Download - Walking for entertainment
Walking for Entertainment
Katherine Chen / @kchen247
fun + walking =
Let’s talk to some fun-walkers to learn why this way of walking
works for them.
Interview 1: Vidya• Berkeley undergrad, Stanford grad
• Walks to catch up with friends
• Process of planning “entertaining” walks takes 1-3 days
• No destination in mind initially, although destinations may emerge given proximity (e.g. park, Yogurtland)
• More entertaining if she hasn’t seen friend in a while because they have new material to talk about
Sequence: Vidya
• Feels bored
• Checks Facebook
• Sees post by friend she hasn’t communicated with in awhile
• Texts friend: “Hey, want to go walking?”• Text back and forth to schedule walk
• 1-2 days later, walks to friend’s house
• Walks with friend, entertained by hearing life updates
• Computer Science PhD
• Recently moved to Cambridge, without a car
• Walking and public transportation are only transportation options
• Walks after coding for a long time; trigger is getting stuck or knowing what to do but not wanting to do it
• Walks where he can expect street festivals and street musicians, or overhear conversations of interesting people (e.g. homeless group in Central Square)
Interview 2: Frank
Sequence: Frank
• Sit down to code
• Code
• Get stuck or reach a point where motivation to proceed is low
• Walk outside
• Make decision to walk nearby or take subway to Harvard (more lively, thus more entertaining)
• Might check phone to see what’s nearby
• Walk back
• Continue coding
• Engineer at Apple
• Walks when in San Francisco and not in a hurry• Listening to music, e.g. Mission to NOPA
• Enjoys exploration of neighborhoods, watching neighborhoods change, seeing the character of restaurants and people
• Pictures a map, with explored routes blue and new routes grey
• If solo, walks with a destination in mind and entertainment is a byproduct
• With family/friends, walks to spend time together
• Describes world around him as “real life cinema”• Sees funny things (e.g. small, cute, ferocious dog) and
chuckles to himself
• Always a sense of how long (e.g. can’t go too far, will need to go restroom or get tired or have some time constraint)
Interview 3: Jamie
Sequence: Jamie
• Look up destination’s cross streets on Google Maps
• If it’s an option to walk:
• Take headphones out of work backpack
• Put headphones on, turn music on
• Walk, entertained by “real-life cinema”• Arrive at destination
• Stanford graduate student
• Stopped dancing and craves physical activity
• Always walks with a destination in mind, but chooses walking over biking/driving
• Listens to fantasy audio books
• Tried them for the first time during a road trip, didn’t have enough songs for 6 hrs between SoCal/NorCal
• Downloads the mp3s online
• Underscores the importance of a good narrator
Interview 4: Megan
Sequence: Megan
• Assess distance to destination
• If more than 3 minutes, find headphones
• Put headphones in
• Turn on fantasy audio book
• Walk, entertained by story
• Arrive at destination
Insights• People couple walking with entertainment because
they lack motivation or justification for doing either alone.
• The activities combined reach a critical mass that feels worthy.
• Entertainment is a distraction from the repetitiveness of walking.
• Walking makes another task, e.g. consuming entertainment, feel productive.
Do you walk for entertainment? Share your story below!
Katherine Chen / @kchen247