Hello, long time no see.

I was just chatting with a friend of mine about a discussion I heard on the radio shortly after the announcement of Neil Armstrong’s death. The hosts were trying to think of a different, modern day person who has become a household name for a one-time accomplishment (i.e. Neil is not famous for other things – an effective one-hit wonder). I never got to hear the end of the bit, but as much as I had heard, they never got a name that was famous for a particularly good reason.

I find myself trying to figure out why this is. It might be that it has since become quite easy to become “news” – for example, you can now publish yourself online via sites like Facebook, YouTube, or even blogs like this one. In the process, becoming famous has gone from requiring going to the moon to things a bit more primal, such as how the Kardashians became famous household names.

Other than that, the ones who are well known today generally have a longer list of significant accomplishments. Perhaps people today are not impressed with a single significant accomplishment?

It might be that nowadays accomplishments are well attributed to teams of people rather than individuals (except at Apple). Do you know who lead the recent NASA mission to Mars? You probably know that NASA had a mission to Mars, however.

In light of being unable to think of a truly good example, I tried to think of what might cause someone to become a modern-day household name for a one-time accomplishment, but I was similarly baffled.

Maybe the cure for cancer or AIDS. Then again, do you know who developed the vaccine for polio? Some of you might recall the name Jonas Salk from school (I didn’t, but I recognized it when I saw it), but a household name? Not now. Was he back then?  If a cure for cancer or AIDS were found, would it even be attributed to a single person, or the team?

Let me know what you think.