Ask HN: How do you deal with social isolation while working from home?

every Sat we throw a Zoom Party with talented DJs from around the world. https://DistantDisco.com

it is incredible.

As usual, the comment section on HN is absolutely dominated by introverts. This is not a bad thing, but obviously the OP is asking a question that introverts don't care about so they shouldn't really be posting. "What problem? Things are fine for me; I've been training for this my whole life" is not helpful to those with this problem.

Being a hopeless extrovert, I really get how difficult it is not being in the office.

For me, I have to replace human interaction with co-workers with some other face-to-face source. I have been in the quarantine bubble with my sisters who live on the same street, and sometimes I have to go to my brother-in-law's house and talk to him for a few hours just to get that part of me out. It has also been helpful she's sometimes to work around my distracting children. I can't do it all the time, and more often than not I have to lock myself away in the office in the basement, but as another top commenter has said, those little sounds of other people interacting and living really really help. I plan on taking his advice and opening up a twitch channel while I work.

But what many introverts (including several members of my family) do not understand is that electronic interaction is like eating tofu when you really just want red meat. It's sort of helps but it doesn't really satisfy. I have to get face-to-face interaction. I have done things like plan a weekly fireside for those in my family with the same problem where we can sit around a fire six feet apart from each other.

A neighbor of mine has what he calls "sessions" in his driveway. 5 or 6 friends come by once a week with lawn chairs and lunch and they all sit about 9 feet apart from one another and chit chat for a couple hours. He says he needs to physically see people not to go crazy.

Personally, I'm generally fine without a lot of social interaction. But at my work we use Teams a ton at work and in my role I have a little too much interaction tbh. But basically we've turned lots of interactions into "hey you have a sec?" followed by a voice or video chat. Some of my coworkers who were really struggling seem to be responding well to this kind of thing.

I socialize with my neighbors and the people at the brewery. Social distancing is pointless.

Introvert-extrovert is not a black-white distinction, it's (like always) a spectrum. If I had to classify myself on the binary scale, I'm definitely an introvert (as in: I find social gatherings taxing and need plenty of time on my own to recharge). However, that doesn't mean that the isolation of working from home in a single household is all fun and games. I feel the same way as you, albeit probably on a lower level. (I can still satisfy most of my social needs via electronic interaction.)