What would happen if you said YES to more new experiences?
Would you let a computer randomly choose those new experiences for you?
Several years ago on vacation I started (but never finished) an absurd book called The Year of Yes where the young author decided she had gotten too picky in her dating life and resolved to say Yes to anyone who asked her out for an entire year. I didn’t even finish the silly thing, and any woman who has impulsively said yes to a disastrous date knows why. These are hours you can never get back, and I know my life wasn’t enriched when the mechanic I went out with (once) laughingly told me over dinner that my car didn’t actually need those expensive struts he’d just talked me into.
Anyway.
Along the same lines of being willing to shake up your life and climb out of the patterned ruts your life invariably falls into, we have the story of Max Hawkins who so wanted out of the perfect bubble of his life as a Google employee that he retired and created an app to literally randomize his life choices. He began with letting the algorithm sift through local public events and choose one for him:
One night, he got to drink white Russians with some Russians. Another, he attended acroyoga (as in, acrobatics + yoga). A community center pancake breakfast. A networking event for young professionals. The algorithm chose; Max attended.
Most of these events were something that the nonrandomized Max would never have thought to try. The computer was breaking him out of a life driven by his own preferences. He was suddenly seeing the world in a whole new way, and he really liked it.
Hawkins traveled the world for two years, staying in cities and countries the algorithm chose for him (within his budget, of course). Having everything randomly decided for him, he realized, was its own kind of freedom. When the computer decided he should get a tattoo it didn't stop there: The algorithm also chose the tattoo parlor, along with the tattoo itself and its location. The catch? He didn't know what image he was getting or where he'd be inked until he showed up. He did go through having the randomly chosen line drawing (with a fascinating backstory he learned later) tattooed on his chest.
Hawkins started a Facebook group for people who also wanted to shake up their own lives. Imagine pulling your card for the day that tells you to do something completely out of your own ordinary routine. Go square dancing at the local grange! Sit in meditation with the monks of Vina! Or maybe attend a meeting with this randomly chosen local goup:
What do you want to talk about today?
Netroots Nation 2018
RSVPS
1. Neeta Lind, organizer (kosmail her to connect)
2. Bill in Portland Maine
3. Common Sense Mainer
4. Meteor Blades
5. vicki
6. markm667
7. belinda ridgewood
8. paradise50
9. smileycreek
10. side pocket
11. Mrs. side pocket
12. annrose
13. Spedwybabs
14. ericlewis0
15. shanikka
16. Crashing Vor
17. cv lurking gf
18. brillig
19. mik,
20. K1 (aka thatkid)
21. K2
22. loggersbrat
23. Richard Cranium
24. Jeff Singer
25. BeninSC
26. KathyinSC
27. mommyof3
28. Chris Reeves
29. DrLori
30. Will Johnson
31. Carolyn Fiddler
32. Irna Landrum
33. Drew Linzer
34. Jen Hayden
35. peregrine kate
36. Michael Langenmayr
37. Paul Hogarth
38. Rachel Colyer
39. Wagatwe Wanjuki
40. Kelly Macias
41. ramara
42. Will Rockafellow
43. Jessica Sutherland
44. Rory Morris
45. Laura Clawson
46. Arjun Jaikumar
47. Rachel Sinderbrand
48. Wes Williamson
49. Kimm Lett
50. Huiying Chan
51. Joan McCarter
52. Candelaria Vargas
53. Stephen Wolf
54. Gabe Ortiz
55. Steven Howard
56. Jonaya Leek
57. Rebecca Buckwalter-Poza
58. chigh
59. chigh2
60. Mark E. Anderson
61. Marian Piekarczyk
62. gmats
63. Vic Uzumeri aka grapes
64. Joanne Savard
65. DrLori
66. texasmom
67. texasdad
68. Mike Johnson
69. Maya Gold
70. Jon Sitzman
71. watercarrier4diogenes
72. Wee Mama
73. Tall Papa
74. David Nir
75. Kaili Joy Gray
76. Daniel Donner
77. Lulu
78. Susan Grigsby
79. 714day
80. True Blue Majority
81. dopper0189
82. Adel Reid
83. Dartagnan
84. Mr. Clawson
85. Mrs. Clawson
86. SemDem
87. Mrs. SemDem
88. Leslie Salzillo
89. Alona Sistrunk
90. Chitown Kev
91. DebtorsPrison
92. warprof
93.
MAYBEES :
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