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by phpnode 3129 days ago
Is this repeatable though? It seems like this could be explained by a combination of the Frequency Illusion / Baader-Meinhof Phenomenon[0] and the Birthday Problem[1].

That is - it is possible that the reason you were discussing the topic is the same reason that advertisers were targeting that particular phrase at that time. The Frequency Illusion could explain why you noticed that particular ad and why you were surprised. Also you presumably discuss topics all the time that you don't see ads for, but the probability of seeing an ad for any of those topics is quite high (the birthday problem).

[0] https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/153166/what-is-t...

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birthday_problem