About minusfive

If I got a penny for every time I’ve been asked: what is minusfive? Or: why minusfive? Or perhaps: what does minusfive mean? I would probably be a millionaire by now. Ok, maybe not a millionaire, but I’d have a couple of thousand at least. Ok, 35 cents, happy? Anyway, it doesn’t matter how many times I’ve been asked, or how, or when; I’ve never been able to provide a satisfactory answer.

Minusfive has been my nickname for years. The name has been an inspiration for many of my creative endeavors and, probably because of the same lack of objective explanation, a source of exhaustion and frustration; but at the same time, the name has helped me develop the sense of abstract creativity that I’ve always pursued. Through the name I’ve found ways to give meaning to meaningless things, to deconstruct the meaningful ones and to simplify my creations. Ok, you might think I’m crazy by now, but I assure you, you’re probably right.

The fact of the matter is that minusfive, the name many automatically relate to me nowadays, has no real meaning, no background, no reason; it just popped out of my mind on a regular night of 1996, while I was looking for a cool, original nickname for my IM and chat sessions and couldn’t find any. No more. That’s all there is to it.

Unfortunately, as it often happens in the internet, my seemingly meaningless intellectual creation, and therefore property, has been stolen and used hundreds of times for different purposes by all kinds of people and businesses. I guess that comes to prove, at the end, that it is cool after all.

I mean, I’m sure someone else might’ve thought of the same combination of words to name something else, perhaps, with a real meaning behind it, in which case I don’t really mind. It is the personal use of the name by other unscrupulous users of the services I frequent on the web that hits my nerve. I mean, at least add to it your own touch of originality for heaven’s sake! But anyway, I suppose it’s flattering after all.

All I can say is: what does stealing a meaningless name from someone else say about you?

Thanks for reading. I hope I didn’t waste too much of your time.