Why creative blocks don't solve themselves at your desk

I spend a lot of time at my desk. The classic introvert's comfort zone. It's productive. Measurable. Safe.

Stepping out? Can feel like wasted time. Hard to justify the ROI.

Especially in New York. Expensive, relentless. A city that demands optimization of every minute.

And yet…

Yesterday was a reminder. An event hosted by Payoneer pulled me from my cave. Met founders from Tel Aviv, Belgrade, Delhi, Philippines. We tackled real challenges together, built solutions on the fly. Made connections strong enough we're meeting again next week.

I planned to leave at 3pm. Then 4. Then it was 6.

I'd already mentally canceled on a downtown meetup. "They're strategy people. I don't belong there."

Walking through Midtown - past Nasdaq, through Times Square's neon wilderness, past the new "Glengarry Glen Ross" production - I bumped into a friend I hadn't seen in a year. Thirty seconds later, a famous comedian walked past. One block further, a well-known startup founder. No one blinked.

I talked myself back into the meetup. Just 30 minutes.

The 6:30 downtown F train: the full spectrum of humanity compressed into a metal tube.

On Bleecker Street - reinvented roughly 37 times since I've lived here - I found the bar. Familiar faces, new ones. My "quick appearance" stretched to three hours. Met someone I'd been following online for five years but never had the courage to approach.

I'm still an introvert. Still need to recharge. Still need time and space for building, writing, all the things. I’m tired today, honestly.

But.

In-person connection is 4,367 times more potent than Zoom. (Approximately)

And NYC enables a density of unexpected collisions that's almost impossible to replicate elsewhere. When spring hits this city, there's an electric quality: ideas, connections, possibilities seem to hover in the air, waiting to be grabbed. And it's all because of the people.

My best ideas rarely emerge from screens. They come from human interaction. From conversations that veer sideways. From the surprise of another perspective. From wandering.

This city can be exhausting, demanding, occasionally soul-crushing.

People? Yes, they can be all of those things too.

And they're absolutely everything.

Why does this matter?

Because creative blocks hardly ever solve themselves in isolation.

That product problem you're stuck on? That business model that isn't quite working? The solution probably isn’t in another Notion doc or Figma board.

This week, step away from your desk. Find humans. Even if you're an introvert. Especially if you are.