Triple Play

Thanks to everyone who played along with the first-ever Chit Chat Challenge, a team-up by Rubi McGrory of the awesome Iridescent Ordinary newsletter, and TAoN, encouraging everyone to converse with at least one new person a day for 10 days. Read Rubi’s great wrap-up — “hundreds of convos, thousands of dopamine hits” — here. (Peruse the Chit Chat Chat here.) Today I’ll shift to a slightly different theme: Conversing with people you already know. Specifically, I want to pass along and endorse the latest innovation in living a curious life from our friends The Noticers, a “noticing club” in Vienna, Austria. (As a reminder: I wrote about The Noticers, and some of their “sharing attention” tips, last November.1) One of the group’s founders, Tanja, wrote to tell me of new game she and co-founders Ann and Tomi played at a recent meeting: “We were catching up on how we were,” she explained, “and Tomi asked that we each describe our current state in three adjectives.” Results: Ann: dusty, begeistert (she decided she preferred the German word than the English one for describing her feelings), weirdly fresh Tanja: fleetingly frustrated, cautiously content, confidently colorful (when Ann decided that it was more accurate to describe her ‘fresh’ feeling with an adverb in front of it, Tanja decided to add adverbs to all of hers) Tomi: imbalanced/wobbly, disengaged/discombobulated, centered I really like this as a kind of group icebreaker. As an exercise, it’s both introspective and communal: a way to notice your self, and connect with others, in one considered gesture. And it’s creative. (It also kind of reminds me of the three-term summaries of shows that Netflix uses: “Dark / Nostalgic / Comedy,” or whatever.) This puts it in the same realm as the “group bio” exercise that I’ve recommended before (and that is in the TAoN book). As Tanja observed in her note to me, these are similar to icebreakers, but ideal for groups. Which makes me wonder: Do you have an exercise that you use with a group or club you’re part of? Either way, give this one a try at your next gathering! If you enjoy TAoN, please become a paid supporter. You’ll get access to the full archives as well as supporter-only bonus posts and discussion threads. Your support makes this newsletter possible. Thank you! Noticing is about other people, too. The Icebreaker series aims to help with that. There’s a central collection spot for all the icebreakers to date, here. Today’s icebreaker comes from … Rubi! Specifically from her aforementioned wrap-up post on the Chit Chat Challenge: What’s the best conversation you ever had with a stranger? As Rubi observed, a highlight of this chit chat caper was collecting so many anecdotes of stranger encounters. “A great conversation starter with strangers,” she observes, “is talking about their best stranger conversations.” Obviously I had to make that an icebreaker! Thanks for everything, Rubi, let’s do this again!! Please send your favorite icebreaker (whether you made it up or found it elsewhere) to consumed@robwalker.net. Friend of TAoN Joe Alterio sent me a copy of his new Risograph book It’s Never Easy, and I love it! A beautiful object that Riso fans will dig, it’s also a thoughtful and seductive exercise in visual meditation and narrative. On sale here. “Benches are microcosms of an expansive debate about who belongs in urban public spaces. When they are removed or made uninviting, we lose more than just a place to rest.” Knowledgeable and insightful Places essay by Gabrielle Bruney. Aircraft: The Jet As Art, series by Jeffrey Milstein. Via The Neighborhoods. Bring back the spontaneous phone call? Gift link. I’d be curious to hear thoughts on that. Ask A Sober Oldster: Neda Ulaby. Jaša Müller’s pastel portraits. Really nice. Your name in satellite images, from NASA. In defense of tourist traps (specifically Cafe du Monde). Agree. OKAY THAT’S IT! As always, I value your feedback (suggestions, critiques, positive reinforcement, constructive insults directed at me, not at anyone else, etc.), as well as your tips or stories or personal noticing rituals, things we need a word for, and of course your icebreakers: consumed@robwalker.net. Or use the comments. —> Or just click the heart symbol. That always makes my day. And thanks for reading … rw To unsubscribe see the bottom of the email, or go here. 1 There’s apparently also a noticing club in Oakland. If you know and care to share details of that or any other (quasi)-TAoN-inspired group, let me know! consumed@robwalker.net