Remembering Dunbar's 5

2020 was a funny year for most of us. Let's face it. Regardless of whether you are risk averse or not, chances are you saw people a lot less than 'normal' this particular year. So who did you spend the most time with?

Enter Dunbar's number. Anthropologist Robin Dunbar found a set of numbers that guides us as humans to be able to to cognitively be able to foster relationships with others. I, and a number of people around me have viewed 2020 as a bit of a reset.

5 is the magic number for the amount of relationships at any given time that you can sustain extremely well. For most of us, with a lockdown here and a lockdown there, it's possible that we didn't actually see anymore than this number of people regularly all year.

Who were your 5?
Did this change between 2019 and 2020?
How does this make you feel?

Write down the 5 people you spent the most time with or saw in person in 2020.

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Author

Rupa Datta is founder of Portfolio People. Fascinated by how networks work. Let's start with your current 5!