Comment by frankus | Hacker News Reader

Comment by frankus | Hacker News Reader

Not directly related, but a fun(?) anecdote: I worked for a dog-friendly company in Seattle for a few years in the mid 20-teens. I started out commuting from my parents' place (who dog-sat for me), taking a commuter train and then a bus. I rarely chatted with anyone on the train/bus during that period.

After a few months I managed to find a place in the city and would ride the (pet-friendly) bus with my 90-pound samoyed, who despite usually being anxious in crowds took to it really well.

Long story short, the dog was an amazing cross-class ice breaker. I'm pretty introverted, but just about every trip someone would strike up a conversation with me, and it was usually folks I wouldn't otherwise interact with.

So anecdotally, usable public transit can be a good class desegregation strategy, and taking a charismatic dog with you supercharges it.

Yes! Public transit is mentioned, so this is now a certified HN thread.

But seriously, whenever I go for a walk, people with dogs are the only ones I see stopping and interacting with each other.

It seems like the dogs have the right idea, and they take their humans with them...

Note also that dogs themselves will interact with just about every dog they see, even moreso than the dog owners interact with each other.

In my opinion, I see this as affirming that sharing resources can facilitate human interaction.

In this case "personal space". I speculate this increase in interaction is dogs facilitate boundaries being crossed with people.

Boundaries like: they sniff (suggesting something important is smelly, to us all with noses), stare (eye contact communicating starts), make odd sounds (prompting communication), are furry + warm (texturally appealing for touching), and they are usually naked (shocking taboo trigger). In short, they are "an experience" to most nearby humans.

Extrapolating, when one person depends on another person, this can deepen a relationship (good / bad). So, to increase human interactions, increase number of scenarios where we depend upon each other.

No dog required: in college I would throw a t-shirt on in the dark morning and run to the bus.

50% chance the shirt was inside-out. Drives other people crazy. Whomever was behind me would tap me on the shoulder to tell me. Met a lot of people that way.

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