Addressing clients with the right data often means the difference between making a profit and not making a profit. Working with data quality experts has made me ever more consious of the value personal data represents for people. In this respect names are especially intriguing to me, as owners appear to identify with their name a lot. So I decided to do a little research and determine if people really are what their name tells you. Can nomen indeed become omen?
Your parents probably gave a lot of thought to the name they once gave you, and as it turns out they were right to do so! Research tells us a name can do wonders for its owner, as well as a lot of damage for that matter. Let’s have a look at some remarkable results.
Peter for President!
Recent studies show that in the US a student called Fred is more likely to fail his exam than a student who just happened to be named Andrew: people tend to indentify with their name and, in general, have a positive feeling about letters that correspond with their initials. Consequently Fred is far more likely to settle for a meager F, while Andrew will have an extra motive to strive for an A. Continue reading ‘Has your name ever hurt you? – when nomen becomes omen’
A week ago, the new search engine WolframAlpha has been launched. At first it was being compared to the search engine we all know, namely Google. It took bloggers, news editors and the rest of the world some time to understand that this is no search engine at all. WolframAlpha wants to become the Computational Knowledge Engine we all will be using. It is more like the Encarta application we older guys used in times when viewing a movie in poststamp-format used to be fun.