Can We Do a Science Together??

2026-02-27 · letter vlog · Hank · 4:25 · watch on YouTube

Topic: History & curiosities (also: Science & nature) · mode: Curiosity & trivia · tags: civic or action cta

Hank tells John he wants to know how many names he knows: he thinks people now know a historically high number, perhaps as many names as words, far above the roughly 5,000 that name-retrieval studies suggest, and he asks viewers with the right expertise to send grant proposals for a Wikipedia-based study.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — How many names could Hank name: vocabulary size, examples of names, Pokémon, are names words

★★★ Hank tells John he is trying to work out how many people he could name; he has thought about it for two weeks and is convinced the number is ridiculously high. — 00:00:00
★★ Hank says English has around 170,000 words without conjugations, up to a million with technical and old words and conjugations, and that most people know about 50,000 words. — 00:00:00
★★ Hank guesses he might know about 50,000 names, though he is not sure. (hedged) — 00:00:00
★ Hank lists names he knows that share a name: Percy Jackson and LaToya Jackson; Isaac Mizrahi, Isaac Asimov, Oscar Isaac and Walter Isaacson. (playful) — 00:00:29
★★ Hank says there are over a thousand Pokémon and some people know all of them; they are not exactly names, but kind of names. — 00:00:29
★★★ Hank asks linguists whether names are words: a name feels like a word for a specific person, and a Pokémon name like a word for a species of fake guy. — 00:00:29

00:00:58 — People he actually knows (Gmail contacts) and a historically high number of known names

★★ Hank has no idea how to count the people he actually knows, but thinks pulling contacts out of Gmail, with cell phone numbers, would probably cover the bulk of them, though not his elementary school friends. (hedged) — 00:00:58
★★★ Hank thinks that at this moment in history people know a historically high number of names, including of people they don't and can't know, such as Catherine the Great, Catherine O'Hara and Lady Catherine de Bourgh. — 00:00:58

00:01:31 — The Abundance of Katherines aside, name-retrieval research (about 5,000) and his guess that we know as many names as words

★ Hank asks whether all 19 Katherines of An Abundance of Katherines count, says no, and names its protagonist as Miles before correcting himself to Colin Singleton. (playful) — 00:01:31 · An Abundance of Katherines
★★★ Hank says the research he found tests name retrieval, not how many names people know: people repeatedly write down names over time and statistics estimate a total of about 5,000. (hedged) — 00:01:31
★★★ Hank thinks people know far more names than 5,000 and wants to count everyone he has a word for: fictional people, friends, family, colleagues, historical and famous people. — 00:01:31
★★★ Hank thinks the research is possible and would show we know about as many names as words, or at least that names are a substantial share of the words we know. (hedged) — 00:01:59
★★ Hank says he thinks names are words, words for folk, though he does not know that it is true. (hedged) — 00:01:59

00:02:40 — A study design using Wikipedia names and pageviews, a Tinder-style test with fake names, and the call for grant proposals; sign-off

★★ Hank says the hard part is building a deep database of notable, fictional and historical people with data to segment them by how famous they are, plus many study participants. — 00:02:40
★★ Hank says the study needs many fairly trustworthy participants, and he has a pool of them: the viewers. (playful) — 00:02:40 · Nerdfighteria
★★ Hank says Wikipedia has a list of notable people and fictional characters plus public pageview data that can stand in for how famous each is. — 00:03:09 · Wikipedia
★★ Hank says he lacks the expertise to get the data or turn it into a publishable paper, and is not sure he has time to review proposals but will try. — 00:03:09
★★★ Hank asks people in nearby fields who can extract Wikipedia data and build a Tinder-style yes/no test, seeded with fake names to catch lying and tiered by fame, to send grant proposals to hankandjohn@gmail.com. — 00:03:38 · Wikipedia
★★ Hank says the study will not give a complete count, only famous people, fictional characters and historical figures, but it gives something to go on, maybe followed by another step. — 00:04:07

In the description and comments

★★ The description asks for 'Grant proposal' in the subject line and lists what to include: background, technical plan, study design, what could go wrong, timeline and capacity, publishability plan and budget. — video description
★★ The description wonders how many names Ken Jennings knows and says Hank feels he could definitely get him to take the test. — video description

Mentioned

Central: proper noun · Wikipedia

Also: People: Catherine O'Hara · Catherine the Great · Eddie Cochran · Eddie Murphy · Isaac Asimov · Isaac Mizrahi · La Toya Jackson · Oscar Isaac · Walter Isaacson

Works: An Abundance of Katherines · Pokémon

Organizations: Tinder

Concepts: vocabulary

Characters: Colin Singleton · Lady Catherine de Bourgh · Miles Halter · Percy Jackson

Products: Gmail

Only in the description or credits: Ken Jennings

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