Matthew Koren

Organizational Transformation | People Strategist | Behavioral Scientist

[Matthew Koren @thematthewkoren]

Full essay: "We have chemistry" is not a metaphor. The question underneath all of it — are you reaching back? https://t.co/Nn6GJxzBRY

[Matthew Koren @thematthewkoren]

The cosmos isn't dead matter that accidentally produced life, which accidentally produced consciousness. It's a field of wanting, all the way down. Your desires aren't an interruption to that order. They're its continuation.

[Matthew Koren @thematthewkoren]

"We have chemistry" is not a metaphor. A sodium atom is desperate to give away an electron. A chlorine atom is desperate to take one. This is not a metaphor for what they do. It is what they do.

[Matthew Koren @thematthewkoren]

Meaning doesn't show up later, when a mind interprets an event. Meaning is the event. It's been running since the first nanoseconds — not because consciousness invented it, but because relationship generates it.

[Matthew Koren @thematthewkoren]

The only place you have any power is right now. This moment. But the only way to change this moment is to borrow from the future. Every decision you make today is shaped by the future you're building toward. That's not escapism. That's agency. When you know what you're building, the present stops being something you endure and becomes something you shape. The future is the only tool that makes the present bearable and the only force that makes it meaningful.

[Matthew Koren @thematthewkoren]

People who live in the future get dismissed. They're told they're not present. They're told they're disconnected. They're told they need to "be here now" as if the future is some kind of escape hatch for people who can't handle reality. This is a fundamental misreading of how attention actually works. The people who are most oriented toward the future are often the most present people in the room. They just look different doing it.

[Matthew Koren @thematthewkoren]

I used to think I was lonely. I'd look around and feel like nobody really got me. I'd wonder if I was too intense, too particular, too much. Then I stopped trying to be less. I stopped explaining myself to people who needed a translation. I stopped auditioning. And the weirdest thing happened: the loneliness I was so afraid of never showed up. What showed up instead was peace. Quiet. Space. The people who stayed are the ones who never needed me to perform. The ones who left were never mine to keep. I wasn't lonely. I was just learning to be selective. And selectivity is not a symptom of emotional damage. It's the entire point of emotional health.

[Matthew Koren @thematthewkoren]

Belonging isn't a numbers game. It never was. The crux of everything I study, write about, and live by is this: you cannot belong anywhere until you belong to yourself first. And belonging to yourself requires selectivity. It requires saying no. It requires letting people fall away. Every single person who mistakes your boundaries for rejection was never going to stay anyway. You didn't lose them. You filtered them out.

[Matthew Koren @thematthewkoren]

We've been sold a lie. The lie says more friends means more fulfillment, more invites means more belonging, and a quiet phone means something is wrong with you. The entire social world is built on this premise. It's wrong. The loneliest people in the world are the ones surrounded by people who don't actually see them. They are the most connected and the most isolated at the same time. That's not a paradox. That's the natural result of confusing quantity with depth.

[Emin Gün Sirer🔺⚔️ @el33th4xor]

Truly a massive leap forward.
Slowly, then all at once.

[Matthew Koren @thematthewkoren]

Bravo, @jackiejones_KU! Can't wait to see more of the impacts of these waves you are creating. https://t.co/WIdV8VHttO

[Matthew Koren @thematthewkoren]

@Reed_College_ Every day I appreciate the value of the Reed education and its impact on not only my life, but those lives that I touch.

[Matthew Koren @thematthewkoren]

We know how to love each other. @ Cincinnati, OH https://t.co/w5ioMH6sC6

[Matthew Koren @thematthewkoren]

Remote office today sponsored by Bluebird Days Coffee @ Palm Springs, California https://t.co/zJ90MehGzw

[Matthew Koren @thematthewkoren]

World Doctors Alliance: “We Do Not Have A Medical Pandemic.” Fake News? https://t.co/2abzlk1UUd

[Matthew Koren @thematthewkoren]

Your Week In Brief -capitalwatch.com https://t.co/CucZUcYaBI

Great article…beware the Chinese censors.

[Matthew Koren @thematthewkoren]

Just posted a photo @ The Bier Stein https://t.co/SBwLzYyPLQ

[Matthew Koren @thematthewkoren]

Women and LGBT+ people in Italy must be protected from discrimination and violence. We won't wait any longer! https://t.co/XBDptxF8Fh