A few years ago, my flatmate was complaining about how his breakfast was always a (not very filling) muffin and coffee from a café near the university, since he didn’t have time for anything better. That christmas, I got him a box of vanilla café Soylent, which he loved. Shortly afterwards, I was pleasantly surprised to see a shipment of soylent that had his name on it, instead of mine.
My mom enjoys puzzles like Sudoku, and I was getting into abstract strategy games (like chess and go). For her birthday, I got her a book full of Tsume-shogi (puzzles for Japanese chess), and we have spent several evenings going over the puzzles, which engaged her puzzle-solving tendencies, while also helping her become more familiar with chess-like games.
I’ve gotten more than one friend the game Splatoon as a christmas present. In part this was an exploratory gift, exposing them to a game that I love that they might not have picked given a sea of other games to chose from, but it was also in part a selfish strategy on my part, since that way I could play the game with them.
Sometimes exploratory gifts can be great, but it is certainly true that there is some amount of risk that exists in such a strategy. I think a good way to hedge for this is to get multiple items as part of one gift, one of which is a safe bet, the other of which is more exploratory.
For example, in the case Will examines of choosing between getting a friend a historical fiction book (which is a sure win, but doesn’t provide much new information) or getting them the science fiction (which is risky, but may open their eyes to a whole trove of amazing works), you could get both books for your friend, if you can afford to do so. That way, they get at least one book that they will love, but they also get exposure to a book that they wouldn’t have stumbled across on their own, which maximizes value for them and minimizes risk for you.
A few years ago, my flatmate was complaining about how his breakfast was always a (not very filling) muffin and coffee from a café near the university, since he didn’t have time for anything better. That christmas, I got him a box of vanilla café Soylent, which he loved. Shortly afterwards, I was pleasantly surprised to see a shipment of soylent that had his name on it, instead of mine.
My mom enjoys puzzles like Sudoku, and I was getting into abstract strategy games (like chess and go). For her birthday, I got her a book full of Tsume-shogi (puzzles for Japanese chess), and we have spent several evenings going over the puzzles, which engaged her puzzle-solving tendencies, while also helping her become more familiar with chess-like games.
I’ve gotten more than one friend the game Splatoon as a christmas present. In part this was an exploratory gift, exposing them to a game that I love that they might not have picked given a sea of other games to chose from, but it was also in part a selfish strategy on my part, since that way I could play the game with them.
Sometimes exploratory gifts can be great, but it is certainly true that there is some amount of risk that exists in such a strategy. I think a good way to hedge for this is to get multiple items as part of one gift, one of which is a safe bet, the other of which is more exploratory.
For example, in the case Will examines of choosing between getting a friend a historical fiction book (which is a sure win, but doesn’t provide much new information) or getting them the science fiction (which is risky, but may open their eyes to a whole trove of amazing works), you could get both books for your friend, if you can afford to do so. That way, they get at least one book that they will love, but they also get exposure to a book that they wouldn’t have stumbled across on their own, which maximizes value for them and minimizes risk for you.