If you're lonely, adopt a dog from your local animal shelter. A cat is fine, too.
Excuse me, this is bad advice. If someone is lonely they will have problem to find anyone who can take care of the pet when they can't (such as when they are away).
How to Make Billions of Dollars Reducing Loneliness
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Re: How to Make Billions of Dollars Reducing Loneliness
#32This is a way to scratch your left foot when your right foot itches.
The way to alleviate loneliness, is to do meaningful work. Meaningful work will inevitably involve other people.
It's not loneliness so much as being so fucking bored, because everything that took up your time in the past centuries, has now been automated, and you're sent to prison for 10+ years to break your spirit as early as 3 years old.
You send children to school where they have no autonomy, have to sit quietly and memorize stupid bullshit through their entire childhood, and then wonder why they go nuts in all kinds of unpredictable ways.
We're not meant to do stupid bullshit we see no value in doing our entire lives. What's a roommate gonna do to alleviate that? Just skip roommate, try heroin to forget this shit existence and plunge into a world of bliss.
Re: How to Make Billions of Dollars Reducing Loneliness
#33A simple solution would seem to be an OKCupid clone that is strictly for friends and perhaps another for roommates. It is very good at aligning mutual interests and proximity and giving a sense of personalities. I see a large untapped market for older people as well. Unlike RL, you know going in that anyone on there is looking for companionship, which considerably reduces awkwardness.
If it's a simple solution, why hasn't someone built it? I suspect that any such product that starts to get a significant user base is quickly overrun by people looking for cheap hookups, on the one hand, or "sugar" relationships (at best) on the other.
One could discourage cheap hookups by steering online interaction. Eg by not allowing any picture uploads, and having very detailed questionnaires.
Re: How to Make Billions of Dollars Reducing Loneliness
#34A simple solution would seem to be an OKCupid clone that is strictly for friends and perhaps another for roommates. It is very good at aligning mutual interests and proximity and giving a sense of personalities. I see a large untapped market for older people as well. Unlike RL, you know going in that anyone on there is looking for companionship, which considerably reduces awkwardness.
If it's a simple solution, why hasn't someone built it? I suspect that any such product that starts to get a significant user base is quickly overrun by people looking for cheap hookups, on the one hand, or "sugar" relationships (at best) on the other.
Roomi is a business centered around connecting roommates
Re: How to Make Billions of Dollars Reducing Loneliness
#35Roam.co is essentially out of business, but having spent several weeks in their Tokyo property it was a great experience. Always someone around to chat or eat with. Tokyo has a large number of Sharehouses built and managed by the full stack businesses the author mentions (along with smaller co-op styles). Roam Tokyo rented a floor of a sharehouse building which had regular tenants, coworking space, conference rooms,…
Hey, Roam founder here - we’re actually just switching our business model from fake tech company to a more equitable real-estate approach and thus phasing out unsustainable leases. More on that more publicly in about 1-2 months. Thanks for living with us in Tokyo and the kind words tough!
Re: How to Make Billions of Dollars Reducing Loneliness
#36Earlier quoted context omitted.
If it's a simple solution, why hasn't someone built it? I suspect that any such product that starts to get a significant user base is quickly overrun by people looking for cheap hookups, on the one hand, or "sugar" relationships (at best) on the other.
One could discourage cheap hookups by steering online interaction. Eg by not allowing any picture uploads, and having very detailed questionnaires.
It's impossible to successfully steer that (to stop most of that activity). Forgo a native image service on Reddit and you get Imgur. Don't allow picture uploads on the platonic service and people will take care of the problem, they will route around it trivially. You will quickly be right back to people trying to turn it into a dating service. It's too easy to go around.
The best you can probably hope for is to swim with the current. Otherwise it will drown you. Set up a section just for dating to better contain the inevitable pressure in the system.
Re: How to Make Billions of Dollars Reducing Loneliness
#37In my twenties I tried (a couple of times but not really tried) to live in communes / large houses of more than 12 people
It worked ok ish most of the time but I honestly think it is a significant part of the answer - as cities become more crowded just chucking people together to work it out has many positive benefits - child care sharing is easier at some life stages, meeting others, community activism and so on all seemed to flow naturally.
Along with Barcelona style super-blocks I would recommend communes / high density households as a good option
Re: How to Make Billions of Dollars Reducing Loneliness
#38Something that goes unquestioned in this article is that you want to live with people who are like you down to the same taste in video games. I find this not to be true for me, and that I find it easiest to live with people that are different enough that you end up needing to use kindness to relate to each other. After having felt isolated in my previous living situations, I'm now in a complex where we all hang out i…
Personality, while much harder to measure than interests, is a much better way to determine if people can be friends. And “interests”, unless you take them very seriously like being an amateur golfer or musician or something, are quite ephemeral; I tend to share interests with friends because we became friends first and then both got into new hobbies together, not vice versa.
Re: How to Make Billions of Dollars Reducing Loneliness
#39I'm only slightly facetious here, but Twitch and the video gaming industry are already making billions reducing loneliness.. :-)
Re: How to Make Billions of Dollars Reducing Loneliness
#40Adult fraternities. More commonly known as secret societies or just clubs. Theres already a few of them, but I believe it's pretty uncommon to be in one. Make em so they can choose who to accept as well, something at least slightly exclusive is better for everyone in the end. It can really take any form, a clubhouse, house where some people live and others just come to hang out, etc. But what's really important is a space that a smaller group of people feel comfortable in, responsible for, and feel a strong connection to the other people in the group.