A transmissible questionnaire, in four questions:
Nota bene: You who are reading this may also participate, of course. In fact, please do.
Q: Go to Google Book Search. Look yourself up, by name. How many real hits are there? [You need not disclose which]
A: For me, the answer is five of the books returned by this search (as of this writing), but I also know of a couple of books that apparently aren’t yet indexed by Google.
Q: How many books are you actually mentioned in, not counting acknowledgments or bibliographic references? Count a book even if your name’s dropped in passing.
A: All of the books that come up today, in which my name appears and the person means me, are just references and acknowledgments. So the answer for me is none. I do not really “appear” in any of the books on the list. We’ll have to remedy that.
Q: How many of the books listed by Google were you already aware of before doing the search?
A: 60%.
Q: Suggest five other people who should also look themselves up and report the results. If they’re pseudonymous bloggers, they need not disclose their True Identities—just their numbers.
1. Miriam Burstein
2. Either or both of the Nielsen Haydens
3. Siva Vaidhyanathan
4. Cosma Shalizi
5. The whole slew of Bayesians

