Said Einstein.
No it was Shakespeare I think but then again what does it matter. I guess a lot since I discovered having a short name is always a plus - especially if you tangle with any call center support (you need that to discover how to turn on that bluetooth you just got - not from rinsing with mouthwash but to wirelessly yak with humanity).
Otherwise my friends with certain highly prized first and last names hailing from the south of the Indian peninsula have to budget 15 minutes to establish their identity using the spelling of their names...those converstaions go something like -
Mie name is Ravichandrashekhar Venkatachari Bhatiprollu - R as in Robert, A as in Apple ....you can simply imagine that the person on the other end has asked for a bathroom break after the thrid occurence of the A in the first name and its not even close to being done. Then middle and then last name...is this guy or gal in Phillipines going to last that long? After which comes the whole argument about how the telephone bill has some wrongly billed minutes when the connection did not even go through and uncle Arvind was upset I had hung up on him.
Having wished the curse of customer service through telephones on ourselves, we find that there are many such nuances that work against the desire to seek quick help. I still find that talking to people at times is easier than dealing with voice prompted automatons that some large businesses employ (airlines who do not really want to deal with any human are notorious) where they clearly do not get the emotional aspect of how upset you really are and want a throat to strangle.
Some banks in the US got that message and have switched to live operators manning the switchboard 24 hours a day. And this really leaves a mark in terms of service rendered. Hence that name becomes tops in customer quality. I savor these relations.
So name your poison.
Here is another essay on the subject of first names. As in birth names. Or names provided to an offspring at birth. While the developed world tends to shy away from the exotic like Refrigerator or Coca Cola for their new production there is a plethora of Jims and Johns and Bobs or Robs. Speaking of which I do not think there is a categoric decision point at the time of birth if a child will be hereafter called as Bob. I mean have not yet met a toddler called Bob or Rob for that matter. At some point though the parental instinct to mouth out multiple syllables runs out and they switch from calling the crawler Robert to simply Robbie to Rob. Now speaking of - it is strange that the name sounds like something you would not want Rob to do - i.e. Rob anyone. Then why call someone that? After all Rob Peter to Pay Paul is not exactly a maxim to live a young life? Is it? Perhaps Peter or Paul might want to have a say in it? Then there is this matter of going to the John. Why degrad...
I would blame the aggressive (automated) CRM vendors for the mess. Let the buyers (of these) beware- I forget the Latin phrase for this. QED.
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