He needs no introduction: Brandon Stanton, the high school dropout behind the photo blog Humans of New York and the #1 New York Times bestselling book of the same name. No way he’s the world’s best photographer or journalist, he says, even though with meanwhile 10,000 people photographed he achieved quite a feat in a city that’s not exactly known for it’s interpersonal warmth and outright hospitality.

Here is, in his own words, how Brandon Stanton approaches strangers and stops random people in the street. What’s his “competitive advantage”? How to take fear, strangeness and uncomfortableness out of the equation?

How to turn that into an atmosphere of intimacy within no time?