Leadership Isn’t About the Camera—It’s About Building Human Connection
I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about leadership, organizational culture, and why some companies unite people while others seem to profit from keeping them divided.
That led me to think about Nirav Tolia’s educational background in English.
An English degree can produce exceptional communicators and storytellers. By all appearances, Nirav has excelled at being in front of a camera, speaking with the media, appearing on podcasts, and presenting a compelling vision.
My concern isn’t the degree.
It’s whether the product consistently delivers on that vision.
I’ve heard many times throughout my career that success is a combination of hard work, who you know, and a lot of luck.
Looking at Nirav’s career, it’s difficult to argue those elements haven’t played a role. Joining Yahoo during the infancy of the web. Founding ePinions during the dot-com era and seeing it acquired. Launching Nextdoor when social media and local communities were colliding online.
Those opportunities required work and execution.
But they also required timing.
As I learned while living in Las Vegas, luck eventually runs out and markers eventually come due.
The challenge for every founder is proving that success wasn’t just the product of timing.
If AI and human connection are truly the future of Nextdoor, why not invest in initiatives grounded in behavioral psychology instead of simply driving engagement?
For less than the cost of many marketing campaigns, Nextdoor could sponsor five pilot neighborhoods at $50,000 each and scientifically measure outcomes.
Consider initiatives such as:
Neighborhood Mediation Labs: Professionally facilitated sessions where neighbors resolve recurring disputes over parking, pets, noise, fireworks, and HOA issues while AI identifies common themes and recommends solutions.
Community Service Challenges: Competing neighborhoods earn recognition by volunteering at food banks, cleaning parks, assisting seniors, or supporting veterans’ organizations, rewarding cooperation instead of conflict.
MBTI and DISC Community Workshops: MBTI (Myers-Briggs Type Indicator) and DISC are personality frameworks used worldwide to help people understand communication styles, motivations, and conflict behaviors. Imagine neighbors learning that the person they disagree with isn’t necessarily unreasonable—they simply process information differently. Understanding differences often reduces conflict and increases empathy.
Behavioral AI Nudges: Before posting an inflammatory comment, AI could ask, “Would you say this face-to-face to your neighbor?” while suggesting language that promotes constructive dialogue instead of escalation.
Track neighborhood sentiment. Track retention. Track advertiser engagement. Track participation.
If the pilots work, expand them nationwide.
That’s what investing in human connection looks like.
Instead, too often the platform appears optimized for complaints, arguments, outrage, missing packages, barking dogs, fireworks disputes, and HOA drama because conflict generates engagement.
The best leaders don’t simply talk about bringing people together.
They build systems that make it happen.
Because eventually every founder faces the same test:
Was it skill?
Was it timing?
Or was it luck?
And as every gambler eventually learns, even a broken clock is right twice a day.
The Suspensions Nextdoor Doesn’t Study
Late Saturday, Brandon shared that his Nextdoor account had been indefinitely suspended shortly after he started posting.
This is the part of Nextdoor that doesn’t show up in the surveys, research reports, or LinkedIn articles.
It’s also the part that raises questions about transparency.
When users are suspended, what exactly is the appeal process? How are decisions reviewed? What standards are being applied? Why are the Community Guidelines often written broadly enough that interpretation seems to favor the platform?
I’ve asked these questions before and have yet to receive meaningful answers.
What makes this even more interesting is that suspended users don’t necessarily disappear from the ecosystem immediately. Their accounts, data, and history remain part of the platform. Yet discussions about transparency surrounding suspensions, appeals, and user rights rarely seem to receive the same attention as discussions about Weekly Active Users, advertising opportunities, or engagement metrics.
For many users, it can feel as though simply asking difficult questions, disagreeing with the prevailing narrative, or refusing to become “another brick in the wall” creates risk.
Whether that’s perception or reality, it is a perception that leadership should take seriously.
This isn’t a study about FIFA.
This isn’t a study about home insurance.
This isn’t a study about pharmaceutical advertising.
This is about real users who believe they’ve been silenced and want to understand why.
And that’s a study I’d be interested in reading.
If You Can't Park It, Maybe Don't Drive It
Today around 4:00 PM EDT at the Rivertowne Harris Teeter, I stumbled across another parking masterpiece.
I have a simple philosophy in life:
If I can't park a vehicle between two giant painted lines, I'm getting a smaller vehicle.
Apparently, not everyone shares this revolutionary concept.
This particular driver parked like they were fleeing a bank robbery, avoiding an asteroid strike, or both.
Look, nobody is perfect. We all have bad days.
But if your SUV needs parts of three parking spaces to feel emotionally supported, it might be time to reconsider your relationship with that vehicle.
Just a thought from a guy with one leg who somehow manages to stay between the lines.
Until the next installment of Internet Garbage...
America’s 250th Birthday: A Neighborhood Celebration or Another Nextdoor Food Fight?
As America approaches its 250th Independence Day celebration, communities across the country should be preparing for backyard cookouts, parades, fireworks, veterans being honored, and neighbors coming together to celebrate a remarkable milestone in our nation’s history.
Instead, many neighborhood conversations seem destined to become the annual debate we’ve all seen before:
“My dog is scared of fireworks!”
“It’s only one night a year!”
“Think of the veterans!”
“Think of the babies!”
“Someone parked in front of my house!”
“Who left the empty beer cans in the cul-de-sac?”
These discussions aren’t unique to any one platform, but they highlight a broader issue.
For all the talk about connecting neighbors, Nextdoor often seems to amplify unresolved disagreements among people who live only blocks apart. The platform excels at surfacing conflict but struggles to transform it into constructive dialogue.
Ironically, I think Nextdoor should stop pretending otherwise.
Lean into the tabloid nature of neighborhood life. Let people laugh at the leaf blower complaints, HOA disputes, missing packages, rogue fireworks, and parking wars. If engagement is the goal, embrace what users already gravitate toward, grow weekly active users, sell more advertising, and ultimately create profitability that benefits the shareholders who continue to support the company.
Because if the platform isn’t going to unite neighbors, it might as well entertain them.
Hopefully, when America celebrates 250 years of independence, we’ll spend more time waving flags and less time arguing over who left their trash cans out too long.
Happy early 250th, America.
Day #5: Still Waiting for a Study That Shouldn’t Be This Hard to Share
On Monday evening, I requested the complete Home Insurance Insights study that Nextdoor referenced in its blog. I wasn’t looking for a headline—I wanted the methodology, demographics, sample size, and supporting data behind the conclusions.
It’s now Saturday. Day #5.
I haven’t received the study.
I haven’t received an acknowledgment.
I haven’t even received a simple, “We’re looking into it.”
As I’ve said before, this isn’t surprising.
Maybe if I were a major institutional investor, a national advertiser, or an unpaid moderator who never questioned the status quo, my email would have been answered.
Instead, I’m simply a shareholder asking Nextdoor, CEO Nirav Tolia, and Jacob Chavis to follow through on the transparency they promote.
That raises a larger question:
If this is the experience for an investor asking for publicly referenced research, what happens when a local neighborhood advertiser has an issue?
Do they simply take a number like they’re waiting at the DMV? Or like the waiting room in Beetlejuice, hoping their number is eventually called while everyone else stares into the void?
It also made me think about the modern gig economy.
Ride-share companies connect riders and drivers. Food delivery platforms connect restaurants, customers, and couriers. Increasingly, those same companies are investing heavily in automation and AI to reduce reliance on human labor over time.
Nextdoor often speaks about AI as the future, but its value ultimately comes from real neighbors and local businesses creating the content and community that make the platform useful. If those relationships aren’t supported with responsive service and transparency, the “neighborly” vision becomes much harder to believe.
Technology should strengthen human connection—not replace it.