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Comment by drevil-v2 | Hacker News Reader

I was shown a Autocad banner ad in a free-to-play game an hour after I got an email with a link to Youtube video about using autocad to design a working model-size airplane.

Note I hadn't clicked the link yet, simply read the small paragraph my friend wrote along with the YT link "hey check this guy out he is using autocad for blah blah".

That was the day I stopped using Gmail.

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Doesn't it seem more likely that you - a person who is interested enough in Autocad that people email you videos about it - searched for something related to Autocad?

That is what made it so strange and surreal; I have never before or since searched for anything related to Autocad.

Me and my friend have an interest in model aircrafts and drones and often spoke in person about building a new drone/airplane from scratch as fun project and this was the first time that Autocad was even mentioned in our discussion. Another data point we are both old school and would talk about this over beers in the pub rather than through messaging apps.

The only thing linking me to Autocad was that single email I got in Gmail.

Did your friend search for Autocad, and are you linked by any social networks? I'm suggesting your experience may be related to other potential avenues of data convergence, much as it may have appeared on the surface exposed to your awareness to have been directly sourced from this email.

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