Hey Dennis from Foursquare here. Thanks for the many kind words in this post.

One of the problem with “guides” is that everyone *knows* they need them while traveling, but no one ever thinks they need them at home. One of the big “a-ha” moments for me, pre-Foursquare, was browsing a buddy’s bookshelf in Stockholm, flipping thru some “Guide to the East Village, NYC” book (which covered all the places in my neighborhood), and thinking “wow, this is pretty great… why don’t I use just this tourist guide when I get back to NYC?” The problem is no one wants to be That Person™ using a guide meant for tourists while they’re at home in their own backyards / neighborhoods.

Enter Foursquare. What if we could make something that no matter where you were or where you went — home or abroad, local or tourist, familiar neighborhood or totally foreign city — it could come alive and tell you the best things nearby? That’s the idea that got this whole thing started.

I hear your “it was so great when I was traveling, but I really don’t need it at home” argument all the time… but that’s when I challenge people to give Foursquare a shot in their hometowns / backyards / in the areas they *think* they know best and to use it to try and find a new place they never noticed and never tried before. My wife and I use it regularly in NYC to find new spots even ~10 blocks from our apt (filter: “Places you haven’t been”) and I am consistently surprised by just how good it is.

So, your homework assignment: Give Foursquare a try when you get back to Paris. The next time you need lunch / coffee / dinner —don’t just go to your old standby, use Foursquare to find a place you’ve never heard of. Break your habit of going to the same old places and let Foursquare point you to something as new and as awesome as the places we helped you discovered in Lisbon.

(oh, and report back and let me know how it worked out… @dens on Twitter works for me!)