Take connection seriously

I can’t stop listening to podcasts about how A.I. is coming for our jobs.

Everyone’s guessing. No one knows for sure about the future impact of A.I. on the economy or our livelihoods. And yet I feel compelled to follow the recycled commentary surrounding this topic.

Yesterday, sucked into some “You Only Have 3 Years Left Before This Hits!” clickbait, I had an insight:

It’s not the job-loss threat that keeps me tuning into these A.I. episodes. It’s the part about connecting with people.

Most discussions I hear about A.I.-induced layoffs eventually come around to the importance of human connection. How the professions that rely on it will become more in demand. How we’ll crave it when we’re living in a world run by robots. How it’s imperative to prioritize now so we don’t forget how to human.

There’s no better time than summer to practice connecting.

I’ve written about this before, through the lens of Chinese medicine. In that system, each season is associated with a natural element. The element of summer is Fire.

Fire energy is expansive and expressive. It fuels the part of you that creates relationships and intimacy.

Since Fire energy is more readily available in summer, forming new connections and nurturing existing ones can feel easier than it does during other seasons.

As we move into summer, experiment with a bias for connection:

Default to “yes.”
Accept the invitation.
Have people over.
Reach out.
Show up.
Say hi.
Go visit.
Put down the phone.
Ask a friend instead of Claude.

The A.I. topic is riddled with pressure and fear. I don’t want to add more shoulds to an already should-heavy conversation. I do want to be a voice for taking human connection seriously.

We’ve seen the studies on loneliness. We’ve all doom scrolled our way into a low mood. We’ve watched someone choose their phone over the person in front of them.

We already have a problem on our hands (literally). And the separateness we’re experiencing has the potential to compound as A.I. becomes more ubiquitous.

Human connection is the antidote. Summer is arriving just in time. Follow the nudge from nature.

Hudson Valley, NY
June 2026