The fortune teller

Had a rather weird encounter with a stranger last week. Got approached by an Indian guy on the street asking me for directions to a random place in Singapore. It was far away so I gave him directions to the nearest public transport, but he insisted he wanted to walk there! So with my amazing directing skills, I gave him a very comprehensive idea of how to walk down to that place using the compass as a reference! (almost 2 KMs away).

After my long rant (which I could figure he was least interested!) he suddenly changed his topic. He said by talking to me he knew that I was unhappy at work. He said that I deserved more in life than what I had got and I was very compassionate etc. Then he gave a few other pearls of wisdom about me and then said that he could “help” me make my life better if I went for his paid consultation. He my dear friends, turned out to be a fortune teller.

Now, as far as his skills are concerned, he might be extremely good at his profession, or he could be very good at statistics. I mean, a guy my age, size and nationality helping a complete random stranger on the street would have certain set of characteristics that any person can easily predict, without necessarily knowing anything about me. And then there are some general human tendencies like – everyone thinks they are paid less than they deserve or that their job is tough and not that easily replaceable etc.

Anyway, what he failed miserably at predicting was my general fear of horoscopes. So as far as identifying target customers was concerned, he could totally not predict. I politely said no, and without giving any more directions walked away from him! So much for helping strangers on the road.