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