This weekend saw me jumping, head-first, into the pool of comment, speculation and over-heated hype which is Twitter. I’ve been registered for ages and haven’t really been able to see the point of it, but this weekend it suddenly started to make sense. As SXSW got well & truly under way I was able to follow the tides of opinion.

A lot of these surrounded a post by rent-a-linkbait Jason Calacanis, where he suggested that if you wanted to succeed at a start-up you needed to be prepared to sacrifice your home-life, or words to that effect. Now I really can’t be bothered to get into the ins & outs of this, as it had all been done to death on the blogosphere & Twitter within 24 hours, but it did make me wonder whether Jason Calacanis is for real?

I don’t mean is he actually a person (although some of his views may make some wonder at his membership of the human race), or is that really his hair (syrup 2.0 anyone?). What I mean is his name. Every time I type it I have to double & triple check the spelling. Calacanis – what is that? Calcanis seems reasonable to me, but Calacanis? Really?

And then it struck me. Jason is, as anyone who has followed his career will know, someone who appreciates the art of making wild statements in order to gain PR. And maybe, just maybe, someone of that sort would also have understood, all those years ago when he was just starting out, the value of having a silly name. After all, it’s a lot easier for me to rank page 1 for my first name due to the fact that it’s relatively uncommon. Jason is probably a bit stickier (although he’s actually just below the fold, which is probably a metaphor for something, but it’s early & I need more tea), but Calacanis? Piece of p*ss.

Whether or not Jason really did choose his own surname in order to guarantee real estate in the search results, what is for certain is that he is 4real, but that just like the gash on Richie Manic’s arm, he’s also pretty unpleasant.

NB – Another enlightening thing about joining Twitter is realising how many people lack a sense of humour, so just for the record, I in no way think that Jason invented his own name. But his hair is a bit dodgy…