You’ll never guess what I was talking about earlier…

I own a wallet. That may not come as much of a surprise. My wallet however, is by far the most conversational item I own. I’m not talking about the money within it, or anything that money can buy, but the wallet itself. The thing I keep my receipts and Blockbuster card in. It looks like this:

Now, the fact that my wallet looks very much like an Airmail Envelope is in itself not the point I’m making. What is far more interesting, is that of all the items I own; of all the things I have in my possession at any time, it is this wallet that causes by far the largest number of complete strangers to enter into conversation with me.

Having owned it for less than a year, I reckon roughly 30 complete strangers have struck up a conversation based on my wallet. In London, that’s nearly all the complete strangers I’ve ever spoken to before beer o’clock. The only other one was when we were both involved in an evacuation from a burning building, where it seemed apt to offer some support.

Such conversational pieces (or social objects as they have been styled) are fascinating, and that they can be *anything* is more fascinating still. There’s a (somewhat sensible) prevailing thought that people only talk about inherently interesting things, and while that’s true to some extent, you can spin interest onto anything. A wallet. Boring. A wallet made out of special plastic that looks and feels like paper and is disguised as an airmail envelope. Awesome. A watch. Boring. A watch that tells the time using a system animal noises and vibrations. Intriguing (if annoying). Your product, your service, yourself? You can always give it a twist.

Don’t get hung up on what you think people want to talk about, explore what they do want to talk about and you’ll be amazed at what can be conversational…

Brought into the world on Tuesday, September 1st, 2009 and filed under Uncategorized.