Arthur Brooks

And you're kind of in a state of bliss by the fourth day.

You know, it's really, really, I mean, I go on a spiritual retreat every year for four days, no phone.

Oh, it's great.

First day, it's like children screaming in my head.

Second day, I'm calming down.

Third day, I like it.

The fourth day, I wish it were the whole year.

That's what it comes down to.

But just those things, phone-free times, phone-free zones, phone fasts, can do this part two.

This does not give you part one, which is rebellion, or part three, which is you got to get comfortable back with yourself.

Different processes.

How important is romantic love to meaning?

That's one of the best ways you can turn on the right hemisphere of your brain, because that's something you will never solve.

How do I know that?

Because if we could have solved algorithmically romantic love, we wouldn't still have app developers that were trying to make the ultimate dating app.

The dating apps are fundamentally a left brain solution to a right brain problem.

Right now, they're getting better, but the way that they're getting better is by figuring out ways to add more human friction into the algorithm as opposed to taking human friction out of the algorithm.

So, for example, you'll find these early experiments which suggest that a good way for you to find your matches on an app is to have your matches, some of your app matches, go to your best friend and have your friend decide which ones you're going to go out with.

Because you're adding a right brain into the mix.

You're adding your friend's right brain into the mix, for example.