In the last 24 hours I have been the victim of several interesting coincidences.
1. Yesterday morning while driving to work, an eighteen wheeler was backing into a parking lot, blocking most of 1st Ave. I had never seen this happen before on 1st Ave, at any time of day. I have been taking this route to work for two years.
A few blocks to the north, I encountered another eighteen wheeler doing the exact same thing into a different parking lot.
2. Yesterday I ate lunch at the Showbox SODO with my coworkers. The song Music Is My Hot Hot Sex by CSS was played over the speakers. I love this song, but I had no idea that anyone else on Earth did. I can never really tell if a band is famous because I don’t consume much media. I was very surprised to hear it.
Last night I went to happy hour at The Elysian with Jen S. and her sister Kate. Again I heard the song Music Is My Hot Hot Sex by CSS. When I commented on it to Jen, she told me that it was a popular song that they played on the radio. I had no idea. Apparently there’s also a video.
3. This morning, while thinking of writing this post, I looked out the window overlooking Starbucks and saw a sky blue eighteen wheeler parked on the street. At the same moment, a woman wearing a jacket the exact same color walked into Starbucks from the opposite direction. This is amazing because not only was I thinking about coincidences, but there was an eighteen wheeler involved, and I’m pretty sure that music was this woman’s hot hot sex.
I like thinking about the fact that this is just how probability and the human brain work. I’m sure I encounter coincidences like this all the time, but I don’t really notice them. Now my mind is on the lookout for them. At the same time, random events do have a tendency to clump together, and this is a great example of that. There was an episode of Numb3rs about this. I can’t find the clip of Charlie explaining it to his class, but here is a summary of the logic used in that episode.