Spread Great Ideas
October 2026 | Newsletter
Hi,
Ask people whether they'd like their parents to live closer, and plenty will say yes. Ask whether they'd like them in the guest room for a month, and the answer usually changes.
Researchers have had a name for that instinct since 1963, and what they found is that the miles between the generations matter much less than the number of doors. This month's essay starts with where the grandparents should live and ends on what a family does that institutions haven't managed to replace.
Separate Doors, Shared Ground: Three on Living Close Without Living Together
"What should young people do with their lives today? Many things, obviously. But the most daring thing is to create stable communities in which the terrible disease of loneliness can be cured."
- Kurt Vonnegut
"Without friends, no one would want to live, even if he had all other goods."
- Aristotle
"Wear none of thine own chains; but keep free, whilst thou art free."
- William Penn
Featured Essay: Intimacy at a Distance
Most families get offered two models: Everyone under one roof, or everyone scattered across the country. This essay makes the case for a third, the one most Western families say they prefer: two blocks away, separate doors. Then it asks what children need that four doting grandparents don't provide, and China's One-Child Policy supplies an uncomfortable answer.
Other Fresh Reads
Three more that pick up the same thread:
Voice vs. Exit: Stay and Fight, or Leave and Build?
Why waiting until it is flawless is just criticism pointed at your own work.
I'm Sorry You Feel That Way
Why the non-apology resolves nothing, and what its grammar says about who holds the leverage.
The Most Important Hire for a New Dad
How to tell which problems deserve a fix and which ones only ever get handled.
Closing Quote
“Good timber does not grow with ease, the stronger wind, the stronger trees.”
- Jean de La Bruyère