A friend of mine told me they bumped into a famous singer. It got me thinking that those people probably aren’t famous because they are exceptionally better at singing than other singers compared to say a woodworker who is exceptionally better than other woodworkers. They’re famous because music is famous and the woodworker isn’t because woodworking isn’t famous. It has nothing to do with their relative skill in their profession. That thought actually made me quite happy with the thought that I could’ve met many people at the apex of their skill and I would just never know.
It doesn’t always have to be relative. I could interact with the world champion self-built rc airplane racer. Or the #1 ranked speed runner for a niche video game. Or the person who holds the (unreported) world record for some niche skill like throwing paper wads into a trash can without missing.