Walden

Henry David Thoreau conducted a two year experiment on Walden Pond. The goal of the experiment was not to live in isolation, as most believe, but to attempt to determine the difference between the necessary and the desired, and how much he could get from how little. He wanted to whittle life down to its simplest form. He wanted to find out what he was and wasn’t capable of. He wanted to know how much material he could get for how little pay, how much beauty he could find in the most mundane, how much knowledge he could gain from the most trivial, how much enjoyment he could get from the most tedious.

Solitude was part of the experiment, and Thoreau found much wisdom and enjoyment in solitude. But Thoreau also found much in his fellow man. Thoreau did not live in isolation; he walked into town almost every day and had frequent visitors. He sought a balance between solitude and the company of others, and a comfortable distance between himself and the opinions of others.

Although I know the idea of actually reading a book instead of spewing your thoughts about it is pretty outlandish, for a much more thorough understanding of this topic I recommend reading Walden, by Henry David Thoreau.