My fourth book is called “Z.E.R.O.,” although it was originally meant to be called “Socialdipity: Serendipity in a Social World and a Social Age."
The idea behind
socialdipity was really twofold:
1. We are social animals. We thrive on interactions with, and connections between, other people.
2. Social media has allowed us to fulfill this social want or need -- and in some cases, created experiences which otherwise were not possible.
I
think back to C.C. Chapman, one of the original podcasting pioneers. His podcast Accident Hash was, according to Wikipedia, “a popular award-winning music podcast that served as a showcase for podsafe music from various
genres from around the world.”
C.C. was also one of the original members of my former social media boutique, crayon. And here’s the thing. I hired C.C. without ever having met him
IRL (in real life). In fact we negotiated his package in a hovering penthouse in the sky -- in the virtual world of Second Life.
There was nothing virtual, however, about the
conversation or friendship. Except when we did enjoy a good glass (or two) of single malt scotch, on numerous occasions.
I had plenty more of these kinds of exchanges, to the point where I
thought I would write a book on the phenomenon. I registered www.socialdipity.com and was ready to write -- when life got in the way. Fast-forward to
present day -- or, one week before SXSWi, when I got a notice from GoDaddy that this URL was about to expire.
I decided not to renew it.
And then I met Jeremiah Knight.
While
still at the gate in Dallas, sitting in 20B on American Airlines flight 1505 to Austin, I heard my name on the PA instructing me to come to the front of the plane. Knowing I was well down the upgrade
totem pole. I was surprised to find out that I had in fact been upgraded for the 31-minute flight.
Enjoying my Diet Coke, I logged into Gogo Internet and saw that I had a tweet from
@atomiclogic, saying, “@jaffejuice are you on my flight from Dallas? I'd recognize that name on the PA, anywhere. #T1SXSW#SXSW.”
I
had never met Jeremiah but assumed (poor lad) that he knew of me.
Over the next 20 minutes or so, we exchanged public tweets, including “Which seat are you in?” and
“turn around.” We met at the gate, and Jeremiah offered me a ride into Austin. He also invited me to his agency’s (Team One) party at SXSWi and introduced me to his Lexus
clients. If all goes well, I’ll be joining him in L.A. in the coming months to present Z.E.R.O.
This is #socialdipity.
Our lives are filled with these moments of chance meetings,
random interactions and virtual connections that are anything but chance, random and/or virtual.
I’ve always argued that relationships forged in the age of conversation are very much
real, valuable and meaningful.
I don't believe there are any coincidences in this world. And certainly, in this age of Facebook, Twitter and in particular, FourSquare, unless you are
Larry David, who does not subscribe to the “stop and chat,” you might want to embrace the serendipity of bumping into all old friend, colleague or business associate who t happens to be at
the same airport in the same city at the same time as you.
I have since renewed www.socialdipity.com, and who knows, the inspiration for my fifth book
might be @atomiclogic. If so, expect to be in the acknowledgments!
Do you have stories of #socialdipity? If so, send them to me. If the book ever gets written, you might see them in the
physical, digital and/or virtual pages.
Until we tweet again…