How the Joshua Tree applies to Trendy Trendsetters

(Actual conversation just now)
2: I love Moof! She sent me a sock once. Here.
3: You carry around a sock with you?
2: Look!
1: You carry that around with you?
… twenty minutes later…
3: I can’t believe you pulled out a sock right now.

In the Non-Designer’s Design Book (which you should buy), Robin Williams talks about what she calls the Joshua tree principle. The story goes that she received a tree-naming book for Christmas once and noticed the distinctive looking Joshua tree on one of the pages. Confident she’d never seen the tree before, she went outside and was shocked to find Joshua trees everywhere. She’d never noticed them when she couldn’t identify them, but once she could, she noticed them everywhere.

I have a friend Kyle who thinks he finds new trends and every one just copies them. He once said to me,

when I first bought white glasses, nobody had them, now it’s become all trendy. I had a beanie with a bill on it when nobody thought they were cool, now they’re everywhere. And when I first wore my belt on the side, everyone made fun of me, now I see all these little wannabes wearing their belts on the sides and it pisses me off!

I mention these two things because I think there’s a direct correlation here. I think my friend Kyle only noticed other people stealing his (lame) expressions of personality because he’d become aware of them. The number of people wearing beanies didn’t change after he bought one, he just began noticing them more. Either that or it’s a conspiracy and, quite frankly, even I have trouble paying attention to him.

(Actual conversation just now) 2: I love Moof! She sent me a sock once. Here. 3: You carry around a sock with you? 2: Look! 1: You carry that around with you? … twenty minutes later… 3: I can’t believe you pulled out a sock right now. In the Non-Designer’s Design Book (which you should…