Concepts in the Paradox

Every morning, I wake up to the sound of th 31 line making it’s first run. I’m not sure how I can hear it, it is all the way down the block, but my alarm goes off and shortly after I hear, “Thirty-one Bal-boa, to Main and Mission”. It is sort of a surreal sound to hear in those first 30 seconds when my brain is slowly coming back to reality.

I’m working my away from bagels and frozen waffles in the morning. I picked up a few cook books in the dollar bin at Borders and have been flipping through them. Tomorrow morning I’m going to try for scrambled eggs. The last time I tried, I ended up with eggs fused to the pan. This time I’m prepared, with (soy) milk this time. That’s what was missing!

On the morning ride to work, I’m reading Tipping Point. Quite a few people at work have been reading it, along with some of the morning commuters. It’s sort of weird to turn around and see two other people reading the same exact book.

The book is basically about memes and humans create and respond to them. One of the interesting points I’ve came across is that there are three different types of people involved in creating memes, and when I say memes I mean things like the latest fashion trend, crime waves, the spread of stds, or even the number of car wrecks in a week. Author Malcolm Gladwell calls them “Tipping Points”, but really they are memes.

The three types of people are the Salesman, the Connector, and the Mavin. The salesman is what he sounds like, he talks people into things. He let’s people know it is okay to do something, like purchase a car. Then there is the Connector, he knows everyone, though few very well. This is the guy that throws out peoples’ names left and right, and knows about this great restaurant down the street. Finally there is the character I identify with most, the Maven. This is the guy that has been down to the great restaurant down the street, knows which are the least expensive menu items for the maximum food, and is always listening for new random tidbits, and buys into the details.

It’s a fairly good book, Gladwell is a good writer and keeps a repetitive and back-referencing style so a slow Bart-and-lunchbreak-reader like myself can keep up with the topics presented.

I was on my way to return some items to CompUSA, when I noticed folks standing about Market Street with duct tape “X” symbols on them. “What could that mean?” I thought. I took a photo just in case it was a new fad.

A couple sporting duct tape

The Powell cable car turn around became very silent, perhaps eerily so. Little did I know that such markings meant that they were the next to be attacked by zombies!
Read more »