Names matter

So I read this book called Positioning, and it had this really interesting and weird take. They said that if your name is Hubert, you’re a loser.

The authors of this book are a hundred percent convinced that one of the most important things in life is your name, and you can’t really change it.

So the thing is this might seem obvious for a lot of us, there’s a lot of studies out there saying that people with Asian names had to deal with a lot more bias, make it harder for your job application, even if the resume is all the same. But the authors of this book, I think they take it a bit too far.

They gave examples of Hubert, Elmer, and then they have David and Michael. They cited this one study where they gave teachers the same exact assignments, and they just changed the names. They said that the teachers who graded the students with the more common names gave them better grades.

But in reality, this actually makes sense from a psychological perspective. You have to understand that your first name is the first impression that you’ll ever have. Even before you speak or enter the room, that is your first impression.

We’re very dumb creatures in this way because we already create an impression of you just based on your name, and we’re too lazy to change that. It takes too much energy, too many calories for us to change.

So maybe legally change your name if you want to.