I used to travel for a living and would marvel at how far you could go before running into someone you know. The problem with that concept is that I was a pretty serious social butterfly. Combine a love of caffeine with the gift of gab and a go-along-to-get-along personality... and it turns out you get to know folks. Lots of folks. At least that's how it worked for me. Your mileage may vary. What I'm getting at is, that in and around my 'local' community, I began to run into people I would recognize... frequently. While there might be more clinical terms, I used to jokingly call this phenomena, "Small World Syndrome." It's the act of no matter how far away you go, you aren't as far as you think.
This isn't surprising in the context of going to the same corner market every morning... I'm talking about running into people while out and about... heading to different places at for dinner on the weekends. Or going shopping for school clothes and running into someone you used to work with... It stands to reason that this is just random chance, but what are the odds that you run into people over and over ... further and further away from home? To turn things around... How far could you go and not run into someone you know?
One time, on a spring break trip, I was out of state and ran into a friend's kid on a band trip. In another instance, I was traveling for work, on what might as well be the other side of the planet, and ran into my college professor's teacher. WHAT ARE THOSE ODDS?!? In yet another situation, a random chance meeting while working on a final project for school led to helping old friends to re-connect. This leads back to the other story thread for this episode: The interconnectedness of things. I might have just made up a word... Oh well. Anyway - All of this Small World Syndrome got me thinking about how things can 'touch' in amazing ways. Isn't that how people meet, projects start, and things like Security B-Sides happen? The thing to focus on from these stories is: What if building new connections for yourself could lead you to new adventures? or work opportunities? or personal growth?
Granted, you have to know what it is you are looking for, but that is another conversation. Thanks for listening.
If you're interested in offering (constructive) feedback, try twitter or reddit and look for SciaticNerd.
This isn't surprising in the context of going to the same corner market every morning... I'm talking about running into people while out and about... heading to different places at for dinner on the weekends. Or going shopping for school clothes and running into someone you used to work with... It stands to reason that this is just random chance, but what are the odds that you run into people over and over ... further and further away from home? To turn things around... How far could you go and not run into someone you know?
One time, on a spring break trip, I was out of state and ran into a friend's kid on a band trip. In another instance, I was traveling for work, on what might as well be the other side of the planet, and ran into my college professor's teacher. WHAT ARE THOSE ODDS?!? In yet another situation, a random chance meeting while working on a final project for school led to helping old friends to re-connect. This leads back to the other story thread for this episode: The interconnectedness of things. I might have just made up a word... Oh well. Anyway - All of this Small World Syndrome got me thinking about how things can 'touch' in amazing ways. Isn't that how people meet, projects start, and things like Security B-Sides happen? The thing to focus on from these stories is: What if building new connections for yourself could lead you to new adventures? or work opportunities? or personal growth?
Granted, you have to know what it is you are looking for, but that is another conversation. Thanks for listening.
If you're interested in offering (constructive) feedback, try twitter or reddit and look for SciaticNerd.