In 1999, while standing in line at the Anne Frank Museum in Amsterdam, I ran into a young couple who I'd previously seen standing in a different line at the Eiffel Tower a week earlier. I assumed the odds were low.
Not so. A statistician later explained that because many people traveling in western Europe in the summer visit common sights, it was very good odds that I would see common people in different countries a week apart.
I later appreciated this fact in 2001 while wandering through the Las Vegas strip when I ran into two people from my hometown. Las Vegas is a popular destination, I reasoned, so like the European odds, the odds were reasonable I'd see someone I knew.
Last night, I recalled those memories for a very different reason. I had attended a book discussion (though it was framed more as an interactive Q&A session) at the Jabberwocky Bookstore with Ken Jennings, the so-called brainiac and notorious JEOPARDY! winner.
Ken said his $3 million-plus in winnings was not due to memorizing the Encyclopedia Britannica but because he grasped many topics and became an expert in a variety of things. He criticized the social machine for branding people who are experts in one subject or experts in another, but there were few people who are knowledgeable about a breadth of information. Such as he, apparently. It's not just about having a remarkable memory, but about tuning the brain to understand many things.
At the bookstore, I recognized several people who I knew by name and face and who I see every now and then in various City Hall business. The statistics game didn't come to mind so much as an observation that while I lived in Somerville for about three years, I rarely saw people I knew at open-to-the-public events. Sometimes, I ran into someone I knew, but it was hardly the norm...which it is here. I like it here.
We think too small, like the frog at the bottom of the well.
It thinks the sky is only as big as the top of the well.
If it surfaced, it would have an entirely different view.
-- Mao Tse-Tung
