Creating Passionate Users

Think Young

Is there something you loved to do when you were younger but that you stopped doing? Did you stop doing it because you truly outgrew it... or because you got older? If you want to keep your brain sharp and--just as importantly--get to know your next generation of users, you might want to dust off the legos and slot cars, buy a PSP, get out your skateboard, wear something from Urban Outfitters, and start going to live shows by bands you've never heard of.

Granted, half of you reading this are young enough to still be doing these things, and most geeks tend to play more than non-geeks (the average cubicle of the typical geek looks like a Toys 'R' Us kiosk), so some of you will have to work a little harder to come up with things you did when you were younger but don't do now. Or even better, things you did not do when you were younger, but always wanted to. (Data point: The fastest-growing group of first-time horse owners today are 40-year old women.)

The Death by Dignity topic brought up some great comments about this including:

Michael Turyn: "Narrow-minded and humorless" is often mistaken for "mature"....

Tom Biggs referenced the Oscar Wilde quote: "Life is too important to take seriously."

But this post on college admissions from Julie Leung prompted my post here, especially with her last line:

"As our kids play Kick the Can, can we play with them? Even if that means kicking away our expectations?"

I've talked about the importance of knowing your users' brains, and staying on top of your next generation of users before in:
If you're over 35, do you have a clue? and when I realized that pissed a bunch of people off, I followed it with this one. But this is as much about keeping your own brain in tune as it is about keeping in touch with your users' brains. Doing things not typically done by people "your age" (whatever age that is... 25-year olds aren't doing the same things they did at 17) is a variation on blow your own mind.

Here are a few more tips:

1) Shuffle your music
Ryan Rawson, who was in my session at the Amazon conference, said that putting his iPod Shuffle in shuffle mode has completely changed the way he listened to music, and sort of "forced" him to stop listening to the same things over and over. Think about that--how many of you load your MP3 player with 5,000 songs, but still end up playing the same five playlists?

2) Have kids
If you don't have kids, rent some. Virtually any of your friends with children will be ecstatic to lend you theirs. I'm deathly afraid that once Skyler has completely moved out of the house, my appreciation for indie music will plummet, and I'll revert back to the 80's. (And not the good, interesting, fashionably retro 80's.)

3) Go to a toy store
Bring your credit card.

4) Make something
In atoms, not just bits.

5) Go to a live show
Yes, the parking is a pain, the second-hand smoke will kill you, and your high-frequency hearing is already shot from the concerts you went to in high school. Those were my reasons when I went for about five years without attending a real concert (the symphony doesn't count).

6) Attend a high-school talent show
Phone the local high schools and find out when their next talent show is. I guarantee it'll be entertaining. In a cringing sort of way.

7) Have--and play with--at least one remote control thing
Slot cars, RC hang gliders, boats, whatever.

8) Do a cartwheel at least once a month
My friend Solveig swears this is the secret to staying young. I hadn't done one for a decade when she forced me--under the influence of some microbrew--to do one in the middle of a San Francisco street after a JavaOne party. It nearly killed me, but now I make a practice of it.

9) Try to play that instrument you haven't touched for years
Guitar. Piano. Trombone?

10) Run
Virtually everyone runs when they're younger. Put an animal in a cage all day, and the first thing they want to do when you let them out is run, run, run. We should learn from that.

11) Watch movies for which you are not the target audience

12) Visit stores for which you are not the target audience. Buy something. Wear it.

13) Be in a parade... or something just as ridiculous that you would never have considered before
It's something I did a few times as a kid, and did it for the first time as an adult a few weeks' ago. The stable where I board my horse is about 75% kids, and the stable owner decided to take 20 of them to be in the parade. My horse trainer said, "you're going to come to. It'll be good for you and your horse." After I stopped laughing, I realized he was serious. I thought that was the lamest thing I could imagine -- me with the 20 kids. And to make it worse, the theme of the parade was "the beach", so we all had to wear hawaiian shirts or bathing suits with leis and beach towels. One girl even had her horse in dreadlocks. But, I did it.

14) Do something with art -- paint, sculpt, whatever it is you used to do as a kid that you haven't done in a long time

15) Play games. Monopoly. Simpson's clue. Werewolf.

16) Read a mystery/thriller. Or whatever genre you used to read but don't any longer.

Your turn. What did you really LIKE doing when you were younger, but haven't done in quite a while? This doesn't mean that you're going to get back into it... but what can you at least try?