Back when I was fresh out of grad school, a mere pup still pinching myself that I was constructively participating in this marvelous endeavor called “science,” I noticed in a book store an issue of Time magazine proclaiming “America’s 40 Leaders Under 40.” Since, back in those days, I was technically eligible for honors and awards bestowed upon people under the age of 40 in a way that I no longer am, I turned to the article in anticipation. Perhaps they had written something about me without actually letting me know, right?
Somewhat to my surprise — there I was! Or someone with my name, in any event. Further sleuthing revealed that this guy was Sean B. Carroll, an evolutionary biologist in Wisconsin. Clearly there had been some sort of mixup on the part of Time magazine, but I would forgive them and him this once.
The problem is, the guy refuses to go away. He becomes some sort of evo-devo guru, gets elected to the National Academy of Sciences, writes books — and they’re good books! I’ve read some of them. I hate this guy.
But at least, through it all, I had the blog. A little realm of intellectual endeavor (ahem) that I could enjoy free of interference from other Sean Carrolls. True, the very first link to my own blog was from PZ, who expressed profound disappointment that I was not the other SC. But through it all, as I deflected occasional requests to referee papers about fruit flies or speak at fancy conferences on evolution, and accepted that I was not the first answer to questions like “Who is that Sean Carroll who does science?” or “Who is that Sean Carroll who writes books?”, I was at least the appropriate response if someone were to ask “Who is that Sean Carroll who blogs?” And I had the superior Google page rank to prove it.
So now, here in the Darwin Year, what does (former, I’m thinking) friend-of-the-blog Tom Levenson go and do? He recruits the other Sean Carroll for a blogging project! So Simple a Beginning seems to be the name, although the project itself doesn’t seem to “exist” quite yet. Blogging about The Origin of Species, blah blah blah.
I guess I need to find some other area of human accomplishment in which I am likely to be the leading Sean Carroll of the world for some time to come. Playing poker? Making ice cream? My skill set is rather circumscribed, it would seem. Suggestions welcome.
January 18th, 2009 at 1:11 pm
“So now, here in the Darwin Year..”, great year for science, ’cause it’s the International Year of Astronomy too
January 18th, 2009 at 1:49 pm
The irony is that, at first, I thought that was a picture of you “fresh out of grad school” (obviously too busy to shave in the last stages of getting a PhD; it happens)…
January 18th, 2009 at 2:34 pm
Bah. Being an evolutionary biologist, it’s almost a given this other fellow’s blog will mostly consist of tedious diatribes against those silly creationists. Which will almost certainly leave you as the More Interesting Blogger Named Sean Carroll.
January 18th, 2009 at 2:45 pm
Actually, I consider the whole thing a bonus, since your blog led me to your book, which I liked a lot, and the confusion led me to SBC’s books, which I also like a lot.
January 18th, 2009 at 2:47 pm
Interestingly enough, both SMC and SBC are deeply into the origins business. Coincidence? Maybe. Or maybe not.
January 18th, 2009 at 3:08 pm
Ha. Why origin of the Universe and origin of the Species are two separate branches of human knowledge?
Name it Originology and let all the Sean-Carrolls of the world work together!
January 18th, 2009 at 3:21 pm
Thank you Sean, I have just reserved two of the other Sean’s books at my public library.
January 18th, 2009 at 4:29 pm
My suggestion would be that you become an expert on the ’science’ of blogging!
January 18th, 2009 at 4:39 pm
You’re getting on in years, my friend. Old dog, new tricks, and all that. Not much time left to make a mark in this world. If you’ve got tenure, your best bet is probably to begin espousing a crackpot theory that will be happily ridiculed for decades to come. It takes a certain amount of skill to have a good crank theory, so be proud to out-’crank’ all the other Sean Carrolls of the world.
January 18th, 2009 at 5:38 pm
You can apply for the most humourus and honest Sean Carrol. It’s a good paper.
(Being French talker I don’t know the other one, just you, and because of the blog. )
January 18th, 2009 at 5:39 pm
“l”
(to put on the end of your mispelled name (sorry).
January 18th, 2009 at 5:55 pm
I do love you, Sean; really. You want a write about Darwin, come on down. Maximal identity confusion is always a desirable goal! Not to mention a physicist’s insight. (Maybe you want to write about the Darwin-Kelvin argument, for starters?)
The site, which will go live on Feb 12 (CD’s 200th, for those still living in the cave), can be found at Bloggingdarwin.com. The project title is indeed So Simple a Beginning, not just a lovely phrase that catches much of what I hope we will be able to do in looking at modern evolution’s foundational text, but also the only good tag line I could find in Darwin’s famous “There is grandeur in this view of life” concluding graf in The Origin. There will be the appropriate pointer at sosimpleabeginning.com, so come on down y’all, in a very few weeks now, and join the fun.
Best, T.
January 18th, 2009 at 5:58 pm
the only good tag line = the only one not already grabbed for some other web purpose.
January 18th, 2009 at 6:21 pm
Tom, you misunderstand. I’m not looking for opportunities to do interesting and useful things, so that I may grow in stature. I just want other people to stop doing interesting and useful things, so that I may at least not shrink in stature relative to them. Is that too much to ask?
January 18th, 2009 at 7:06 pm
I’d like to see you do a stand-up comedy of science, video log.
January 18th, 2009 at 7:44 pm
[...] Back when I was fresh out of grad school, a mere pup still pinching myself … Go to Source [...]
January 18th, 2009 at 7:50 pm
Origin of Species vs. Origin of the Universe…
I mean, come on. Maybe he gets the chicken, but the latter is one hell of a big egg.
January 18th, 2009 at 7:54 pm
Sean, have you ever read Edgar Allen Poe’s story William Wilson? Given the nagging insecurities revealed here, I’m not at all sure you should.
(Having delved into it again, the similarity to your predicament is uncanny, even a bit…well, creepy.)
January 18th, 2009 at 10:15 pm
WSOP 2009….
e.
January 18th, 2009 at 11:09 pm
It could be waaaay worse. My namesake apparantly had an affair with Sarah Palin….
January 19th, 2009 at 12:35 am
There’s someone else with the name Sean Carroll?
Oh, poooor baby. I feel soooo sorry for you.
Please! That’s nothing.
I don’t know what *my* parents were thinking.
And we’re Irish for god’s sake!
January 19th, 2009 at 1:48 am
Congratulations. According to amazon.com you’ve got the fifth highest bestselling book written by a Sean Carroll.
January 19th, 2009 at 2:20 am
Start twitter ?
January 19th, 2009 at 3:51 am
“Of all the scientists in the world today, there is no one with whom Charles Darwin would rather spend an evening than Sean Carroll.”
Michael Ruse
That’s from the other Sean Carroll website. Sean, I would be very glad at your place. There’s always a chance that Darwin could be mistaken and choose you rather than your namesake
January 19th, 2009 at 4:26 am
I once got invited to an illustrious social event on the assumption that I wasn’t just Robert Cumming the (not very eminent) astronomer, but also the artist and art writer Robert Cumming. Not bad going I thought.
January 19th, 2009 at 6:49 am
Sean,
Funny, I came across that confusion, too, as I have books by both of you.
Maybe you could set up a conference for literarily active folks by the name “Sean Carroll”. It would be an energy-saver for visitors, who could great you all collectively with a “Hi, Sean Carrolls!”
January 19th, 2009 at 8:36 am
…although the project itself doesn’t seem to “exist” quite yet.
I’m sure it will evolve.
I do think you’re taking the wrong approach to this. You should welcome – and take credit for – this other fellow’s accomplishments. He is working his *** off to build up your CV!
January 19th, 2009 at 10:09 am
It’s “The Origin of Species,” not “of the species.”
Wow. I’ve dreamed about correcting one of my heroes. But when the day finally comes, man, it’s just indescribable. I’m king of the comment-osphere!
January 19th, 2009 at 10:35 am
I like to include some sort of mistake in every post. Just to give our loyal readers the thrill of correcting me.
January 19th, 2009 at 11:16 am
The Sean Carroll to whom Charles Darwin would prefer to talk might depend on the
Charles Darwin
January 19th, 2009 at 1:18 pm
Modern science began on April 27, 1675 with “experimentum crucis,” conducted by then thirty-three-year-old Isaac Newton, and it must now sadly end with the retirement of a much older Sean Carroll. You’ve got to finish your work long before forty!
I expect that the new Sean Carroll will prove to be somewhat more politically radical – and palatable – as his new countenance mildly promises. As for the obsolete Sean Carroll? I found him working as Oprah Winfrey’s personal physical trainer, somewhere far away:
http://www.oprah.com/oafhost/bgreene
So much for cosmology, eh?
January 19th, 2009 at 1:21 pm
32! More far gone than I thought!
January 19th, 2009 at 1:24 pm
You are one hell of a magnanimous cosmologist, Sean.
January 19th, 2009 at 2:20 pm
Can’t really believe i am about to say this, but your arrow of time is way longer than his; and it also has a greater chance to do other tricky stuff too.
January 19th, 2009 at 3:41 pm
The Other Sean totally has you beat in the beard department. But it would be hard for him to win the Cool Wife competition.
You could consider changing your name to Mr. Jennifer Ouellette and be done with it.
January 20th, 2009 at 1:16 am
TMS, good point
January 20th, 2009 at 1:52 am
But Sean, you even have a particle named after you!
http://arxiv.org/abs/0901.2853
[Better check version 1]
January 21st, 2009 at 3:09 am
Sean, you are SO missing the point. Come on, think: what’s super cool about having a name-recognition rival whose work you simultaneously admire and resent?
…letting your mind build an epic, cosmic battle out of the creative and professional tension such a situation engenders! Duh.
Take a look at how lucky you really are, man. Most people have to fully construct an archnemesis for themselves in order to imbue their actions with the comic book-level of apocalyptic urgency we all so deeply desire to recognize as characterizing our lives. That’s a lot of cognitive labor, and just to get started! It takes that much more upkeep to continuously remind ourselves of the fictional narrative threads we’ve decided to let ourselves believe in (ere we fall into the humdrum regularities of day-to-day existence, whose escape was our goal to begin with). The payoff, of course, is the mythological significance our deeds attain when measured against this melodramatic, imaginary backdrop.
But you, Sean? You already have a REAL Sean Carroll running around out there doing good science and writing books and making your name connote HIS work. And now, he’s stepped onto your turf. I had a similar experience when, after having made a name for myself among my peers and professors, another “Doug” showed up to my program. He was competent and likable (a fine example of Doughood, it must be said) so I let him stay–but only after using my power to ensure that he would be known as The Lesser Doug, or Doug #2, or No-Not-That-Doug, etc. What mattered was simply that the public invocation of his name immediately establish him as a sort of derivative of my own, Original Dougness. This was achieved by me actively promoting the comparison and praising Other Doug for his own strengths in everyday conversation. All I had to do was make sure that the last impression with which others walked away from the conversation–the final thought, the synthesis achieved through our seemingly innocent, amiable chatter–was something to the effect of, “Yeah, new Doug is a Doug, but there’s really only one Doug in the way that, you know, Doug is.”
In light of the amount of fun you could be having with this, can you honestly do no better than gripe? Your motivation must not be to become recognized as the leading Sean Carroll in human endeavor X; it must be to relish in plotting the slow destruction of your rival. Remember, YOU’RE Sean Carroll the blogger/scientist. Who’s this guy? Why, he’s Sean Carroll *too*.
After that, never, ever allow his face to slip out from under your boot any farther than is allowed by the slim margin of possible praise you’ve already defined for his blogging career.
January 21st, 2009 at 6:25 pm
I feel your pain, too. I found out that there is a Robert Kamper who had a long and distinguished career as head of NIST, while I didn’t get my PhD. until 1993 at the ripe old age of over 40 something. (Couldn’t stand going to school more than 2-4 years at a time). I do think I have more US Patents than he does, though. But I think he is THE Robert Kamper, or at least the only famous and important one. And then there is a Robert Kamper who is a city manager in Sarasota Florida, which might come in handy if I ever go to that fair city…
You might want to start a group blog – Doppel-Nomen City….?