I think that’s a great idea. I was wrestling with the idea that I’d have to choose a single thing to be, and you’ve just solved that for me.

Also, Olive’s idea could be interpreted as suggesting a particular notion of expertise (and of “experts”), and that this is connected to to one’s employment. I’m not a big fan of most ideas of “expert”, and I definitely don’t like over-investing notions of expertise in degrees and jobs.

The rub, of course, is areas like evolution, where there are lots of people who “like to talk about” it, but arguably don’t have clue one or (worse) are deliberately misrepresenting the issues. Just today I stumbled across this bizarro site (which I can’t now find again) hawking a book where a guy argues that the whole of human history only runs about 1,000 years, and that things like ancient Egypt, ancient Greece, and all the the Old Testament are weirdo constructions of the Middle Ages. I’m sure he’d love to talk about his theory, and it might even be fascinating for a few minutes, but I think I’d quickly want to tear out my hair and run for the hills.

Interesting idea. I can tell you that poor communication knows no professional bounds.

I think I would amend this idea and make name tags that say “Hello, my name is CORY Q. I like to talk about ______, and _______, and especially _______.” I have found that office drones, like me, have a very hard time turning the minutiae of there days into something people want to hear about. Isn’t the single facet to any story one of the problems with Mass Media Sound Bite communication culture these days? I suggest three options to break the ‘single angle’ mold and to avoid dichotomy which I see as the other major pitfall on the road to honest discourse.

Well, when you get your sandwich board ready and decide on a date for this, let me know. I’ll show up and chat too.