The Atlantic

“Friendship is … a bulwark against stasis, a potential source of creativity and renewal in lives that otherwise narrow with time,” Jennifer Senior writes. (From 2022)⁠ https://lnkd.in/ei5MYRcU ⁠ Rebecca and Elisa “became close more than a decade ago, spotting in each other the same traits that dazzled outsiders: talent, charisma, saber-tooth smarts. To Rebecca, Elisa was ‘impossibly vibrant’ in a way that only a 30-year-old can be to someone who is 41. To Elisa, Rebecca was a glamorous and reassuring role model, a woman who through some miracle of alchemy had successfully combined motherhood, marriage, and a creative life,” Senior writes. But, slowly, the two friends were torn apart by their differences. ⁠ ⁠ Were friendships always so fragile? “I suspect not,” Senior continues. “But we now live in an era of radical individual freedoms. All of us may begin at the same starting line as young adults, but as soon as the gun goes off, we’re all running in different directions; there’s little synchrony to our lives … Yet it’s precisely because of the atomized, customized nature of our lives that we rely on our friends so very much … What makes friendship so fragile is also exactly what makes it so special. You have to continually opt in. That you choose it is what gives it its value.”⁠ Read more: https://lnkd.in/ei5MYRcU ⁠ 🎨: Oliver Munday

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and the entrepreneur Arianna Huffington recently announced a new company called Thrive AI Health, which they believe could help revolutionize health care using generative AI. Charlie Warzel has his doubts—so he asked them about it.

What follows from this incident will depend in part on the way the nation’s leaders react, David A. Graham writes. “Political scientists have found that even voters who hold antidemocratic attitudes are influenced strongly by top political figures. In this fragile moment, the nation desperately needs prudent and wise leadership.” Read more: https://lnkd.in/egg6HA-G

Amid the trials of Hunter Biden and Donald Trump, the lives of Marie Antoinette and Mary Queen of Scots feel newly relevant, Elliot Ackerman writes.

Used well, a dose of solitude can do you a world of good, Arthur C. Brooks writes. https://lnkd.in/ebCNG-qi Brooks traveled to the mountains above Dharamsala, India, to meet with Geshe Lobsang Tsephel, a Tibetan Buddhist monk who has rarely seen another person for the past 25 years. The monk chose this way of life to “raise his level of compassion toward others and improve his equanimity in the face of all things, positive and negative,” Brooks writes. Geshe Lobsang Tsephel told Brooks that he has never regretted his choice—but spending a quarter of a century in a mountain hut might not work for everyone. There is a difference between solitude and isolation, Brooks explains. “Whereas the former concept is usually voluntary and has positive connotations, the latter is associated with separateness from others for negative reasons,” Brooks writes. “For example, scholars studying isolation—that is, the condition of having no companions or confidants—among senior citizens have found that the condition drives down well-being; this finding holds across the social spectrum, independent of demographic factors.” The difference between solitude and isolation can also depend on your attitude. “In a 2023 study of senior citizens, scholars reported that some old people found their time alone to be positive and restorative; others said that they preferred to be alone because they thought social interactions were generally negative and uncomfortable,” Brooks writes. “Matching almost perfectly what Geshe Lobsang Tsephel told me, the main benefits of solitude noted in the study include contemplation (time to think, ponder, or reflect); enjoyable solo activities such as reading; mental repose; autonomy; contentment in peace and quiet; and the ability to focus.” Brooks sees good reasons to incorporate solitude into your life, but with some principles to keep in mind as you do: Make sure to seek the positive, and use solitude to find personal peace, rather than to avoid the cost of others’ company. He also recommends going on a getaway by yourself, or ditching the internet for periods of time. Read his full advice: https://lnkd.in/ebCNG-qi 🎨: Jan Buchczik

Biden “needs to face the reality that the current president might lose, and that Trump might be in a position to make Ukraine lose, and to disrupt America’s relationships with longtime allies in Europe for years to come,” Phillips Payson O’Brien writes:

In 2022, Olga Khazan wondered if she could change her personality: “Being slightly different is still being different—the same you but with better armor.” In The Wonder Reader, Isabel Fattal explores why people are drawn to measuring their personality:

What color is a tennis ball? In 2018, Marina Koren investigated the surprisingly controversial question:

Americans have long equated skin care with self-care, Hannah Seo reports. But the rise of “neurocosmetics” marks a new escalation in the industry’s messaging: Slather our product on your skin, and it will change your brain chemistry for the better. https://lnkd.in/e4QRygiV This kind of rhetoric “draws from the established principle that the well-being of the skin and brain are interlinked,” Seo writes. Some claims are supported by research—such as how acne and psoriasis can flare with stress, potentially exacerbating poor mental health by lowering self-esteem. “But acknowledging the link between mental and dermatological health is an entirely different prospect from claiming (or implying) that the active ingredients in some skin-care products can act directly on the nervous system,” Seo continues. The skin-care company Selfmade offers a kit that will purportedly help you feel more stable and confident in your relationships, all while improving your skin. The kit includes a serum that claims to enhance “safety and comfort with self.” Selfmade says that the company drew on both existing cell-culture and other third-party studies, but extracting conclusions from these can be misleading, one cosmetic chemist told Seo. “None of this is to say that skin-care products can’t affect the mental health of people who use them,” Seo continues. “But they’re almost certainly acting less directly than their labels might imply.” Psychologists have found lotion to be a short-term coping mechanism. Smells, such as lavender and rosemary, can have a calming effect on people, and the texture of lotion can also be grounding. “But such effects have little to do with the chemical makeup of the lotion” and are not “long-term interventions for poor mental health,” Seo continues. “It’s all too fitting that ‘neuro’ cosmetics have taken over at a time when having a therapist, setting boundaries, and being fluent in therapy-speak have become markers of good health and character,” Seo writes. And, as Stephanie Lee, the CEO and founder of Selfmade, told Seo, “self-actualization sells.” Read more: https://lnkd.in/e4QRygiV 🎨: Illustration by Ben Kothe / The Atlantic. Sources: Matucha / Getty; Anna Efetova / Getty.

“Three-quarters of an hour of detailed, sophisticated answers,” David Frum writes of Joe Biden at his press conference last night. “Mastery of detail. Knowledge of world personalities. Courtesy to the reporters before him. Accurate recall of facts and figures. Justified pride in a record of accomplishment. A spark of sharp humor at the very end. Also: Verbal stumbles. Thoughts half-finished. Strangled vocal intonations. Flares of unprompted anger. Glimpses of the politician’s inner monologue—resentment at how underappreciated he is—spoken aloud, as it never should be, in all its narcissism and vulnerability.” https://lnkd.in/eaeXVmrS The press conference was meant to close the split within Biden’s party. It didn’t do that, Frum argues. It’s time for Biden to recognize “his own dispensability, his own replaceability.” “Biden enacted more major liberal legislation than any other president since Lyndon B. Johnson. He organized the successful defense of Ukraine against Russian invasion, expanded and invigorated NATO, and faced down internal opposition in his own party to stand by Israel in its hour of need. Over his four years in office, one social indicator after another has turned positive after trending the wrong way under even the pre-pandemic Donald Trump: Crime is down, marriages are up; opioid deaths are down, the number of American births is up,” Frum writes. “If Biden loses to Trump, the nation Biden believed in does not outlive him. A different America replaces it, one where the presidency can be contested by violence, with judicially conferred immunity for an attempted seizure of power,” Frum continues at the link in our bio. “Collective security will be junked, with American military power at risk of being hired by whichever dictators pay bribes to the president and his family. Biden’s career has been based on the clear-eyed calculus of political risk. But just as the clarity of his presence is fading with the passage of time, so also does the clarity of his perception seem to be degrading. He remembers what he was, and he wants to hold that former being forever. But time has no mercy for human yearning. It takes, and it does not give back.” 📸:Mandel Ngan / AFP / Getty