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Comment by Matty1992 | Hacker News Reader

Matty1992

I have the opposite problem, I share the name with someone else working in the tech field who is academically and professionally my senior.

I frequently get emails and phone calls from recruiters offering positions with a salary up to 200k more than I'm expecting at my level because they think I teach at Stanford

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Did you ever try to bullshit your way into one of these positions? Obviously it's a bad idea, but I'm only half joking since it might be an interesting experiment to see how people rate and value you if their mind may have already been made up.

Why is that a bad idea? If you can pass the interview stages and the only difference is perception then I say go for it.

Stealing someone identity is, by definition, a bad idea.

> is, by definition, a bad idea.

So what is the definition?

This is certainly legal.

"So tell me about your time lecturing at Stanford"

"Well you see uhh thats not me but uhh..."

"I think we are done here."

And you've just burned a massive bridge.

Haha I think theyd clock I wasnt the guy they thought I was when a tattood kid in his 20s walked in the door

On a similar note, there was a TV series about faking it. (https://www.channel4.com/programmes/faking-it/episode-guide)

I taken a few phone interviews without realizing that they had the wrong guy.

It's never turned into an awkward situation just yet but its also never gotten further than that.

I have a more minor issue, in that my mum once mistook a SciFi/horror film director for me, because of his website. I also share a name with a Victorian era author. As I’m now writing a novel, I’m going to have to publish with a pen name.

Perfect opportunity to add a mysterious initial. Ben Ÿ. W...

If I do that, I’m adding non-latin characters. B. 狐. Я. W.

(I don’t except a publisher would let me do that).

People accuse me of playing Baseball, Football, and Guitar for the band TOOL.

You're undervaluing yourself.

I'm 26

Doesn't matter, it's not an army.

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