AskMe Duplicity May 22, 2012 7:46 PM   Subscribe

Hey, I just saw that AskMe... oh wait, it was a different cat problem...

Every so often I notice two posts that are very similar, right after the other. My example is books, but I seem to remember this happening with cats, sex, jobs, you name it.
I'm wondering, though I don't know how answerable this is, if it's usually someone seeing Post #1 and remembering a related question that turns into Post #2, or if it's just coincidental.
posted by DoubleLune to MetaFilter-Related at 7:46 PM (17 comments total)

Book questions are so common that basic probability comes into play.
posted by Ardiril at 7:51 PM on May 22, 2012


I'm not sure how you'd know for sure unless each time it happened the second asker was quizzed as to why, but I think both coincidence and seeing a related question occur.
posted by vegartanipla at 7:52 PM on May 22, 2012


In this case that's exactly what happened.
posted by Gygesringtone at 7:52 PM on May 22, 2012


This happens all the time and has even been asked here a couple of times.
posted by cjorgensen at 7:53 PM on May 22, 2012


OMG I just went into Recent Activity and saw cjorgensen's comment was "Fresh." Blew my mind.
posted by vegartanipla at 7:56 PM on May 22, 2012


has even been asked here a couple of times

I figured, but I also figured after an hour of searching I might as well just ask.
posted by DoubleLune at 7:56 PM on May 22, 2012


Queue Theory - a branch of the study of probability that examines why things happen in clusters, like when you walk in there's no-one at the registers, and when you're ready to check out, there's a line three deep at every one, or when you see multiple cat boner fart book identification questions in AskMe.
posted by Slap*Happy at 8:05 PM on May 22, 2012


Right now there are two back to back book questions.
posted by cjorgensen at 8:07 PM on May 22, 2012


I imagine, DoubleLune, if you haven't already, you'll be hearing about the Baader-Meinhof phenomenon soon. And then again. And again.
posted by Edogy at 8:45 PM on May 22, 2012 [2 favorites]


You know, I was just reading a book about Baader-Meinhof to my cat the other day!
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 8:57 PM on May 22, 2012 [3 favorites]


There's a very good chance, on any given book question, that the answer is All Summer in a Day.
posted by Ghidorah at 9:05 PM on May 22, 2012


My last AskMe question was inspired by a recent post on the same topic. So it does happen that way at least some of the time.
posted by MadamM at 9:07 PM on May 22, 2012


I notice this ALL THE TIME. Glad I'm not the only one!

stavrosthewonderchicken: "You know, I was just reading a book about Baader-Meinhof to my cat the other day!"

:D I love you Stavros!
posted by IndigoRain at 11:09 PM on May 22, 2012


"OMG I just went into Recent Activity and saw cjorgensen's comment was "Fresh." Blew my mind."

But were there dice in the mirror?
posted by Eideteker at 6:16 AM on May 23, 2012 [2 favorites]


The real elephant in the room here is Dunning-Baader-Meinhof-Kruger syndrome, in which a person is so insufficiently capable of noticing how much more often they're noticing something they recently became aware of that they think everything is in fact normal.
posted by cortex (staff) at 8:43 AM on May 23, 2012 [5 favorites]


The real elephant in the room here is Dunning-Baader-Meinhof-Kruger syndrome, in which a person is so insufficiently capable of noticing how much more often they're noticing something they recently became aware of that they think everything is in fact normal.

Yes, but the 400 pound gorilla in the room is the Pink-Elephant-Dunning-Baader-Meinhof-Kruger syndrome, in which a person is so drunk that they're unable to tell that they're so insufficiently capable of noticing how much more often they're noticing something they recently became aware of that they think everything is in fact normal.
posted by Gygesringtone at 11:40 AM on May 23, 2012 [1 favorite]


This all reminds me of the Dunning-Baader-Meinhof-Kruger-Kruder-Dorfmeister syndrome, in which a person is so insufficiently capable of noticing how much more often they're noticing something they recently became aware of because they've smoked way too much pot while listening to some really smooth late-90's electro-lounge mixes.
posted by slogger at 12:31 PM on May 23, 2012 [3 favorites]


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