Member-only story
Talk to a stranger every day and get lucky
Starting up a conversion with strangers is difficult.
For some, chatting with a random person can be downright awkward. For others, it may even trigger a wave of anxiety. Because of this, many people just politely smile or nod at strangers. But most throw on headphones, sunglasses, and a 😐.
But what if I told you (😎) that if you talk to one stranger a day, you might get lucky? It worked for me.
Isolation Prevents Observation
I’m not suggesting you walk around your office lunch spot and talk up every person you see like you’re at a backyard BBQ. But when you close yourself off, you miss out on an opportunity.
Living in Los Angeles, there are tons of people around me every day that I ignore, and they too ignore me. We simply cannot talk to everyone we see here.
I’ve been a career software engineer for the last 15 years. While the stereotypes about social skills and shyness are not true, I do lack a certain “face-to-face” aspect in my day-to-day job as I interface with programs, networks, and systems, and Slacks, Emails, and GitHub issues.
I’d tell you a joke about UDP, but you may not get it.
After reading a book about the hidden factor of luck (The Luck Factor: The…
