I suddenly understood something today: when you live and work in society, you cannot think only about doing everything by yourself. You should take the initiative to build ties with other people and stop resisting cooperation.

I used to think that in a workplace or a team, the right and principled thing was to avoid cliques and avoid forming fixed circles of cooperation. But later I realized that people still need their own network and stable connections. A lot of things only start moving through those connections. With them, you gain access to more information, and you are able to do more.

Put that way, it may sound as if I am talking about solidarity and cooperation in overly practical terms. But now I think the point of cooperation is exactly this: to organize more people and more strength, and to reach a goal through working together. If you shut yourself off, you get less information and fewer links to the outside world. Your chances of solving problems naturally get smaller. Things that were not so hard to begin with can become unnecessarily difficult, or even impossible to start.

I cannot remember when I became so isolated, when I stopped reaching out to friends and to people who might have been able to help. Looking back, it was probably around the time I graduated from college and entered working life. At the time, all I wanted was to rely on myself, to get through life on my own, to become more independent. But that does not actually conflict with building connections on purpose. From now on, I can be more proactive about staying in touch with people, learning how they are doing, seeing where we can help each other, what we can do together, and what new information I can come into contact with. I should also pick up my pace a little, and not let my life shrink into eating, sleeping, and going to work. There is a lot to do in life, not just whatever is in front of me today and tomorrow.

In the end, one person's perspective is always limited. Very often, only by standing together and cooperating can people see a fuller picture.