Loneliness as Compass

I want to tell you about a Saturday night six months after I walked away from a position that had defined me for nearly two decades.

The phone was full. The calendar was empty. The loneliness was specific and directional, pointing at a gap I had been too busy to see while I was building the career. I had optimized for network and underinvested in community, and the difference between those two things is not abstract. It is the difference between a phone full of contacts and three people who pick up when you need to exist outside your own head for a minute.

The loneliness was not telling me I made the wrong decision. It was telling me where to go next.

Listen to the needle. It is not your diagnosis. It is your compass. And it has been pointing at the same thing for longer than today.

— Job # Movement VI — The Room You Are Building