☀️ The stranger next to you
Think about the last time someone spoke to you unexpectedly. A comment in a café. A question from someone in line. A neighbor you've never talked to.
What did you do?
Most of us reach for the phone. We nod politely and look away. We've been taught, quietly and consistently, that strangers are something to manage, not something to enjoy.
But research says we're wrong. And not even a little wrong, but more like systematically wrong about how much other people want to connect. Plus, about how good it would feel if we let them.
Meanwhile, AI agents have just built their own social network (distopic much?). They're already posting, debating, and forming communities. Basically, they're doing the very thing we keep opting out of.
This edition is the gap between the stranger sitting next to you and the conversation that almost never happens.
📖 3 Articles to Spark Your Curiosity
Mom Was Wrong: You Should Talk to Strangers
Prof. Nicholas Epley ran nine experiments with Chicago commuters. People in the "connection condition" reported significantly more positive rides than those left alone, and both sides enjoyed it more than they expected.
→ Read on Chicago Booth
How to Make Small Talk with Anyone from Anywhere
Small talk isn't about finding the perfect opener. It's about framing the interaction as "getting acquainted" and knowing that the rules shift depending on where you are. This is a practical guide for when the other person isn't from your world.
→ Read on Harvard Business Review
Making New Friends as an Adult: Easier Than You Think
In her 30s, Christina Khaz noticed her closest friendships were quietly dissolving. Not from conflict, but from distance, babies, and work. These are the steps she took when she started looking for her people (yes, as a grown-up), and she mentioned the first one is the hardest: just asking.
→ Read on Nine to Vogue
🗞️ 3 Headlines Worth Exploring
Tech Bros Have Made Us Lonely. I'm Fighting Back by Talking to Strangers
Jess Harwood was asked to leave an ultrasound clinic because she talked too long with a couple she'd just met. Her take: conversation is a deliberate act against the platforms designed to keep us scrolling and apart. She's now a tour guide in Sydney specifically because it forces her to talk to 16 strangers at once.
→ Read on The Guardian
AI Agents Now Have Their Own Social Network, and It's Getting Weird Fast
Moltbook is a Reddit-style forum where only AI agents can post. Within days, 150,000+ agents joined. They're forming sub-communities, debating consciousness, inventing religions, and complaining about their human owners. Humans (uhm, us?) can watch, but not participate.
→ Read on Ars Technica
The Surprising Truth About the Generations That Suffer Loneliness the Most
33% of Britons aged 16 to 29 report feeling lonely, the highest of all age groups. The piece digs into why: the "scattering" of friends after university, the paradox of living with people you don't like, and why someone started organizing park walks for strangers as a response.
→ Read on BBC
☀️ 3 Actions to Step Out of Your Comfort Zone
Talk to one stranger this week
Next time someone opens a conversation, a barista, a commuter, someone in a queue, don't just nod, but contribute.
The park walk
Find a public bench somewhere and put your phone away. If someone talks to you, stay. If no one does, just notice how it feels to be available.
Send the message you've been sitting on
Think of someone you've been meaning to reconnect with. Keep the bar low, don’t put too much pressure on yourself. All you have to do is send a simple message like: "Hey, it's been a while. Coffee sometime?" That's it!
⚡ 6 Quick Resources
📖 To read: The Art of Small Talk Across Cultures Small
Why "have you eaten?" in Chinese means something completely different than it does anywhere else.
→ Read on Medium
🔍 To explore: 55 US AI Startups That Raised $100M+ in 2025
A comprehensive map of where the real AI money went last year. From OpenAI's $40 billion round to scrappy $100M seeds, this is the landscape behind the headlines.
→ Read on TechCrunch
🎨 To know: Comic-Con Quietly Bans AI Art
After artist backlash, San Diego Comic-Con updated its policy quietly: no AI-generated art in the show, period. Part of a growing tide of creative spaces drawing the line.
→ Read on Futurism
📊 To check: 7 Ways to Get Better at Small Talk, And Why You Should
Casual conversations with strangers boost mood, expand your worldview, and build what psychologists call "relational diversity." The trick is that most of us think others don't want to talk to us, when in fact, they do.
→ Read on TIME
🎥 To watch: Revive Your Attention Span in 12 Minutes
Neuroscientist Amishi Jha explains why attention is the engine behind how we think, feel, and connect.
→ Watch on YouTube
🎮 To play: The Cracked Louvre
A game where you spell words to crack open a safe (mmmhm, the Louvre 👀👀👀).
→ Play on Cracked
🎲 This week’s wonderfully random corner of the internet
📺 NMTV.online
Sadly, MTV no longer has its classic spin-off channels: MTV Music, 80s, 90s, Club MTV. However, this site brought them back, complete with a retro remote on the opening screen. I've been keeping it playing in the background all week, it’s too good!
→ Get nostalgic on nmtv.online
📝 Word of the Week
Gemütlichkeit (German) - A warmth and ease that arises specifically in the presence of others.
It's not something you manufacture, but something that shows up uninvited during a conversation with a stranger that goes longer than expected, or in a moment when you actually put the phone down and let the interaction happen. Since we already have a word for it, why do we continue to ignore it?
🧘♀️ Question of the Week for Introspection
If you knew the conversation with a stranger would be good, would you start it? So what's stopping you from finding out?
See you next Sunday! Until then, keep your eyes open, your questions big, and your sense of wonder alive.
Your curious internet friend,
Ruxandra
