Crazy Coincidences

[theprestige]

Also crazy, I just saw someone talk about this yesterday

This is not crazy at all. It's totally normal for mentions of a popular new thing to go up after it first comes out, until you start seeing it everywhere.

You really need to get over the idea that coincidences are crazy.

Or else you need to come up with a good explanation for what's really going on here.

 

[dann]

Last night I started bingeing The Queen's Gambit. Right away in the first episode, the premise of the story reminded me of "Dogfight", a short story by William Gibson. Then, in the second episode, the characters stay in the Gibson Hotel, and one of them drinks a Gibson martini. The really insane part is that I am a huge William Gibson fan. What are the odds?

Rolfe, lionking and I are in on this one, too. (Only two of us are fans, though. Rolfe not at all.)

So yesterday I was watching the Office, as I do most days, and it was an episode where Dwight was wearing a Cornell Sweatshirt as he wanted to apply there. Later when i went to the store, I saw a kid with a Cornell Sweatshirt on. Then, the same day, I was watching another episode where Michael quits, and as he was telling the story I saw a meme on my phone from the Wolf of Wall Street where he says: "I'm not ******* leaving", which was pretty much what happened in the office episode. Then this morning I see an episode of Friends where Rachel quits. I've been noticing a lot of these coincidences lately too

I would have found your story unusual if Michael and Rachel were wearing Cornell sweatshirts!

Recommended reading:
Synchronicity (The Skeptic's Dictionary)
Apophenia (The Skeptic's Dictionary)
Resources on coincidences/synchronicity/numerology (Skeptic.com)
Why We Should Not Be Impressed by Eerie Coincidences (PsychologyToday, Oct. 27, 2018)

 

[DebunkThisPls]

Another crazy thing, it's kinda making me wonder. Last year around Christmas my grandfather and great grandmother died, both unrelated. That isn't strange they were both doing poorly but today we got the news that My Great Uncle died. We usually see him around Thanksgiving but the last couple years he hasn't been around, he moved into a retirement home, but he was doing pretty well as of last week. So today I was thinking about Thanksgiving and wondered if he was still alive, just because I'm only 14 and it's been so long since ive seen him it crossed my mind for a second. Just seems so crazy he'd die the day I said that, maybe 2 hours later

 

[Myriad]

DebunkThis, what it sounds like to me is that you're experiencing more coincidences because for some reason you're paying more attention to what's happening around you. Most people can watch TV all day and never notice that many different episodes of many different shows involve people leaving or quitting or threatening to do so or refusing to do so, because it's a common plot element and viewers aren't paying attention much anyhow. Many people spend most of their lives in a mental state barely more than an inattentive stupor. But if you start actually paying attention for some reason, things like that can suddenly stand out.

The experience of noticing more coincidences can happen when you take up activities and practices that encourage you to pay attention. Such as, possibly, the Randonauticing you're discussing on a different thread. Or certain kinds of meditation. Or even, participating in an online discussion thread about coincidences.

Does this ring any bells? Is there anything new or changed in your life recently that might have helped kick off being more alert to the world?

 

[DebunkThisPls]

That probably is it. But some of tbe stuff seems like something I would notice even if i wasn't in this state of mind. Like my Great Uncle dying today when I talked to one of my friends about him, without knowing he had any risk of dying today. Or how I watched a show today that had an episode where the main character quit because she wasn't getting a raise, they hired a temp, and the end of the episode had a wedding. I had just watched the Office episode where they get married, the one where they couldn't give out raises, a quitting one, and one about a Temp. I also saw an add for a grill the exact second my mom mentioned grilling out, then 2 minutes later a game I was playing featured a grill. And then finally the craziest, is that I saw a post about someone whos nickname was Rodney RoseBrook. Then the show mentioned above had a fake celebrity named Ricky Roundtree. Also crazy that Ricky makes more sense with RoseBrook, and Rodney sounds like Roundtree. Oh yeah I was also playing NBA 2k20 yesterday and decided to try and say Markelle Fultzs career. Then today I read an article about draft busts who still had shots to be great, featured by Fultz. It's not strange to get articles about draft busts, but I've never seen one about those who can save their careers, and it's crazy to happen when it did

 

[arthwollipot]

One good way of thinking about coincidences is to think about the range of different things that you might recognise as a coincidence.

Today you watched a show that mentioned your favourite author's name several times. You might have watched a show that mentioned a different author, whom you also admire but might not call your favourite. Your favourite author's name might have been mentioned in a blog post. The TV show may have mentioned your favourite film director's name. The TV show might have mentioned the name of a famous public figure that you had recently been thinking about.

All of these hypothetical circumstances would have made you say "hey, that's a weird coincidence". The range of different circumstances that you might consider to be a weird coincidence is vastly larger than most people realise.

 

[Jim_MDP]

That is crazy. I had never even heard of this show until today when you mentioned it and now I just saw 2 reviews for it online

Or you just NOTICED two items about it.
Any chance you had Googled the show prior to noticing the articles? That'll influence what you see in a news or ad feed.

 

[Jim_MDP]

Another crazy thing, it's kinda making me wonder. Last year around Christmas my grandfather and great grandmother died, both unrelated. That isn't strange they were both doing poorly but today we got the news that My Great Uncle died. We usually see him around Thanksgiving but the last couple years he hasn't been around, he moved into a retirement home, but he was doing pretty well as of last week. So today I was thinking about Thanksgiving and wondered if he was still alive, just because I'm only 14 and it's been so long since ive seen him it crossed my mind for a second. Just seems so crazy he'd die the day I said that, maybe 2 hours later

And how many days over the past couple years had you thought briefly of him... and he, obviously, hadn't died?
You're counting/noticing the "hits" and ignoring the "misses".
This is all too human. You just need to learn to recognize the habit, like all of us.

 

[arthwollipot]

Or you just NOTICED two items about it.
Any chance you had Googled the show prior to noticing the articles? That'll influence what you see in a news or ad feed.

One thing that I wish more people knew - Google actively tailors your search results according to about 40 separate factors - more (many more) if you're actually logged on. It takes into account what browser you're using, which websites you've visited, what you've previously searched for, your physical location, the time at which you perform your search, which advertisements you've clicked on recently. Many other things. It's all "proprietary information" so Google declines to tell us exactly how their search tailoring algorithm works, but the upshot is that if two people search for the same thing in Google, they would get different results.

 

[Jim_MDP]

One thing that I wish more people knew - Google actively tailors your search results according to about 40 separate factors - more (many more) if you're actually logged on. It takes into account what browser you're using, which websites you've visited, what you've previously searched for, your physical location, the time at which you perform your search, which advertisements you've clicked on recently. Many other things. It's all "proprietary information" so Google declines to tell us exactly how their search tailoring algorithm works, but the upshot is that if two people search for the same thing in Google, they would get different results.

Yup.

 

[theprestige]

Another crazy thing, it's kinda making me wonder. Last year around Christmas my grandfather and great grandmother died, both unrelated. That isn't strange they were both doing poorly but today we got the news that My Great Uncle died. We usually see him around Thanksgiving but the last couple years he hasn't been around, he moved into a retirement home, but he was doing pretty well as of last week. So today I was thinking about Thanksgiving and wondered if he was still alive, just because I'm only 14 and it's been so long since ive seen him it crossed my mind for a second. Just seems so crazy he'd die the day I said that, maybe 2 hours later

What is it making you wonder?
You keep implying that coincidence is not a good explanation for what you're noticing, but you keep refusing to actually discuss those implications.

Do you think it might not be a coincidence?

 

[dann]

Like my Great Uncle dying today when I talked to one of my friends about him, without knowing he had any risk of dying today.

he moved into a retirement home

You do know that people in retirement homes are much more likely to die than the average person, don't you? Especially this year ...

 

[theprestige]

You do know that people in retirement homes are much more likely to die than the average person, don't you? Especially this year ...

Call me morbid and cynical, but I figure that once you graduate from "Uncle" to "Great-Uncle", you're pretty much on the "could pop off at any time" list. I've got a few family members on that list myself. They cross my mind periodically, probably at least weekly. One of these days, one of them is going to go just after I thought about them.

 

[Wudang]

The one I recall best was deciding to call my old instructor who'd left the area but still came back for seminars occasionally. I rang him but the phone didn't ring, instead I heard him mutter "What's wrong with this phone?"
I said "<name>?"
"Bloody hell I just picked up the phone to call you"
We chatted a bit about the odds. As I recall we worked out a few things about ( x time, maybe a month to the day or something) since his last visit, a couple of other things that probably jogged our memories. But the exact timing of him picking up the phone to call me before it could ring was still quite the coincidence.

 

[arthwollipot]

Call me morbid and cynical, but I figure that once you graduate from "Uncle" to "Great-Uncle", you're pretty much on the "could pop off at any time" list. I've got a few family members on that list myself. They cross my mind periodically, probably at least weekly. One of these days, one of them is going to go just after I thought about them.

I'm on that list!

 

[DebunkThisPls]

Ok so get this. Today, Diego Mardana died. I just watched the Office episode maybe 2 days ago where they mentioned both him and Pele. I get an alert saying Mardana died and then later see Pele spoke about him. But what's really crazy is that The Cowboys Strength and conditioning Coach died today too. He died around 5 EST at just now, 5 and a half hours later i see a tweet from someone who paid their respects. Right as I see that my dad walks in telling me he had died. The tweet was from 5 hours earlier and i know for a fact it's someone my dad doesnt follow. Now of course he heard about the death but it's so crazy to me he said it right as i opened the tab

 

[DebunkThisPls]

My parents also discovered today that the phone bill was already paid when they went to pay it. It was automatic pay, which they don't use. They think they set it up by mistake last month, but I've read about it, it seems hard to accidently set up, would love theories

 

[Matthew Ellard]

My parents also discovered today that the phone bill was already paid when they went to pay it. It was automatic pay, which they don't use. They think they set it up by mistake last month, but I've read about it, it seems hard to accidently set up, would love theories

Either your parents set it up or they didn't. This is a matter about gathering the facts from the phone company and not guessing on a forum.

 

[DebunkThisPls]

Ive told you it's clearly set up, my question is how they might've accidently set it up

 

[Thermal]

My parents also discovered today that the phone bill was already paid when they went to pay it. It was automatic pay, which they don't use. They think they set it up by mistake last month, but I've read about it, it seems hard to accidently set up, would love theories

They must have a reason to think they accidentally set up auto pay. As in, they knew they were setting up something and maybe the word 'autopay' kept popping up in there. Otherwise, they would have no reason to assume they accidentally set anything up.

Unless they were role-playing and the phone was an explosive device that one had to disable by hacking the code. That usually means hasty random keystrokes. Man, you should see the **** I ordered from Amazon that way.

Prob some more information about why your parents thought that and what they actually did would help