You’ve all played Flappy Bird by now, right?

Even any number of the eighty bajzillion clones out there can give you a similarly frustrating experience, so grab one and give it a try.

I’m serious.

Why?  Here’s the thing,  The Flappy Bird phenomenon was never about  the game itself.  It was/is an unbelievably difficult game to master.  7/10 times you die.  In fact, the top scores for this game, where you try to fly a gravitationally-challenged bird through a series of obstacles are probably in the mid-50’s.

Flappy Bird’s popularity is about a point of commonality between two people.

Have you ever put a group of people together from wildly different professions?  It’s hard to get the conversations rolling, right?  You have to chat and question and eventually find something people have in common.  Getting your *ss kicked by Flappy Bird, that’s a point from which you can start a conversation with almost anybody.  Even if you haven’t played it, you’ve heard of it, and if you have it on your device of choice, you are usually willing to drag somebody new into the Flappy Bird fold.

It’s a silly little game, but you know, we *all* suck at Flappy Bird.  And that gives us something to talk about.