In Wikipedia we trust.
If so, that means we’re placing most of our trust in the 1,400 people (approximately 2% of those who write/edit the pages) who have made 73.4% of the edits. That’s a lot of trust in a few people. Still, in these 1,400 I trust. They’ve helped me through many a question and taught me quite a few random facts along the way.
One not so random fact, though, is that Technotown has a population of almost 3.5 million people. They just missed out on one thing: even as the second most populous city in Europe, Berlin is a village.
Take what happened on Saturday: I, late for my 6pm appointment with my flatmates to help sublet one of our rooms for a month, miss what is weirdly-yet-rightly called “casting” by a few minutes. Thankfully, Wikipedia isn’t the only thing I trust in. I took my flatmates’ word and agreed to have François move in. Quiet and shy, he was pleased when I called him: c’est une bonne nouvelle, he said. Right before I was off to meet some friends, though, he rings back and bails on us. Bummer.
Roll the tape an hour forward and my friend is telling me a guy just left their place and is gonna take over his room while he’s in Jamaica. Dee described him as “quiet and shy”. Was he French?, I asked half-jokingly. “Yeah, how’d you know?” Wow, c‘est une bonne nouvelle. In such a big city, what are the chances? Well, as I’ve discovered, they’re high. Sure, Technotown boasts a lot of minimal - no discussion. Still, it’s also more of a town than you’d think. (Even François and I, it turns out, have friends in common.)
If you expect the same thing out of a city with 3.5m people, than we agree this is strange. The thing is though, it’s not. Like Sunday clubbing, bumping into people is a staple here. Whether it’s a colleague, friend, or a co-passenger on a plane back from Belgium, it’s likely you’ll probably see them again.
What make this so strange is the space involved in all these spontaneous run-ins. Berlin is a spacious place: it has about 1/4 the population density of London. I mainly hang in only 5 areas: X, N, P, M, F - and that’s already relatively adventurous. Though my brother is the numerically literate one, even I know that’s a lot of people (about 800,000 in those areas) spread over a lot of concrete. Amazing.
Just another pointless observation? Probably. Still, I’m trying to take something out of it. Since there’s such a high probability of meeting people, in short, don’t treat people like shit because you never know when you’ll see someone again (chances are here, you will). Maybe that explains why I find people here to be so open and friendly. They know this and don’t need to run to Wikiville to figure it out. Here’s to hoping other cities catch on too.
foto: thx.
