Anna Lembke told Andrew Huberman:
“So we’re all forced to make stuff up, whether it’s being a scientist or being a doctor or being an Olympic athlete or climbing Mount Everest. And people really vary in their need for friction. And some people need a lot more than others.
And if they don’t have it, they’re really, really unhappy. And I do think that a lot of the people that I see with addiction and other forms of mental illness are people who need more friction.”
I (finally) bought Thinking in Systems: A Primer in June 2025. It was an early summer read and focused a lot of summer thinking (before back to school gears up) on systems thinking.
Friction is an accessible dial.
Find a verb/noun combo and make it easier/harder. Don’t put your phone on the desk (like really, don’t).
But maybe it plays a more central role in the system.
Maybe friction is akin to vanilla in baked goods: Gotta have it, but just the right amount.
A fellow teacher told me she’s ready for her students. Summer break (we get seven weeks) is too long. We had a similar feeling. One night everyone at cereal the kitchen was a mess. This is what degenerates look like, I explained. The current patterns of summer don’t have enough frictions. It’s what people crave with schedules. It’s why people run races. Competition is friction. Constraints are frictions.
We’ll end in the spirit of Tyler Cowen: Friction is underrated.
The Waiter's Pad 