Fifty contacts you can’t call at midnight are worth less than two you can.

How many people are in your phone measures almost nothing. The number that matters is how many you could call at a bad hour without rehearsing the opening line, and for most people that is small and always has been. It is not a failure. It is what close actually looks like, and it is the only column that helps on the worst night.

Work out who yours are. Then do something this month that keeps the list warm: a call, a visit, turning up to something of theirs. Being on somebody else’s midnight list is the other half of it.