Life is beautiful on public transportation.

When you think about it, we are all affordances.

The word “affordance” was originally invented by the perceptual psychologist J. J. Gibson (1977, 1979) to refer to the actionable properties between the world and an actor (a person or animal). To Gibson, affordances are a relationship. They are a part of nature: they do not have to be visible, known, or desirable. Some affordances are yet to be discovered. Some are dangerous. I suspect that none of us know all the affordances of even everyday objects. – via Donald Norman

In these systems called cities we live in, with millions of other people, we are all affordances. Affordances for truth and deception. Affordances for beauty and ugliness. Affordances for joy and pain. But mostly, affordances for stories and meaning. Which, when you think about it, is the very essence of our existence. Everything we talk about or believe in or remember is based on storytelling.

Which is part of why, I think, I like taking public transportation so much. Commuting privately and alone is to lock oneself out of one of the most amazing product features of these systems we call cities: fascinating stories. All created through chance, via interactions we have with others. Beautiful interactions that can only happen serendipitously in a constantly moving, changing, public space. Like this one, documented for this cool project called “Why Are You On My Train?“:

Urban planners and interaction designers should have a few beers on a regular basis.