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Well, this is the comment section of a HN topic that's specifically about Caroline Ellison and Gary Wang (their names are included in the title).

If this were some random other thread, then yeah sure it would be confusing to just say Gary or Caroline.

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I guess my question is, why the familiarity? Why not Ellison and Wang? The confusion stuff I shouldn't have included, it was extraneous. I'm just puzzled why we're speaking of them as if they were friends or treasured celebrities.

I don't mean that as a criticism either, I just feel like I missed a beat culturally.

My guess is that it's subconsciously patronizing behavior. Ellison and Wang are both young (around 28/29 I think) and they are no longer respectable after their spectacular failure. People feel entitled to call them whatever they want and their first names are much easier to remember than their last names.

Normally we would know their middle names as well

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