I am still thinking about the takeaways I had from reading Sapiens. The more I think about it, the more I grep this concept of community.

Perhaps it is some sort of longing for a bygone ideal, but this concept of small, intimate communities is very powerful. I marveled at it during my visit in Sonora, California - the sense of belonging that you got when during lunch with my coworker four or five friends walked up to him to say hello and chat.

Most often, the thing I remember most after I leave a company are not the financial or career accomplishments but instead the feeling of togetherness and shared experience that we as coworkers all felt. And over time the latter has become more important to me over the former. Over time I have focused more towards finding that community, that group of people who hold me up in hard times.

As a hardcore ambition freak in college I feel bad admitting this. Coming out of college, I wanted to change the world. Admitting it aloud is perhaps part of my therapy.

The funny thing is that I don’t think my parents wanted me to change the world as I was growing up. I am not sure how put that notion into my head. Is this feeling just my brain’s way of giving me a “consolation prize” for having failed to win the Nobel at 22? I don’t know. All I know is that at 19 I wanted to make this world better. But at 29 I think I’ll just be happy making the people around me happy.