I spend sometimes more time talking to complete strangers on Nostr than I do to some people I’ve known for twenty years. And the strangers are better company. You’d think this would be odd, but it isn’t. After a few years of watching how a man thinks, what he cares about, how he carries himself in writing, you know him. Sometimes better than the neighbor you wave to every morning who you couldn’t pick out of a police lineup if your life depended on it. These are real friendships. Not the neutered, back slapping “hey great post!” kind that evaporates the moment you close your browser. The kind where you remember what a man said six months ago. Where the conversation has weight and continuity. Where you know someone by the shape of his mind, not the shape of his face. I’ve wasted enough time on the other platforms to know the difference. They don’t produce this. Can’t produce this. Nostr attracts genuinely fascinating people and then gets out of the way. That’s the entire magic trick.