Yale hat at the store

Early in the development of my practice, I would sometimes strategically use branded stuff like a Yale baseball cap to generate random conversations at the store. Honestly you never know who might walk up to you and start off the typical conversation: "What residential college were you in?"

The other day I went to Harris Teeter wearing my 25th reunion hat and, frankly, thought I might be open to playing the game. And, as if according to script, an older guy (i.e. older than me) says to me at the self-checkout: "Nice hat!" with that twinkle in his eye. "Thanks," I said, in actuality feeling no energy for the game.

I think I am just pretty much tapped out in terms of network size, limited by the Dunbar number. It's more than hard enough to keep track of the people I already know and their kids. My book of business is mature, I can hardly maintain my existing pipeline. In principle I am open to meeting new people and am mindful that it's typical of people as they age to trim down their networks, though I see the downside to that. In general, I won't lose sleep if I never exchange business cards with anyone again.