So I started to go out and just randomly talk to people I meet on the street.

Why?

Because I want to find a problem I can solve.

And rather than just sitting in my room thinking and contemplating about a problem I wish existed because I selfishly want to be the person that solves it, I instead decided to talk to people to find out what problems actually exist and be completely open-minded about how I eventually can serve other people.

This started out by me asking very dry and often leading questions about how people spend their time and money.

But as I got more and more into it, I realized the answers I got were not very useful because I was missing the background of how the decisions and behavior came to be.

So I decided to purposefully explore this missing context: the person itself.

In other words, I switched from doing interviews, to aiming to have real conversations.

And here are 3 reasons why having these random conversations is the best thing I ever did:

Getting to the root of the problem

For me, it’s much more interesting to find out why people do what they do, instead of just asking what they do.

For example, I often hear people say they spend a lot of time scrolling through the Facebook feed.

Here’s the thing though: most of them don’t even like doing it, they don’t enjoy it.

Sounds contradictory? I mean, nobody is forcing them, right? If they don’t like it, they can just stop doing it.

To really get to the root of the problem, you need people to open up to you. Why do they still do it, even after being aware of the problem themselves?

Maybe they have the need to constantly be occupied with something, doesn’t matter what. Maybe they have the need to compare their life to that of others in the hope of not falling behind. Maybe they are just plain addicted.

Getting to know yourself

One of the main side effects of constantly approaching strangers and having to lead a conversation is that you can rapidly improve your People Skills.

After every conversation I ask the people how I came across, what they thought about me when I first approached and how that initial impression changed throughout the exchange and what I could do better.

You learn how others perceive you and you can adapt accordingly.

For example, the more personal and direct the questions get, the better the feedback I get. This was something counter-intuitive for me.

Networking

This is something I didn’t even consider when I embarked on this search for a problem.

But if you are genuinely curious and interested in a person and the things they have to say, they naturally will also want to learn more about you in turn.

And if you do this often enough, eventually some people will offer their help, randomly.

For example, I met the founder of a smartphone review website that is doing quite well and because he liked my approach and what I was doing, we exchanged contacts and he offered to meet for coffee and give feedback about any ideas I have.

Or, I met two chinese students and they also said they would like to help in any way they could.

And so I spent a day talking to chinese tourists (who often don’t speak english) while one of the the two did the translation for me.

LTR: Me, Fu (chinese student), Javi (random person)

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And if I piqued your curiosity, here are the places you can currently find me.