On Joining Nextdoor

There is a Chinese saying 远亲不如近邻 which can be translated into

A relative afar is less useful than a close neighbor. a.k.a Take whatever help is on hand, even from strangers.

I grew up as an only child in China. Yet, I don’t recall being particularly lonely growing up. Looking back, even though I have lots of distant cousins of similar age, my best childhood friends were my neighbors. And my fear is that my son will never understand what this is like.

Fast forward to 2020, we live in a world with plethora of social apps. Reducing frictions is chanted by any sensible product person. The end result?
* Knocking on your neighbors’ doors for a wine opener is replaced with button clicks on Amazon.
* Having dinner parties at your neighbors’ is replaced with Doordash.
* Hanging out is replaced with browsing endless photos on Instagram from strangers you have never met
* Technology has connected us with people far away, yet we barely know the names of our next door neighbors.

To quote Tyler Durden from Fight Club:

We buy things we don’t need, to impress people we don’t like.

The 2020 version of this can be (Calling out the YETI cult here)

We buy things we don’t need (so we can post photos on Instagram), to impress people we don’t know.

In a more serious note, in our relentless chase of vanity and instant gratification, somehow we neglected being civil and just old-fashioned.

Therefore, it’s refreshing when I saw the mission of Nextdoor and the world class people working on it.

Our purpose is to cultivate a kinder world where everyone has a neighborhood they can rely on. Our mission is to be the neighborhood hub for trusted connections and the exchange of helpful information, goods, and services. We want all neighbors to feel welcome, safe, and respected when using Nextdoor.

And I am super excited to be part of this mission!