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2008.03.28

What's in a Number?

My company is officially Live Oak 360, Inc. today (a name change from Live Oak Interactive).

Of course, I hate all types of buzzwords took philosophy of language and understand denotation, so I found the change a bit amusing. After all, what does 360 actually mean?

Well, isn't it obvious? For those of you that don't have the ability to infer meaning from arbitrary numbers, check out the press release:
The firm's name embodies a cyclical growth engine that discovers the needs of clients, finds the strategic solution that is the best fit and then cyclically evaluates and refines the client solutions based on the clients' evolving business needs. It empowers the team to step in sync with clients, at any point within their development process, to create custom software applications in alignment with corporate goals and to maintain iterative, impacting improvement for clients.

The problem, of course, is for those of us who are literalists. A number embodies none of those things. What it really embodies is 1 + 1 + 1 + [you get the idea] + 1 + 1.

Or maybe it's not a problem. After all, we have much more creative and humorous definitions:

"Thank you for calling Live Oak 360, where we've established our ability to count to semi-large numbers!" (Jason)

Anyone have any good 360 taglines? Add them below!

comments(7) | permalink

Posted by at 9:25 a.m.

Luke, they should have asked you to write that press release. That paragraph is full of trendy buzzwords that obscure the message.

Posted by on 2008.03.28 at 7:36 a.m.

Why not just say: Live Oak 360 -- we do everything.

Posted by on 2008.03.29 at 3:47 a.m.

The problem, of course, is for those of us who are literalists. A number embodies none of those things. What it really embodies is 1 + 1 + 1 + [you get the idea] + 1 + 1.

That is simply unfair. The number 360 does indeed remind people in our culture of a unit system we frequently use for measuring plane angles, in which 360 is a full revolution. It might not be appropriate in the name of your company, but it is fair to recognise that `360' carries more cultural meaning than some other arbitrary number.

Posted by on 2008.04.02 at 12:45 p.m.

They may have a snazzy new name, but the question is... can you play Rock Band on Live Oak? I think not.

Posted by on 2008.04.02 at 8:06 p.m.

it is fair to recognise that `360' carries more cultural meaning than some other arbitrary number.
This is so; however, the number still has no inherent correlation with the concepts presented.

Posted by on 2008.04.02 at 8:09 p.m.

I'm not sure the paragraph actually presented any concepts. ;)

Posted by on 2008.04.03 at 11:01 a.m.

Then there can't be a correlation (inherent or otherwise), now can there? :)

Posted by on 2008.04.03 at 8:57 p.m.

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