Welcome to this week’s edition of Simon Sees!
This edition was sparked by our latest Future With Friends episode with the effervescent Anneli Blundell, where we explored ‘The Future of Meeting Strangers’. Together, we reflected on how human connection is shifting – and what we might be losing when opting out of discomfort becomes the norm.
We begin with a piece from Going Concern, where leaders at a top-ten firm have noticed Gen Z employees often avoid phone calls. It may not be laziness though – could it be the result of formative years shaped by lockdowns, and a generation now navigating connection on different terms?
Next, we head to California, where new social clubs like Groundfloor are helping adults do something that used to happen naturally – make friends. When connection requires curation, you know something’s changed.
And finally, a Psychology Today article questions whether our pursuit of happiness is making us lonelier. A Stanford study suggests that chasing pleasure alone may leave us burnt out, while seeking meaning – with all its discomforts – can sustain us.
In a world increasingly shaped by convenience, perhaps the real challenge is to meet a stranger, lean into discomfort – and see what unfolds.
Let’s not forget: every friend was once a stranger.
GOINGCONCERN
A Top Ten Firm is Frustrated Their Gen Z Staff Don’t Know How to Use Phones to Speak to Other Humans
“James O’Dowd, the founder of recruitment firm Patrick Morgan, said remote work and an increased reliance on “digital communication” had left “many Gen Z hires unprepared for the basics of working life”.
THE GUARDIAN
Anti-loneliness club offers friendship for $200 a month – and thousands have signed up
“We start to lose institutions where we used to build communities, such as places of worship, colleges, offices, schools … Once you leave your 20s, it sort of feels like a social purgatory.”
PSYCHOLOGY TODAY
The Misery of Chasing Happiness
“As Frankl observed: “What man actually needs is not a tensionless state but rather the striving and struggling for some goal worthy of him.” We are not made for comfort—we are made for purpose. The pursuit of meaning demands what traditional wisdom called “grit”: enduring the hard stuff now because it benefits us later.”
THE FUTURE WITH FRIENDS PODCAST
Ep 11: The Future of Meeting Strangers
In this episode of The Future With Friends, Simon Waller sits down with long-time friend and human connection expert Anneli Blundell to explore the personal and relevant topic: The Future of Meeting Strangers.
Anneli shares a future scenario set in the year 2095 — a world where society has been divided into two classes: creators and connectors. In the pursuit of hyper-efficiency and emotional safety, people are funnelled into roles based on whether they’re better at thinking or relating. But in this divided world, something unexpected emerges: an underground movement where creators are learning to connect again — meeting strangers, holding uncomfortable conversations, and rediscovering their humanity.
What follows is a rich conversation about what happens when we start opting out of discomfort — and what we risk losing when connecting with others becomes optional. Simon and Anneli reflect on their own experiences of discomfort, the erosion of social skills post-COVID, and how the pendulum of culture might be swinging too far in the direction of avoidance and efficiency.
Together, they explore how technology, isolation, and polarisation are reshaping the way we relate — and how we might gently push back. At the heart of the conversation is a call to action: to do the hard thing, embrace discomfort, and find our way back to one another — one stranger at a time.
Also available on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
Simon
