Before my group goes out on our final project excursion, it would be good to try and predict what kind of results we will get. Our idea at this point is to go to public places with lots of people and ask for advice. We are assuming roles that are not to far from ourselves: graduating or soon-to-graduate college students about to embark on their journey into adulthood and not knowing how to maneuver through the real world. We think this idea solves the problem of it being hard to get bystanders to participate in our project. If we open up first and make ourselves vulnerable, then maybe people will be more likely to interact with us because it doesn't seem as risky and uncomfortable. It's also more likely that we will get a wide variety of people to participate this way, not just the outgoing or curious.

The advice we get will depend largely on where we decide to go. We talked about asking people at a cafe. These are great places to catch unassuming people who are relaxed and not stressed out by their own lives. I think no matter what people we find there, coffee shops open people up and put them at ease. However, I do expect to find maybe the smarter part of the population there. I don't know if I would necessarily take their advice automatically, but I think they'll be more thoughtful than other places we could go.

We also talked about going to an area surrounded by office buildings or other places with business-minded folk. The idea here is to talk to people who are very conscious of how they became successful and will therefore have an answer at the ready when we ask how we should go about success. The goal is to see how people interact with strangers in this situation and how their responses may reflect who they really are as people.