Adam was the namer of all things on earth.

Abrahamic religions denoted Adam not only as the first man but as a prophet in his own right who was charged by God to name all creatures. What's that pink bumbly thing? Pig. What's that big leafy thing? Tree. Seems like a pretty solid gig.

There is a special power in naming things. I liked toying around with the concept of an alternative intelligence outside of IQ and EQ -- AQ: Adamic Quotient, the ability to name things, to capture in few words broad or profound concepts. Naming is extremely useful for us in parsing the chaos of the world into order and story. Naming is one of the most powerful tools we have in relationships and cultures; it enables us to unify around shared concepts. Perhaps in this sense, naming is near-synonymous with language, but I would posit that naming concepts, places, events, etc., is a level atop the foundation of language.

The German philosophers are particularly good at naming, chaining words together to come up with concepts that stand on their own ground. Think Schadenfreude, Übermensch, Ding an sich -- names that have a depth of meaning beyond what the words themselves represent.

Naming songs has great power and influence over the song itself. The meaning of a track is often defined by its title. Sure, it can be meaningless, or the naming of a composition can be avoided altogether by reference numbers like Opuses or Sarabande N. But there is an opportunity to inject meaning and story for a listener to grab onto. The listener can imagine a world based on a simple title when they hear the music.

I recall a recent performance at a festival with my world music jazz fusion band High Tide at the Priceless Festival in Belden, CA. We performed a composition of mine called "Dance of the Fire Snake"; my bandmate gave an introduction to the instrumental tune, calling out its title, sharing some imagery of the fire snake and how the tone of the music represented (to him anyways) the deep, dark sentiments of working through one's shadow. Throughout our performance, people were dancing in a way I can't explain other than... like snakes, slithering about; fun, dark, and sensual all at once. It further solidified my conviction that music is much more than sound or a pleasant sequenced construction of notes but a vehicle for story, an IV path to inject emotion.

Another naming of a phenomenon I've loved: money dysmorphia. I'll claim I was one of the first to name it... and call out my annoyance that I didn't write about it earlier because it's emerged elsewhere! Anyways, my lost claim to fame aside... the term captures a ton of meaning, an experience we see a lot in the Bay Area. It's hard here to feel like you're doing well unless you're making at least half a million a year -- and even then, there's room to feel like you haven't made it because you didn't become a multi-millionaire by 25. The environment leads to distorted expectations of what a healthy financial life is -- and much like body dysmorphia, money dysmorphia can make you feel worthless, unhappy, and frustrated from lacking a millionaire's financial body.

So remember y'all, NSN -- never stop naming!