Jiro comments on Post ridiculous munchkin ideas! - Less Wrong

55 Post author: D_Malik 15 May 2013 10:27PM

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Comment author: gwern 22 May 2013 09:43:48PM 1 point [-]

In addition, 'John Adams' seems common enough a name that it should be possible to verify whether that specific combination has any correlated benefits.

Comment author: Jiro 22 May 2013 09:51:15PM 0 points [-]

I would also expect that an extremely common name, like John Adams, might have negative consequences that wouldn't be picked up by a study, if the study doesn't distinguish somewhat common names and names that are common enough to sound like cliches.

Comment author: gwern 23 May 2013 03:02:35AM 2 points [-]

I wouldn't. A golden-mean effect where names which are too rare hurt and names which are too common also hurt is one of the first and most obvious hypotheses which come to mind, and I would be extremely surprised if no researcher had checked for this and this suggestion either debunked or embraced with qualifications.