“Room Full of Strangers” by Rockwell

I started drafting this about two years ago and gave a lightning talk on the idea at a community builders retreat. I tabled it, but I'm sharing it as a short post during Draft Amnesty Week. Sometimes, I intentionally go to events where I know no one, just for the experience of being in a room full of strangers. I spend so much time in self-made bubbles: bubbles of like-minded people, bubbles of colleagues, bubbles of family, bubbles of long-established friendship. I meet new people all the time. But I meet them because they have chosen to bravely enter my bubble. And that can make it very hard to remember what it's like to enter a room where you know no one. I'm not shy and I don't experience social anxiety, but that becomes irrelevant when I don't know what awaits me on the other side of a door. [...] --- First published: March 2nd, 2025 Source: https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/e3dCBnzku56ma2bMt/room-full-of-strangers --- Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.