Passion is infectious.

Tens of thousands of Mac enthusiasts converged on San Francisco for MacWorld this week, and my health insurance should cover my trip there. Why?

Because being around passionate, enthusiastic people is good for your brain.

In his book The New Brain, neurologist Richard Restak points out that your brain has a built-in tendency toward modeling/mimicking those you are around. That's scary, when you think about it. It means that hanging out with the whiners and complainers at the water cooler (not to mention those overly critical, judgemental, negative neighbors, friends, and family members) will tend to make you behave like them.

His suggestions are that you seek out and spend more time around those whose brains you like (and want to BE like) and avoid those with attitudes and behaviors that you don't want for yourself. That sounds a bit harsh, but it's the result of, well, a loooooooong evolution of the brain. Our survival as a species was based on the ability of babies and children being able to emulate others, and your brain can't tell the difference between those you don't want to be like (but are around) and those you do. You control it by getting the hell out of there.

You've probably experienced this--you sit around a group of people whining and complaining (without any attempt to problem-solve) and pretty soon you find two things:
1) You start feeling your energy slipping
2) You start subtly acting more like them.

You might find yourself saying something and immediately thinking, "I can't believe I just SAID that!"

It's just your brain doing what brains do.

But think about the people you know who make you feel... energized. Enthusiastic. Excited. Passionate. Think of the times you've let someone else's enthusiasm sweep you away. Of course you might later come to your senses and realize, for example, that you don't actually need the new iPod Shuffle, seeing as how you already own two other iPods.

The point is, being swept away with enthusiasm is good for your brain and your health.

The implication is this:

If you want to create passionate users, spend time around passionate users.

Even better, spend time around others who are also trying to inspire passion in others. There's plenty of brain research that explains why you should surround yourself with passionate, energetic people and stay away from the, "This job would be great if it weren't for the frickin' USERS" people. If you want to be more creative, spend time around more creative people. Better problem solving? Spend time with those who spend more time looking for solutions than complaining about problems.

Want to change the world? Spend time around people who want to change the world. That's exactly what Tuesday night was like when O'Reilly held a party for the new book Eric mentioned, Andy Hertzfeld's Revolution in the Valley. Most of the original Macintosh creators/developers were there including Andy, Bill Atkinson, and others... even Wozniak was there. Now, I've spent too much time in Hollywood to be impressed by the company of "celebrities", but these folks--they did change the world. And more importantly, from the brain's perspective, they knew it. It was their goal.

I was there with Bert, the O'Reilly folks, and Mac gurus Tom Negrino and Dori Smith (of backupbrain blog fame, among other things), and we all agreed that we were hoping some of what was going on in that room, with all those change-the-world Mac creators would rub off on us.

Just being in the room was enough to get you high.

(Then again, it could have been the beer... the Thirsty Bear, where the party was held, makes an outrageously good "Golden Vanilla" brew. I don't drink alcohol more than about twice a year, so...it kicks my ass when I do!)

If you would excuse yourself from a setting where there was too much second-hand smoke, then you should do the same thing when there's too much of an attitude or behavior that you don't want your brain to slide into. And don't fall into the trap of thinking you have complete control over this--it's extremely difficult to prevent something your brain spent millions of years evolving to do.

And next time someone tries to strap you into the, say, golf appreciation chair, let them. They might not ever succeed, but just being around someone trying to evangelize for their favorite sport, game, drink, whatever... is usually good for you.

Of course nobody has yet succeeded in making ME a golf convert, but for the sake of being around more passion, I say bring it on. : )