In 2022, Arthur C. Brooks argued that being an outsider'new to a place, a job, a culture, or even a group of people'is not a flaw but an investment. The loneliness, the self-doubt, the sense that everyone else has the map except you: Those are often signs that you're stretching, not failing. Over time, Brooks writes, outsiders tend to grow more resilient and emotionally strong'not in spite of the discomfort, but because of it. Outsiders, Olga Khazan wrote in 2020, are freer to question assumptions, break rules, and imagine alternatives, because they've already learned what it feels like to stand apart. She draws on social-science research showing that people who feel excluded are often better at original thinking, precisely because they're less bound by group norms. Today's newsletter explores how to embrace being an outsider, and how to resist the urge to immediately fit in. My colleague Isabel Fattal recently asked readers to share a photo of something that sparks their sense of...
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