Tall Tales

Micro-community development

I've been travelling around Thailand. I meet a lot of cool people, however our time together is on the order of days and quite transient.

Lots of people travelling want to make new friends and do things in groups. The group might not last, so forming a group quickly while one is in one's spot is a huge deal.

Some people seem very good at forming groups - at arranging drinks or dinner or a walk or whatever. It doesn't seem too hard, as so many people want to do things, and it creates so many good experiences out of nothing.

I call this skill micro-community development, because the community is small in size and time.

I think being a micro-community developer is a superpower when travelling. The difference between a range of adventure and new connections and such, and not.

I've got a friend who is very good at this - enthusiastically signing up most of a dorm to go for dinner or a class in some local thing - it makes his travels much more fun and likewise for everyone around him.

Skills-wise, my take is micro-community development involves less planning, structure and purpose than longer lived communities. A roughly good idea plus a tonne of enthusiasm and friendliness, seems to go quite a way.