America is optimizing for the wrong things. Growing up in SF and spending four years at Berkeley, I saw people tracking every metric of their existence. Sleep tracking apps. Stress reduction apps. $500 monthly gym memberships. Biohacking supplements. We've built a: - $4.5 trillion wellness industry selling solutions to problems that better social fabric would prevent. - $5 billion meditation app industry to treat anxiety that community connection would prevent. - $2.3 trillion entertainment industry to fill the void left by declining social connections. We’re lonelier, more anxious, and more burned out than ever. The root cause is isolation. What we need to emphasize is social infrastructure and thoughtfulness: - Taste: no AI slop or boring events. meet in beautiful spaces, create art, and enjoy aesthetics - Consistency + intentionality: less transactions. have repeat shared experiences and prioritize connection over convenience - Activities: less panels or happy hours. more basketball tournaments, game nights, and IRL retreats - Curation: less takers. more loyalty. show up and support, don’t ask for stuff. ambition doesn't require selfishness At The Collective we live by the above. Here are some of the effects I've seen: - Connection machine: members become connectors. one intro leads to three more - Real champions: when someone launches, hundreds of people support. not because they were asked—because they're genuinely invested - Multiplier effect: you're plugged into 3,000 people building. ideas flow. resources get shared. opportunities multiply - Support: members become friends. they start companies together. they invest in each other's rounds. and they hang out outside of events Personal optimization matters. Sleep. Exercise. Nutrition. Do those things. But they're not the foundation. The foundation is social fabric. Community that turns into compounding social capital. The future isn't personal optimization. It's collective wellbeing.
Love it
absolutely love it!
u guys are built different Jonas Willett Maggie Gao
i would add that the US deeply lacks 3rd spaces- places where people organically meet and congregate (e.g. Europe makes an art form out of parks).
The FOMO Club is built on the same idea: authenticity in connections. We hold fun activities for small groups of people, encouraging meaningful and deep relationships. You should join our next events!
Community really is the most important
The irony is wild, the more we measure ourselves, the less connected we feel to each other.
Spot on. The focus on individual optimization feels like a band-aid for a deeper societal wound. Building genuine social infrastructure is the real key.
Who said inconvenience is the cost of community? It's a privilege to be here 🙂↕️💖