Problem

Whenever people are in public, they tend to pretend the other people around them don’t exist. Everyone lives in a bubble that you have to pierce with “Excuse me” before talking to them. Not that I mind it. I’m a pretty closed guy myself.

However, I realize that this makes it very difficult to talk to someone. Even in more relaxed situations than the subway, you need some context before starting a conversation. Like, a cute dog or a book you both seem to like.

Solution

It seems like a common solution to this problem is to wear clothing that advertises things you like. Maybe a band, organization, sport, etc. I have historically eschewed such clothing, feeling a little odd about paying someone to do their advertising for them. But I think I have a new answer to this problem.

I give you the Here Are Some Things to Talk About Shirt (working title). It’s main feature is a name tag. I’ve experimented with wearing a name tag around in public, and people find it a little odd. But they know my name! An important start for a conversation.

Second, it has a little information about the wearer on the back. Some kind of phrase that might catch the eye in a general way. Like, “I like cats.” Or, “I play the bongos.” For my first run of this shirt, I have chosen the phrase “I like to read.”

Lastly — and this is the pièce de résistance — is a series of icons under the name tag that represent stuff and subcultures that you dig. The idea is that someone will recognize an icon they know from a narrow context and be pleased enough with themselves and you to say something.

The one on the left is a hacker icon, then the classic peace symbol, my favorite math constant e^iπ, the Invisible Pink Unicorn symbol, and finally a feminist symbol.

I ordered one of these shirts from CafePress. We’ll see how it goes. I’m really interested to see what kind of reaction I get, and how often each of the icons is commented upon.

If you want to make your own shirt like this, I made an SVG file that anyone is free to use. I’ve licensed it under a CC Attribution-ShareAlike license. Just give me a shout-out if you use it. I’d certainly like to hear tales of its use.