[Rain Man]

Honestly, I'm amazed that so many of you recognize people. I wouldn't recognize half the people on this list, or at least I wouldn't recognize them with enough confidence to be sure it's them.

I wonder how famous you have to be before being recognized ceases to be a cool thing for you and starts being an annoyance. If 50 percent of people on the street recognize you, I'm sure it's an annoyance. Maybe 10 percent is still above the threshold. Is 5 percent? Imagine that you're walking down the street and 1 in 20 people recognizes you as a "celebrity". Would that get old after a while?

Granted, everyone who recognizes you won't ask for a photo or autograph, or even say hi. So let's assume that 25 percent will approach you, and 75 percent will elbow the person next to them and smile and nod in your direction.

If we go with that assumption, and assume that 4 percent of people recognize you (just to keep the math easy), then 1 person out of every 100 that you encounter will say hello or ask you for something, and 3 others will giggle and point.

Actually, I could see that being annoying. You'll have one person in every restaurant coming up to you.

So maybe an ideal level of fame is really low, where maybe 1 in 100 people recognize you. That means that you can probably walk down the street unbothered, and maybe an occasional passerby will see you. Most restaurant visits will be anonymous, and you'll probably get three or four people approaching you at the mall. That's enough to be flattering, but probably not enough to be annoying.

What do you think?