The Friend Manual: How to make friends when you're bad at it

All my blog posts…

  • Experience maps 2: Where we add color to the graphic!

    *Continuing from the previous post So, now that we’ve seen that a single experience may be extremely variable rather than binary (fun/not-fun), we’ll expand on this. I’ve made this curve based on what could happen for me when I do something social. You can see that I get stressed leading up to the event – Read more

  • Introducing…the experience map!

    Here is a new concept for the next few posts: the experience map. Ta da! Most of the time people think about events in the binary: Did you have fun? Yes or No But, most experiences go more like this: Some parts are good and some parts are bad. And whether or not you had Read more

  • How to make friends when you’re bad at leaving the house…

    Sometimes I get frustrated at being lonely…and then I realize I haven’t contacted anyone or made plans in weeks. Maybe I’ll do it tomorrow. Read more

  • Diagram of an event – Recall part 4: memory recall

    And here’s where we get to the ‘why’ of all these memory posts. And also, this post may indicate the depths of my neuroticism, but to be fair, this whole blog is like this. What is memory recall? Memory recall is the surfacing of memories in response to stimuli. Recall can be subconscious or intentional Read more

  • How to host a party when you’re bad at it

    Birthdays are complicated for me. In general, I don’t like sustained attention. It makes me want to go crawl in one of those caves in France where they age fancy cheeses and never come out. But, you get me around my birthday and suddenly I want attention. This confidence magically dissipates at about 8pm on Read more

  • Welcome to the introvert hermit cave & the power of metaphor

    I think that using easily recognizable metaphors may be an integral part of my ability to make friends. At the end of this 2022, I was completely burnt out. I had used all my positivity and friendliness and energy that I had and was just grumpy and tired and unable to hold a conversation. Somewhere Read more