how to expose yourself to randomness

read this article today: http://casnocha.com/2010/05/50-ways-to-expose-yourself-to-randomness.html

loved it. 🙂

quoting some of the things listed there:

1. Go to the nearest magazine shop. Now. Spend 20 minutes. Pick up 20 — twenty! — magazines. None should be ones you normally read. Spend the better part of a day perusing them. Tear stuff out. Make notes. Create files. Goal: Stretch! Repeat … monthly … or at least bi-monthly.

3. Take off this Wednesday afternoon. Wander the closest mall … for two hours. Note the stuff you like. (And hate.) Products, merchandising, whatever. Repeat … bimonthly.

8. New habit: You’re in a meeting. Someone you don’t know makes an interesting contribution. Invite him/her to lunch … in the next two weeks.

9. You run across somebody interesting. As a matter of course, ask her (him) what’s the best thing she/he’s read in the last 90 days. Order it from Amazon.com … this afternoon.

10. Take tomorrow afternoon off. Rain or shine. Wander a corner of the city you’ve never explored before.

14. Go past a kiosk advertising local Community College courses for this fall. (Or one of the Learning Annex catalogues.) Grab a copy. Look it over this evening. Pick a couple of interesting courses and topics you’ve always wanted to know more about. Call the professor (with a little detective work, you can find her). If you’re intrigued, sign up and … at least … go to the orientation session.

17. You’re working with your 13-year-old on his science project. You find you’re having fun. Go to school with him tomorrow … and volunteer to talk to the class about the topic.

25. You love taking pictures. You pick up a brochure advertising a four-day photography workshop in Maine next summer. Go to the workshop.

28. I’m not much on planning. But how about sitting down with your spouse/significant other and making a list of three or four things you’ve “been meaning to do” that are novel … then coming up with a scheme for doing at least one of them in the next nine months?

and more…