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Your best friend may be useless, and that’s the whole point
A happiness expert defends your most useless friendship, older folks share the aging truths nobody warned them about, and a pig saves a life.
Greg Sullivan
October 01, 2026 • Est. Reading Time: 3 minutes
“The best mirror is an old friend.”
― George Herbert
Today’s issue is about the people (and one pig) who show up when it counts. Mark Wales makes the case for friendship with zero résumé value, older readers deliver the aging truths they wish someone had mentioned, and a man with nine months to live says yes to an experimental procedure that had only been tried three times before.
Well-being
A happiness expert makes the case for relationships with zero résumé value.
One of my best friends is just useless. You know who you are. You bring nothing to the table, sir. Nothing. And I love it. No networking boost. No strategic introductions. No practical value whatsoever. Just friendship for friendship’s sake.
As Mark Wales reports, happiness expert Arthur Brooks points back to Aristotle, who separated friendships by what they’re for. Some are practical. Some grow from admiration. And one category is so gloriously unproductive that Brooks argues it may be the one we need most.
That might explain why the friendships that stick around aren’t always born from grand compatibility tests, but from walks, hobbies, a team you both irrationally care about, or one of those things that somehow matters more than money. There’s a surprisingly specific kind of glue holding those relationships together. And once Brooks names it, you may start seeing your own favorite, utterly useless people differently.
GOOD reader Carmen Yazejian sent this whimsical study in shades of lilac from Fire Island, New York. I have to assume that after the photo was taken, a magical montage of delightful moments took place as two impossibly cute people fell in love, rom-com style! There will be some misunderstandings along the way, but they’ll work it out in the end and live happily ever after.
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What is the highest form of friendship?No networking value required. |
Yesterday's Results
In yesterday's issue, we shared an Ontario teen who plans to live in his own modular home invention for a year.
And we asked: Which practical skill do you most wish school had taught you? A clear majority, 54.5% of you, chose money and taxes. Somewhere, the quadratic formula is feeling deeply underappreciated.
Basic construction and repairs (35.5%)
Money and taxes (54.5%) 🏆
Cooking (4.7%)
First aid (5.2%)
GOOD reader FaithyM makes a great point. “Especially, learning about credit use and loans, as most will need that education to get through college without burying them in debt before their first job.“
Culture | Courtesy of Upworthy
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Older people agree that no one is ‘prepared’ for these 17 harsh truths about aging | ||
Someone asked Reddit: “What’s a truth about aging that no one prepared you for?” and thousands of people answered. | ||
By Tod Perry | ||
Many of us feel invincible when we are young, believing we can control the aging process so that we’ll always stay forever young, as Bob Dylan once sang. But there’s a moment when everyone realizes aging is an inevitable process and that, eventually, we will have to deal with a slow decline in our physical and, quite possibly, mental capabilities. | ||
This realization and understanding that we won’t be here forever can profoundly change one’s perspective on life. Even though aging is inevitable, studies show how we think about the process can significantly impact our longevity. People with a positive view of aging live an average of 7.5 years longer than those without. | ||
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Health
Wilma the pig saved his life. Now he's preaching her gospel.
Tim Andrews was sleeping between dialysis appointments, unable to walk the dog or keep food down. The waitlist for a human kidney was five years long. His heart had already given out once. Not to put too fine a point on it, but things weren’t looking good.
So when his doctors mentioned an experimental procedure, the kind that had only ever been tried on three people before him, Andrews didn't flinch.
“I’m gonna die anyways, why wouldn’t I do something for all these [other people with kidney disease] that are suffering?”
Writer Erik Barnes follows what happened next: the surgery, the dog walks, the first pitch at Fenway, and a gene-edited pig named Wilma who became, in Andrews's words, "a major part of my soul as long as I live." Wilma's story doesn't end the way you might expect. Andrews' doesn't either.
On October 1, 1964, Japan opened the Tokaido Shinkansen, connecting Tokyo and Osaka with trains capable of 210 km/h, or about 130 mph, and introducing the world to modern high-speed rail. The timing was no accident. Tokyo’s Summer Olympics would open just nine days later, giving international visitors a front-row seat to Japan’s technological transformation. The Shinkansen became the model for high-speed rail systems worldwide, and its descendants now travel at more than 300 km/h.
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Until tomorrow, why not call that useless friend and say hi!