Good write-up, and thanks again for organizing the excursion!
We went to the meeting pointperson afterwards and discussed our experiences, and I think several other people (myself included) were also surprised by how unsuccessful we were in hitting items on the list. There was a point discussed that trying to initiate contact without an ‘excuse’ or prop is really, really difficult—in terms of getting a response and possibly also in terms of building up courage—compared to when there is one. I went in on Hard Mode and tried e.g. staring contests without any backstory, and was mostly* unsuccessful. It was speculated that this is because not having an excuse, prop, or backstory means the other person has no social script to follow, so they panic and disengage.
*The one time I was successful at getting a staring contest, the other person didn’t speak great English and misunderstood, demanding a fiver when they won. Muy awkward.
Good write-up, and thanks again for organizing the excursion!
We went to the meeting pointperson afterwards and discussed our experiences, and I think several other people (myself included) were also surprised by how unsuccessful we were in hitting items on the list. There was a point discussed that trying to initiate contact without an ‘excuse’ or prop is really, really difficult—in terms of getting a response and possibly also in terms of building up courage—compared to when there is one. I went in on Hard Mode and tried e.g. staring contests without any backstory, and was mostly* unsuccessful. It was speculated that this is because not having an excuse, prop, or backstory means the other person has no social script to follow, so they panic and disengage.
*The one time I was successful at getting a staring contest, the other person didn’t speak great English and misunderstood, demanding a fiver when they won. Muy awkward.