Stupid Useless Thought Experiment: How many people...

[Richardo]

...do you suppose you've heard of in your lifetime?

Not that you've known personally (although they count), just heard of.

The number must be huge - it would cover historical names, people in the news, celebrities, old classmates, friends, families, even names you've happened across on-line or in the phone book. If you are aware of their existence, no matter how tenuously, they would count.

I've no idea, but I just thought I'd throw this out as a thought experiment. What do you suppose the number could be on a logarithmic scale? 1,000? 10,000? 100,000? A million? (probably too high)

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

1. Yeah, 100 is way too low.

I can find 100 in my rolodex alone. I'd probably go to about few hundred thousand.

[On the Road]

2. There's Probably a Huge Range

If you work in a job like telemarketing or customer service for a couple of decades, a million is probably not out of the question. 20 years x 200 work days x 8 hours x 30 people per hour = 900 thousand plus. That wouldn't be the average, but it's certainly possible.

Ont the other hand, if you live in a small town, don't read, and don't get on the internet much, it's probably less than 10,000.

Just a guess.

[terrya]

3. Me? 17,212 people. I was thinking about this the other day.

:-)

[ScreamingMeemie]

8. Ha! hahahahahaha!

:rofl: Can you come over and count mine??

[Richardo]

10. the smartass of the day award goes to...

:)

[jswordy]

4. Yeah, it's a huge number and impossible to figure cuz...

...of the number you've heard of and then forgotten about!

Pretty kewl twisted and warped thoughts, Richardo! Two thumbs up!

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

5. Let me try to educate the guess

Average of two new names per day in the pre-Internet days, from 1972 (effective start of my social life) to, say, 1995.

Ten per day afterwards.

Roughly 45,000-50,000.

[VOX]

7. Nice analysis, CPD!!!

And good correction for BI {Before Internet}.

Staggering number!

[Zuni]

6. thanks for making my brain explode

u owe me new keyboard! ha ha, look no brain!

[Bunny]

9. 100,000+

I read a lot, so I would guess mine is pretty high. I'm hoping that there is no quiz later, because a realistic count of the names I can actually remember would be <500!

BTW - this is a pretty deep thread topic, Richardo!