The Tipping Point

Yesterday, I went to a pub with my friends after we finished the Immersion Program. As we were leaving the pub, this guy with curly gray/brown hair walked past me carrying a messenger bag. He looked like a professor. I recognized his face. I turned around and said, "Richard?" It was Richard Kaye, a guy who used to teach English at Davidson. I had never taken one of his classes (he started in 1997, and I graduated in 1998), nor had I spoken more then 5 words to him in the three years we were both there. But I remembered his face and his name, and decided to say something. It's weird how my brain works. We spent a minute or two saying what we were doing and who he keeps in touch with in NYC (where he's now based) and how I lived with Vic and visit Alexis (friends of mine who did have him as a prof who now live in NYC) every time I'm in the city.

It made me think of The Tipping Point, by Malcolm Gladwell. He talks about how there are three types of people who are able to create social epidemics: Connectors, Mavens, and Salespeople. I'm not sure that I would be able to create a social epidemic, but I definitely have some of those Connector elements in me.