This connection is not revealing or gobsmacking. It’s arguably not even a coincidence, and perhaps not a significant one if it is. But it shows something about the imposed interconnectivity of living a public life: So often, the formative experiences of historically notable people seem to glancingly intersect with the lives of other notable people, almost like there’s a magnetic attraction among all individuals destined for greatness. Yet the more likely explanation is that these haphazard collisions spur both parties to pursue goals that eventually make their early interactions
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