How many people in your life actually know you—and how many just know what you provide?

Your money. Your advice. Your connections. Your ability to fix shit. Your willingness to listen. Your opportunities. Your generosity. Your time.

In this episode of A Stogie for the Road, I go after a side of friendship nobody wants to examine: the invisible economy between people. We keep receipts for money, but there's no fucking accounting system for the years somebody spends absorbing another person's problems, financing their experiences, opening doors, providing professional advice, or becoming their permanent emotional emergency department.

And there's an uncomfortable second half to this conversation: users need rescuers.

Sometimes being needed feels so much like being loved that capable ...