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I had seen several links to this Russell Davies post on PopUrls, and finally followed it. I may make this my home page, it’s so good and inspiring. Before following the link, I expected a guide to being interesting, but it’s really about being interested – ten suggestions for living in a more engaged and thoughtful way and sharing it through the web. (Jason Kottke linked to a New York Times story about Pixar University in January on the same idea; after reading the article, so did I.) Russell works in advertising, a profession that I find very problematic, but when practiced well combines the best of storytelling, teaching, and artistic expression. Imagine a classroom with similar guidelines. Teachers can model this for their students and they’d both find more in life to look forward to. He writes:
The way to be interesting is to be interested. You’ve got to find what’s interesting in everything, you’ve got to be good at noticing things, you’ve got to be good at listening. If you find people (and things) interesting, they’ll find you interesting.
Interesting people are good at sharing. You can’t be interested in someone who won’t tell you anything. Being good at sharing is not the same as talking and talking and talking. It means you share your ideas, you let people play with them and you’re good at talking about them without having to talk about yourself.
Read russell davies: how to be interesting
Cross posted on DV for Teachers because it’s too good not to have here too.