I see a couple of things missing in the comments thus far on George Bell's isolation.
First, his age. When he was younger, he was (presumably) in love with, and almost married, a woman whom he stayed in touch with for the rest of his life. He also had close relationships with friends. For some people, the "desaturation" of life that comes with age makes it feel less worthwhile to pursue the things that once made them happy.
Second, some people who do not socialize are not necessarily devoid of the inner need for friendship and companionship - they may have learned that the pain and risk that can come with social connections outweigh the advantages.
When a man becomes old, disabled, and considerably overweight, interacting with others might not be a particularly pleasant experience.
There are no "solutions" to the "problems" George Bell had. They are a part of the human condition, and they were his experience of life.
Echoing some of the sentiment elsewhere in comments, I liked programming a lot more when I was more of a one-man show, instead of a team member with other people doing business analysis, project management, client contact, and basically everything except pulling predefined stories off a scrum board and delivering them.
I'm sure it's more efficient and effective, but it feels like factory work now.
I think part of "the system" involves learning and lending institutions informally forecasting what the lifetime return on a student's education will be, and then attempting to maximize the return on the student loan(s) as an investment on those future earnings.
The learning and lending institutions clearly fucked up big-time in their forecasting, along with everyone else who was irrationally exuberant in their optimism about the future economy.
Now they are stuck between students on one hand (who have been sold a bill of goods and are seriously pissed about the pittance left over after their loan payments, if they're able to pay back at all), and the investors on the other hand (which includes not only evil bankers' money but also people who have been sacrificing in good faith for decades to contribute to their retirement accounts).
So the stage is set for a nice messy society-destroying generational war that should distract everyone from the forecasting mistakes.
As I get older, among my regrets are not having gone to see either the Grand Canyon, or the Hoover Dam. I have half-made plans to take the trip, some day.
Slack is really useful but it really bothers me that it's hosted off-site. I would rather my communications with my team stay within the team, and not with slack.com.
PostgreSQL for me thanks.