This a page from blog of Scot Adams, the creator of incredible Dilbert… bloggers will enjoy this. It’s very interesting albeit many may not know the names mentioned. Hey what about bloggers in Pakistan unable to access their blog as security risk for Bush visit?!!!!. Beats me (now i hear Imran Khan is under house arrest)!!!!. Sure freedom from expression!!!!!. Bravo.
Famous People Met Famous People
Speaking of coincidences, or maybe not, there’s something I’ve noticed about famous people: They often knew other famous people before they became famous themselves.
Now some of this is surely a coincidence. And some of it is a case of the famous people helping out as mentors. But I think something else is going on too. My hypothesis is that when some idiot that you personally know hits it big, you say to yourself “How hard could that be?” It makes success seem more accessible, thus making it more likely you will try to achieve it.
If you’ve never met anyone famous, you probably think they have some superpowers that explain why they made it and you didn’t. But if you spend any time with a famous person, your illusions about their superiority fade fast. You start thinking why not me?
I might have some of these examples wrong, but from memory here are a few: Danny DeVito was roommates with Gene Hackman before they were famous. Al Gore roomed with Tommy Lee Jones in college. Robin Williams roomed with Christopher Reeves before they made it. You’ve probably seen the photos of young Bill Clinton shaking hands with John F. Kennedy during some field trip when Clinton was a boy. Billy Crystal’s baby sitter was Billie Holiday. Can you think of any others? Add them in the comments if you can.
In the cases where people knew each other before success, my hypothesis is that when the first one made it, the other gained a psychological advantage and was more likely to make it after the friend did.
Two people who had cubicles near mine at Pacific Bell became published authors after my first book came out. I think they were influenced by my success, at least indirectly. One wrote a book about his father being beheaded by the Japanese during WWII. The other worked in marketing and naturally became a murderer, then wrote about his prison experience when he got out. The moral of the story is that if you want to be inspired by me, someone probably has to die.
Since I know you’ll ask, these are those books. They're both quite interesting:
Shobun – By Mike Goodwin (The Japanese army beheading-people-for-entertainment book)
You Got Nothing Coming – By Jimmy Lerner (from marketing to murder)
Shobun is factually accurate and quite fascinating. It would make a good movie.
You Got Nothing Coming was written by a marketing guy who killed his friend. That's all you need to know about its credibility.
