What Do You Have in Common

CPI is a term coined by Scott Ginsberg.  It stands for common point of interest.

I am always amazed at what that is with the people I meet.

For example:

In the past year or so, I 've had a passing "coffee shop" acquaintance with a gentleman I will call Sam.  Sam and I have exchanged pleasantries and a few comments about his job.

A couple days ago, I was in said coffee shop killing a little time till a 5:30 meeting.  The day had been long, so at 5 PM I treated myself to the book that I had been trying to read for about a week.  Now, I will read just about anything as long as it is interesting.  The title of this book is, "The Madman and the Professor" and it is the story of how a doctor who was committed to an asylum in England during the mid 1850's, contributed a huge amount of effort to the decades long creation of the Oxford English Dictionary (OED).  OK, so not exactly soap opera stuff and sometimes it was not easy reading, but still I was plugging along.

Sam noticed that I was reading and asked me about it.  Now not many folks would even find this worthy of seconds of their time and most wouldn't know of the momentous task of the OED. So I figured I'd get that, "Oh" comment and a bored look.  But Sam knew all this and shared more.  He loves reading stuff that others pass by and has read some complicated books twice to see if he can understand them better the second time.

While I think Sam is further along the scale in his reading tastes, I feel like we connected on a whole different level that day.

What is your most interesting CPI story or event?