Another famous one is a man picks up a ringing pay phone, and it’s a lady trying to get hold of him but who had dialled his payroll number by mistake. It just so happened that his payroll number was the same as that of the pay phone he was walking past. Then again, it can’t be that good an example of coincidence if David Spiegelhalter has 10 other examples of it happening! (see his website)
Luck = chance taken personally
We may underestimate the likelihood of chance meetings due to hidden networks.
Do you have any fan theories?
Flintstones: Is set in a post-apocalyptic future, not the past. Hence they have modern inventions but have to use stone age tools. Extension: The Jetsons takes place in the same universe, but they represent those who managed to leave planet earth and take their technologies with them.
Toy Story: Andy’s mum is Jessie’s original owner (see here)
Star Wars: Jar Jar Binks was a Sith lord who practices Zui quan, but the storyline wasn’t pursued because he was such an unpopular character (see here)
James Bond: ‘James Bond’ is a code name, just like 007. (The fact that Sean Connery was approached to play the role of Kincade in Skyfall lends weight to this).
Inception: Cobb’s ring is his totem and the spinning top is his wife’s.
Bonus: Costa Coffee is named after the 5 alternative types of milk that they offer. Coconut, oat, soy and almond.
Joscha Bach argues that the main difference between a conspiracy theory and a consensus narrative is the latter tries to unify society, but the former tries to splinter it. Yet both of them “gives meaning to the world by connecting significant dots with confabulation and motivated reasoning, making truth and fiction indistinguishable”. Perhaps he’s right that the internet is making it harder to debunk conspiracy theories.
Note that some events can cease to be a conspiracy theory – as Mick Herron said, “It’s not a theory once it’s proved. After that, it’s just a conspiracy” (Slow Horses, p.147)
“Instead of following an open, clearly understandable line of behaviour, cunning is calculating how other people will react to certain forms of behaviour which are hiding the end game”… “this ability to assess things rapidly and then to act in a way that is not immediately readable/ understandable by the people around us in order to get an advantage that some people will doubtless feel is an unfair advantage” (Tim Parkes, translator of Machiavelli who, incidentally, was always truthful towards his wife)
Tell that story, the time you did the wrong thing because you were scared (link)
When were you at your happiest?
Tell me about the time you met the right person at the wrong time. (It doesn’t need to be romantic).
Do you have a favourite joke?
Imagine your funeral, and your family and friends have had a few drinks and are thinking of you. They want to make an idiosyncratic gesture to your memory. What would they do? What should they do?
