This is dumb, but I wanted to share a quick anecdote.
Like anyone else, I have strengths and weaknesses. Being an overly-visual person, I'm really, really good with faces, but I'm lousy with names. I can be introduced to someone five times, and I still won't remember their name the sixth time I meet them. I never forget a face, however.
This ability to identify someone visually goes to extremes. I can spot someone at a great distance just based on how they move. And – weirdly – I can identify people just by the backs of their heads, even if they are not someone I've met before (e.g. celebrities, minor or otherwise). For instance, I was walking in the New York Hilton lobby once, and from 200 feet I could tell the person walking away was George Stephanapolous. I mean……….what's wrong with me? What kind of superpower is that?
I was reminded of this just a few minutes ago. I was driving toward the Stanford campus, and I saw a couple of guys walking down the sidewalk about a block away. They were walking away from me, and there was nothing outwardly unusual about them. However, I instantly knew one of them was Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook. I told this to my young son who was with me, and as we passed the two guys by, sure enough, the shorter one was Zuck.
This, coupled with my vibrating eyeballs, surely gives me the right to wear a cape or something. Added to which………..it is so cool to live in Palo Alto if you're a tech fan-boy like me.
