but it also

might be an education system thing. You know, healthcare providers should be educated on these

things at, you know, to some sort of degree when they go through medical school.

Unfortunately, the stuff just isn't making it to that point and to that point in the public.

And then the so what happens is especially people who tend to trust doctors more than any other

source on the planet for their for their advice for their health advice, they just in their mind,

it's like, look, my doctor would have told me if this was going to be helpful. So my doctor

didn't mention it then it probably isn't helpful and everything else is pseudoscience. And it's

like, well, that's not a healthy look or a healthy approach either. So yes, well, I hope that public

health organizations can help with this. Again, it's not something that I am that I'm betting on

to be the actual solution to the problem. Pillar number four, reform digital environments. We

must decide how technology is designed and how we use it. There are many ways to minimize harm.

We must learn more by requiring data transparency from technology companies. This will enable us to

understand their current and long-term effects on social connection and implement and force

safety standards standards such as age-related protections for young people that ensure products

do not worsen social disconnection. In a positive vein, we should support the development of pro

connection technology to promote healthy social connection, create safe environments for discourse,

and safeguard the well-being of users. Finally, we need to recognize the unique aspects of digital

technology that may differ from other modes of connecting socially. The modality of delivery

matters and should be strategically and explicitly acknowledged and evaluated. This should be coupled

with the public's greater ability to avoid or limit their own uses. The last piece is really important.

I think getting the government involved in tech companies gets really muddy really quickly

and throughout history. The government doesn't usually give powers back. If they get more power

over the private sector, that's not going to be something that they just are willingly

going to give up in the future. I am not somebody who's quick to give the government more control

over things, but they mentioned the public's greater ability to avoid or limit uses at the end

as a side note. Of course, because it's a document that's put out by the surge in general,

so of course it's going to be more of a, here's what we need to do from a government standpoint thing.

But it's right with the side note. The side note that they make the very end of this long pillar,

because this is sort of like my synopsis of each of these pillars. The side note that they make

at the very end, I think is probably the most important point of this. It's largely going to be up

to us to put in safeguards in our own lives and our kids' lives, because the stuff isn't going to

go away anytime soon. Again, are we going to wait for the government to pass a bill that requires

data transparency within tech companies who are not focused on this as an issue, but actually

focused on their bottom line and their profitability. Even if they pass the law, what type of data

they're going to get, what is that going to mean for the governance of these companies? Are

they ever going to optimize to shoot themselves in the foot to help society enlarge instead of

their profits or bottom line or their shareholders or stakeholders? Probably not. That's probably not

going to happen. So to me, it's less of like a combating the companies or the powers that be,

and it's more just innovation on the front of how do we develop these types of companies that are

going to allow us to get back into real social connection. And the use of technology is interesting

to me because I've thought about this even from my perspective as like a founder and entrepreneur.

It's like what's like a technology company? What's something I can start an app that I can start

or something? I guess people connected again and it's like, it's almost impossible to do it from

this perspective because you can't outsource the required discomfort to technology and that's

all the people are looking to do. People have tried this for a little while. I think Bumble,

the dating app actually has, they have a couple of different Bumbles. They have like Bumble for

business, like connecting business owners or something. And they have Bumble for friends to

meet other friends. And I created an account and actually like logged into this Bumble for

friends thing. I was like, let's see how this thing works, you know, as an experiment for the show.

And it was just not good. It was a bad experience to be honest. It felt more like,

it felt more like a dating site for gay men than anything else. It was a lot of gay dudes.

And look, that stuff doesn't bother me at all. But also it was like, oh, I think guys are just

using this as a way to, and maybe I'm totally wrong. Maybe it was like a bunch of people are

eagerly, you know, maybe that's just a community that feels more socially isolated and they felt

like more open to making relationships on apps or something. But yeah, just to me it was like,

this is not what's required for friendship to actually take place. It's not going to be because

you matched with somebody on a social media app and then you go meet up and hike or something

like that. I don't know, just it feels clunky. It feels like it's, it feels like it's almost the

antithesis of real human connection to like use technology. So my thought more goes to like,

what's the technology that enables the in-person connection? And how do we, how do we build that?

So that I would prefer something like a meetup.com or something like that versus any of these,

you know, like Tinder, but for finding friends. It's like, but is it, is it going to help you find

friends? Or is it, is it really just another hook up, hook up app in disguise, another like

version of Grindr that popped up? I don't know. We'll see if somebody comes up with some idea that

helps this. But that's why I say like, I don't know if it's going to be technology, but there's

probably going to be something that needs to be done from a technological standpoint that allows

for real social connection to happen. Pillar number five, deepen our knowledge. As an

next step, relevant stakeholders, including government policy makers, practitioners, and researchers

should work together to establish a research agenda focused on addressing identified gaps

in the evidence-based fund research at levels, commensurate with the seriousness of the problem

and create a plan to increase research coordination. That one line, fund research at levels

commensurate with the seriousness of the problem that I fully agree with because...

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Because that is speaking to the greater problem at large, which is that we just don't have awareness

around how serious this problem truly is. Deepening our knowledge of social connection and

disconnection also requires us to further refine and expand our capacity to measure these states via

agreed-upon standardized metrics as individuals, communities, institutions, and governments

implement the pillars of the national strategy. Consistent measurement will be critical to better

understanding the driving forces of connection and disconnection and how we can be a more

effective and efficient in addressing these states. Public understanding of the essential role

of social connection and health and wellbeing is critical to this pillar. Social connection

should be included as a key driver of health and formal health education from elementary

to professional school curriculum. Absolutely agree with that. Abs, this would be one of the best

things that the government could do is to put this in education programs and to treat it like a pillar

of health. Because it actually is. It's not, it's not just a side note. This should be like a

main topic that's discussed in health classes across the country. And probably this is my favorite

point of all of the six pillars because with more knowledge, more access to knowledge comes more

solutions to the problem. To correlate to the cigarette problem again, this is ultimately what

helped solve it. It was only after the data and the research was made brutally and publicly

available that people actually stopped smoking. And obviously still a lot of people smoke,

but it's only, it's like 10 percent, 12 percent of the population or something like that versus

it used to be like 98 percent of the population. The peer pressure switched from encouraging people

to smoke to actively discouraging people from smoking. Now, unfortunately, it switched to like

vaping, which I'm not convinced is any better, but that's a whole different topic. The point is,

we need more information about the causes, the preventions, the remedies of the epidemic,

and then the government and entrepreneurs can get started solving the problem more officially.

So this is probably my favorite of all of the of all the points that the surgeon general brought up.

Pillars six cultivate a culture of connection. A culture of connection rests on core values of

kindness, respect, service, and commitment to one another. Everyone contributes to the collective

culture of social connection by regularly practicing these values. Advancing this culture requires

individuals and leaders to seek opportunities to do so in public and private dialogues,

schools, workplaces, and in the forces that shape our society like media and entertainment

among others. Behaviors are both learned from and reinforced by the groups we participate in,

and the communities we're part of. Thus, the more we observe others practicing these values,

the more they will be reinforced in us. All types of leaders and influencers,

national, local, political, cultural, or corporate, can use their voices to underscore

these core values and model healthy social connection dialogue. Media and entertainment shapes

our beliefs to the depiction of stories. These narratives can help individuals see themselves in

stories and help to reduce stigma, thus enabling more connections. This, this is what we owe to each

other. Kindness, respect, empathy, we as leaders, citizens, influencers, parents, teachers, etc.,

have to show people how to start treating each other. I know I'm going to piss some people off

with this, but here we go. I try not to engage in politics, but this is the biggest problem

with our political options these days in the last few elections, because there's this combative

nature that's come up in politics that's way worse now than it used to be. It promotes this idea

that anybody who is not in full agreement with you is the enemy and needs to be stopped. I think

in reality, the government or the politicians like to think that we're just divided into these 50%

over here, 50% over here. In my mind, it's probably more like 10% all the way over on the left,

10% all the way over on the right, and then the 80% of us who are sort of in the middle,

like trying to fight with ideas and struggle to come up with our own values and we're thinking

through all these things. I say that just to say that you probably have a lot more in common

with the person next to you who might be of a different political affiliation or religious

upbringing than you think that you have. If you are in a position of influence,

then you owe it to yourself and to people around you to lead the way and show what it looks like

to have respect for other people, to model healthy social connection with others, especially

with others that you disagree with. This probably is from a personal responsibility perspective

that anybody can do who's listening. You don't have to have a big position in leadership,

you don't have to have a massive platform. You just got to lead the way for the people that are

around you and your life to be more kind, to be more respectful, to have more empathy,

to try to understand your fellow human being and realize that we're all just at our core

pretty much the same. We're all searching for belonging and we're all searching to be connected

with other human beings. So keep that in mind as you go throughout your day and try to reach out

to people, try to think more about others and then even if you yourself aren't in the position

that you want to be in life, you can get everything in life that you want if you help enough

people get what they want. So try to think of it from the service perspective. What can I do

to help other people gain what they're looking to gain in life and how can I be a part of the

solution rather than continuing to be a part of the problem? Don't let the political environment

of our day convince you that everybody's an enemy and if somebody's not on your side, then they

should be put to death type of mindset. It's not helpful for anybody and it only further isolates

all of us. So we have to come together and choose this sort of a path over the path of polarity

that's been presented to us as though it is truth when it in reality it probably isn't. So

anyway, these are the six things that the certain general talked about. If I were to add a seventh

thing, the only thing that I think was missing from this from this report, especially for the

solutions. Again, a lot of it I understand. It's the surgeon general. He's writing it from the

government perspective, but I think that there's one thing in here that's not talked about enough

when it comes to combating loneliness itself. So this would be more for loneliness, not necessarily

the social isolation piece because again, social isolation is the objective measurement of how much

time you're spending with others. So that one is a little bit more easy to prescribe a solution to.

The loneliness side, there's a great book called Awareness by Anthony Damello.

And in there, he talks about the antidote for loneliness being a loneliness. It's actually

getting by yourself with your own thoughts and getting to know yourself. Because if you have a

bad relationship with yourself, you're probably going to have a bad relationship with others.

And if you don't like hanging out with yourself, then other people probably aren't going to

like hanging out with you. It's not necessarily because it's true. It's just because you feel that

it's true. And other people will pick up on the vibe that you don't like yourself. And there's

probably a reason that you don't like yourself. So I probably shouldn't like you. And of course,

none of this stuff is happening consciously. It's just that your subconscious mind's like a super

computer. And so is the person that you're sitting next to. So if you are giving off this vibe of

like you don't trust yourself, you don't respect yourself. You don't like yourself. Then it's going

to be more difficult for you to have healthy relationships with others because it's going to be

difficult for the people in your life that are closest to you to like you, trust you, respect you,

and all those things if you don't even like trust or respect yourself. So do things that are

difficult for yourself if you've never spent time alone because you're too worried about what

your thoughts are going to do to you in that time alone. Then you, you are who I'm talking to.

The more that you can be comfortable being alone, the more you will be able to fight the feelings

of loneliness because if you like yourself, you're never really alone. You know what I mean? And

this sort of goes into the same conversation like I would put your relationship with yourself if

you are religious to me. This is like the same level of your relationship with God or with the

universe or with whoever it is that you position as the deity that you believe in. It's like

good relationship with yourself, good relationship with God, good relationship with the universe.

If you have those things, you will, you'll be able to combat those inner feelings of

subjective loneliness. And when you don't feel internally lonely, I believe it is much easier

to go out and make actual friends and not feel the other feelings of social isolation as well.

So the loneliness piece, though, can't be solved by just going out and hanging out with friends

more. It's going to take a lot of inner work and kindness and respect to yourself so that you can

build a better relationship with you. If you have a great relationship with yourself, chances are

you will find it much easier to have a great relationship with others. And if you have a bad

relationship with yourself, you'll probably find it harder to have a good relationship with others.

It's just the facts. So it'd be the one thing that I think was missing from this in terms of

combating loneliness. But again, from the certain, from the certain general's perspective, it's,

you know, he's trying to come up with societal solutions to the problem, which I totally understand.

But again, you can't outsource these problems to other people. This is a major problem that has

huge consequences for the way that you live life, for the fulfillment that you gain from life,

the success that you have, the happiness that you have, the longevity that you have.

This is this is chief among those problems and you can't outsource these types of solutions and

hope the government comes up with a solution in the next decade or two. It's just too late by

that point. You can't hope that the next big entrepreneur comes up with the best idea to solve

this problem. You have to take personal responsibility for that. In my opinion, that starts with you

building a better relationship with yourself. So that's it for this episode of the show. Thanks for

tuning in. Catch you guys in the next one. Peace out.

You have to take your time to get back to work with your

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