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The Sixteen Kinds of Intimacy — LessWrong

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John Wentworth recently posted a discussion-inducing piece about how the willingness to be vulnerable is core to romantic relationships. This is not obvious to me as the core thing. I think romantic (and other) relationships are arguably about intimacy[1]. Perhaps intimacy always requires vulnerability? To answer that, and because it's generally interesting, here is a babble[2] of the kinds of intimacy: People often experience a kind of intimacy from sharing the same hobbies or fandom which I think has elements of both values intimacy and experience intimacy (we like the same thing and have shared experiences of doing it). I'm struck that arguably many of these forms of intimacy are just variations on experiential intimacy: having the same experiences as another, or by extension the same knowledge as others. Sex is an experiential activity you do with another person, but so is sharing ideas or your emotions. Someone who shares your values and beliefs likely experiences the world in sim

x The Sixteen Kinds of Intimacy — LessWrong Relationships (Interpersonal) Practical World Modeling Frontpage 57 The Sixteen Kinds of Intimacy by Ruby 21st Jun 2025 6 min read 2 57 John Wentworth recently posted a discussion-inducing piece about how the willingness to be vulnerable is core to romantic relationships. This is not obvious to me as the core thing. I think romantic (and other) relationships are arguably about intimacy [1] . Perhaps intimacy always requires vulnerability? To answer that, and because it's generally interesting, here is a babble [2] of the kinds of intimacy: Physical I

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