I think that there are probably a lot more of your friends who know other friends of yours, than you realize. Consider your work and say one avocation of yours. I can easily pick from work and two avocations, but if we start with just one, it is a bit simpler to explain.
At work I am part of a team of about 20 people, some in the city I work in, some in a couple of others. I also work with people from other teams on a shift overlap related basis, So if I simply include the people in the city I work in, I am part of a team of about 30 people that I work amoung with some regularity.
One of my avocations is helping to run a science fiction convention. This last year the convention attracted some 2500 people. Of those some 250 were part of the dedicated volunteer team helping to keep things moving. Of that I work directly with some 40, and somewhat less directly with another 40, or about 80 total.
So that is something on the close order of 110 people who I can state overlap directly with me. None of the people I work with are a member of the set of people I work the convention with. I have absolutely no doubt however that there are people in each of the groups who know people in the other groups. Sure there are a lot of people in each group who do not know each other. But that’s not at all difficult to find in most cases.
I am not counting third level aquaintences at this point. One of the people I work with regularly at the convention is married to a stewardess. Since I work with people who have a need to fly from time to time, it is amost certain that she has met one or more of the people I work with. Likewise I have a friend that I see ocasionally at work, but don’t work directly with, who has been involved with running the convention in the past, so obviously he knows quite a few of those people as well.
Why is it that we tend to know people that may completely unbeknownst to us know each other? I think it has a lot to do with what kind of people we are. Whether you work in Marketing, and socialize in a church that has no-one from your company in it, or you work as a publisher and spend your free time at bar’s or even dances, there is some aspect of your work life that tends to be a part of your avocations. In my case I fully acknoledge that I am a geek. Some may say Nerd, and I don’t have any need to argue with them.
In any case both what I do for work, and being part of running a science fiction convention, tend to involve interacting with other geeks. That being said, both sets of ‘friends’ are part of a larger set, geeks. You can undoubtedly find similar set overlaps between the people you consider friends at work, and friends at play.
It can also be fun to find out who amoung the various sets of people you know, do know each other. Some of those relationships may be entirely unexpected.
Enjoy.
