Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Not sure why I'm telling this tale Maybe to brag that you've hung out with him? That's not meant to be snarky. It's the same explanation for why people want the autograph of someone famous - to try to convince other people they know high status, powerful people, and by association they are one themselves. We are often unaware of why we do what we do... or we tell people one reason and keep the real reason to oursel…
If I wanted to brag I'd tell you who I am and who I actually know, rather than an anecdote about a passing encounter! Actually thought twice about posting for this precise reason.
Maybe you would, maybe you wouldn't.
Experiments in psychology and neuroscience show how little we know ourselves; how we retrospectively justify our decisions to ourselves and others, and how we are experts in self deception. So it's entirely possible that some part of you was driven by the primitive urge to publicly align yourself with high status people, but finding that disagreeable, you then seemlessly deceived yourself with a different purpose, because of course you aren't so egotistical.
Now I'm not saying that that is what happened, and no one can ever know. I am saying it is a pattern of human behaviour.
> Actually thought twice about posting for this precise reason.
That's kind of strange isn't it, when you think about it? I assume you mean that you thought twice about posting - in case people you'll never meet might think you were bragging - instead of thinking about posting your name? That doesn't really seem to make any sense to me. I mean, why should you care what people you don't know, and in all likelihood will never meet, think about you? From a logical stance, it doesn't make any sense. But then we aren't driven by our logical brains. It's been really fascinating for me to learn about this and then to see the walls of my logical reality crumble and realise how much emotion dictates my life and how little we actually know ourselves.
Don't make the mistake that people are a) logical, or b) that you really know yourself (unless you're superhumanly gifted) and your reasons for doing what you do.
Of course I don't expect you to like this post either, since this challenges our assumptions about ourselves at the most fundamental of levels :-)...