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It took me a few attempts to parse this sentence: > The decision paves the way for San Francisco-based startup Eat Just to sell lab-grown chicken meat. Why wo
by markdown 6y ago
It took me a few attempts to parse this sentence:
> The decision paves the way for San Francisco-based startup Eat Just to sell lab-grown chicken meat.
Why would you hamstring your own startup by giving it such a terrible name?
- JimDabell 6y agoEspecially as the much bigger Just Eat already exists.
- mhh__ 6y agoBad SEO aside I don't think Just Eat serves the US?
- breakfastduck 6y agoThey recently purchased their US equivalent so technically yes.
- ordu 6y agoEnglish is not my native language, so I see nothing wrong with the name. I know that 'just' is a crazy word which could mean anything you like, but nevertheless (I'm just curious) what did you read in "eat just" from your first attempt?
- quietbritishjim 6y agoThe problem with "Eat Just" is that "just" is at the end but isn't a noun. Consider "Eat Just makes artificial chicken". Just is an adjective or adverb, it more naturally associates with the word following it, and an initial parse of that sentence is likely to be more like "eat" is an entity that just (only) makes artificial chicken. Compare with, say, "International Business Machines makes a big blue computer". This doesn't quite make sense (semantically) if you read it literally rather than understanding the start to be the name of a company; it sounds like some machines own the computer. But even then, it parses (syntactically) into the correct parts of speach so it's easier to extract the real meaning without conscious effort. Company names that end in a verb, like Just Eat, are also a little odd. But verbs have less of a habit of tightly binding to the word following them, so it's not quite as confusing as if the final word is an adjective or adverb.
- rorykoehler 6y agoThe "just" Eat Just means morally upright or good surely?
- dmos62 6y agoThat's what makes it bad. Moral judgments are popularly considered bad taste.
- rorykoehler 6y agoIn the context of not killing animals in order to eat meat I think it would be hard to argue your case. I'd also expect all these companies to spin off sub-brands for the actual products created.
- dmos62 6y agoWhat your business is doesn't change how people perceive moral judgment. If you were to solve world hunger, putting "righteous human" on your business card would still be in bad taste.