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Yesterday Vikas from FluxCapacity posted this funny entry about the importance of context in everyday life. By changing the context (location, hand gestures, voice intonation, etc.) surrounding three simple words and a question mark, “is this cool?”, a person can ask a variety of different questions.
What Vikas failed to mention however, is the ingenious way that he’s tweaked his own case study standard, “is this cool?”, to become the hottest, most replicated pick-up line in Boulder.
It all started a few weeks ago at a Boulder bar called The Attic (half bar, half attic, half manbearpig). After spotting a group of three women sitting at the bar (future Ignighter users), Vikas looked at the few guys he was with to see if any were planning an approach. But nobody was. Instead, the group of guys did the typical B.I. (Before Ignighter) move where they spot a group of girls and then instead of walking up and introducing themselves, they continue their insular conversation, slowly drifting toward the women like they’re caught in a mild ocean current and looking up every so often to try to make incidental eye contact. Like every other time it’s been executed throughout the history of groups of men and groups of women, the move was going nowhere and Vikas, feeling a sense of urgency, knew he had to say something before another group of chatting guys actually drifted into the women and knocked them off their bar stools.
Acting instinctively like a mother running between traffic to save her child, Vikas walked up to the women and inquired, “is this bar cool?”.
When you dissect it, the question is pretty silly. I mean The Attic isn’t a school district or your cousin’s house on Passover. It’s safe to assume that most people at the bar have actually made the choice to be there. But if the question was dumb, the girls didn’t seem to notice or mind. In fact, they were excited to answer and continued talking to him and the rest of the guys the entire night. I think part of the charm is in the fact that since going to a bar is no longer a mandatory act (thanks to the fall of Communism), the women obviously do like the place. And since they like it, if he says he likes it too, they’ve already found a common interest. Everybody enjoys discussing commonalities.
When it was time to leave, one of the girls, Emily, said to me, “Your friend Vikas is really cool. Guys are always too scared to approach us, but we’re at the bar for the same reason as everybody else, to meet new people [insert Ignighter theme music here].” I asked her if she remembered what he said when he approached her and she replied, “Not really. Something about Boulder I think. All I know is it was a great ice breaker.” I think she actually would’ve said this all to Vikas himself, but he was already chatting with his third group of girls for the evening at that point.
That night at The Attic was like the Wright brothers first flight at Jockey’s Ridge. Since then the line has become an ever-evolving template that can be adjusted and reused in virtually any situation. The most commonly implemented variation is to go from “Is ____ cool?” to “Do you like ____?”. See below:
To a girl drinking a margarita: “Do you like margaritas?” “Me too!”
To a girl at the gym: “Do you like exercising?” “Me too!”
To a girl in the movie theater: “[leaning over and whispering]Do you like movies?” “[leaning over and whispering]Me too!”
People are always trying to meet other new people, that’s what Ignighter is for. And in the meantime, don’t be afraid to approach that other group and use the Vikas special on them. It works!
Also, if you want to know if The Attic is a cool bar, ask Vikas. He’s conducted the equivalent of 5 focus groups on the joint.
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