In 1973, sociologist Mark Granovetter published one of the most influential papers in social network theory. "The Strength of Weak Ties" demonstrated something counterintuitive: when it comes to finding jobs and opportunities, your casual acquaintances are often more valuable than your close friends. This makes perfect sense when
I’ve been thinking lately about the “anti-identity trap.” It works like this: Someone starts out reasonably disliking something — let’s say corporate greenwashing. Fair enough. They join online communities dedicated to mocking greenwashing campaigns. Their social media becomes a steady stream of eye-rolling screenshots. They develop an eagle eye
Hey! I’ve got something new to share—The Westenberg Podcast. Most episodes are quick dives, clocking in at 5–10 minutes (never more than 20), designed to get you thinking about the systems shaping our lives without eating up your day. The latest episode just dropped: “Understanding Digital Oligarchies:
The last few years of my life have been a whirlwind of change. Everything I thought I wanted, everything I thought I was building toward, began to feel hollow. A sense of unease crept in—like I was running on a treadmill that kept speeding up, but I wasn’t
Moscow, 1959. The Cold War is in full swing, and the U.S. government has organized an exhibition to showcase American prosperity. Their goal: prove to ordinary Soviets that capitalism delivers a better life than communism. But while President Eisenhower dreams of ideological victory, a 30-something Pepsi executive named Donald
Imagine spending 400,000 years climbing to the top of the food chain, only to lose the will to live because your GrubHub driver forgot the extra ranch. We’re surrounded by the husks of tools that were supposed to make life easier—once indispensable, now crutches, then chains, and
Imagine you’re offered a bet: You can have $1 million today, or you can have ownership of one square mile of Manhattan real estate, but you can’t sell it for 100 years. The catch? You’ll never personally see the payoff — only your great-grandchildren will. Would you take
It’s Monday morning. The first thing you see (yes, before you see your kids, your partner, even your coffee) is a Slack notification. That Slack notification leads you to a Confluence document, which is supposed to prepare you for the upcoming Zoom meeting. In the Zoom meeting, you’re
Looking back at the last two years feels like watching someone play geopolitical Jenga while juggling flaming chainsaws. We've seen Trump's comeback, European coalition collapses, AI breakthroughs, and climate disasters that would make Roland Emmerich say "maybe tone it down a bit." But prediction
The human body has become the altar at which modern society worships, a shrine of flesh and bone draped in sweat-resistant fabrics and glowing filters. Everywhere you turn, someone is preaching the doctrine of “Wellness,” a euphemism for sculpting oneself into a socially acceptable object of admiration. Influencers hurl their
The world is collapsing under the weight of its own stupidity, and somehow, we’ve all collectively agreed that it’s perfectly fine. No, better than fine — it’s preferable. If you’ve got a PhD in molecular biology, you’re just some nerd with a clipboard. But if you’
Ever stood in the notebook aisle of a stationery store, staring at countless journals and planners, every one promising to revolutionize your organizational skills? Ever downloaded the latest productivity app that made it to the front page of PH or HN, only to abandon it weeks later because it felt