Posts tagged “storytelling”

In 2000, a spotty kid in a tracksuit conned me out of my phone on a London train. I chased him down and got it back, but lost my faith in strangers. Last night, history seemed to repeat itself, until the kid handed the phone back. Faith restored.

I walked you through how Switch Transport went from just me to a whole industry: how we figured out switching's quirks (distance, presence, pushback), how VC brilliantly built Recruitment, launched canyouswitch.com, and found our second pilot, Maddie, whose utterly undramatic five-minute video convinced me she was the real thing.

I had a dream where an Irish barman explained whale drinking habits to me, complete with infographics. Mink whales drink you under the table; white whales drink you completely underwater. I woke up laughing for 30 seconds. My brain is weird.

I spend a whirlwind Saturday mattress shopping and furnishing an entire San Francisco apartment from scratch, encountering a cast of memorable characters along the way. The experience crystallizes a real cultural difference: in America, money is an enabler and service is genuinely enthusiastic. By midnight, I'm home.

Three recent encounters with strangers: a fun iPod music swap on the tube, getting scammed out of two quid by a convincing con man, and an unexpectedly genuine chat with an unemployed carpenter about the perverse incentives of the benefits system. Two out of three ain't bad.

On a deserted Friday night tube ride, I spotted a beautiful crying goth and spent several agonizing stops working up the nerve to hand her a note as I stepped off. It read "Don't cry. You're beautiful." Her smile in return was worth every second of anxiety.