10 Comments
User's avatar
Dan Collison's avatar

Marvelous essay. Very human and very practical. The care in writing really shows; it made it very nourishing to read. Thanks.

Expand full comment
Sam Huleatt's avatar

As a former blogger, this really resonated. Great post Erik!

Expand full comment
Nikhil Basu Trivedi's avatar

your best essay. ♥️

Expand full comment
Kristine M Black's avatar

As an only child, I've always been a lover of solitude. When I completed a very ardous year of working and going to graduate school studying Materials Science, I booked myself a week in the Boundary Waters area in Minnesota when there still existed a lovely place called Sky Blue Water Lodge (its been torn down since) and that week all by myself saved what little sanity I owned at that point in time. It was the early 80's so there were no devices, but there was also no phones, nor TV. I wandered in the woods, fished in the stunning lake and ate with folks I'd just met.

Now I'm in my 70's and I'm again valuing solitude. Thanks for this essay - great reminder of what is both important and necessary.

Expand full comment
Tom Grey's avatar

John Halpirn supports this idea from a different POV.

"Introverts of the world unite—but not for too long or with too many people!"

https://theliberalpatriot.substack.com/p/in-defense-of-being-alone

Expand full comment
Akshay's avatar

This blew my mind. Definitely gonna give it a try. I have questions though: do you think allowing myself a Kindle to read on, or a laptop to write, would count as a "solo"?

Expand full comment
Teresa Thomas's avatar

My thought would be to take a book and paper journal…if going to the effort..keep it pure?

Expand full comment
Paul-Arthur's avatar

Enjoyed this. Thank you

Expand full comment
Nadayar Enegesi's avatar

Wonderful; I'll try it out :) thanks Erik!

Expand full comment
Sheila's avatar

+1 to Dan’s comment below. Thank you for planting seeds in my mind!

Expand full comment