Talking to strangers in pubs
The other day, my daughter and her friend wanted to go to see a band in Manchester. I was then on taxi duty for the evening.
We parked up, I dropped them off and I went to wander around the city centre for four hours. I went to Starbucks, had a coffee and did a bit of work. I went to eat something (mainly out of boredom). And then I wandered into a random pub.
As I was buying a drink, the guy stood next to me turned, said "Hi, I'm Nick" and shook my hand. I was somewhat surprised, even though I shouldn't be. It's a pub. You're supposed to do that.
Anyway, we spent most of the next few hours chatting about stuff. It turns out he could potentially be a very good contact for me (he also works in technology). But more importantly I got to learn a bit about his life, he got to find out a bit about mine1 and it turned a dull, rainy evening, into something quite enjoyable.
Take action: Find a pub, buy a drink, say hello to someone who's standing on their own.
For example, he had never heard of anyone that does what I do, even though to me, it's as clear as day ↩