There seem to be two sources of confusion about words or phrases. First, people may assume that because they are using the same word, they agree, when in fact each interprets the word differently. In a comical incident, a woman asks the pharmacist for a refill of her prescription for "the pill." "Please hurry," she adds, "I've got someone waiting in the car."

Actually, Pool (1973 p. 17) argues, Milgram's small world findings are not so surprising when one examines the probabilities invloved. Pool finds that the average individual has from 500 to 2,000 close aquaintances (this is the size of the individual's total "personal communication network"). If each individual averages about 1,000 persons, then one's friends' friends would number about 1,000,000 if there were not much overlap (there is of course, due to interlocking personal networks). A list of friends friends would number 1 billion, a staggering number.