A friend of mine once advised some first-year medical students to develop non-overlapping sources of social support.

His line of thinking went like this: if your only source of friends is your peers at school or work, you will be dependent on your work for your social life. Any disruption to your work would affect your social life, and vice versa.

Additionally, socializing with co-workers often constrains conversation to work-related topics. This is because people naturally default to the things they have in common, which are the things that are easiest to talk about.

If you’re looking for ways to diversify your sources of social support, there are many different kinds of non-work social groups related to your interests or passions, such as a cultural affinity group, a political organization, a volunteer organization, a sports or games group, or a spiritual community.

Developing non-overlapping sources of social support makes your social life robust to shocks and helps you develop more depth as a person.