Believe it or not, the title of this post is not a reference to the hordes of students who’ve been asking me to create a thesis for them for their Graduation Requirement Presentation.

(Though it could have been. The last month or so has become a stream of one-on-one tutoring sessions for people who apparently were not trained in formulating a thesis and supporting arguments. Which… well, frankly, if you’re going to test people on a skill, you ought to be making sure they’re learning it first, or it seems unfair. And the real kicker is: the students need to learn this stuff in Korean first, not in English without having learned it in Korean. But anyway… more about that later.)

Anyway, the point is: I wasn’t talking about that, but rather about… well, I got an email from an Asian Travel Agent Center, and yes, sadly, their chosen acronym is ATAC. Which, when you read it aloud, sounds like “attack” which, yes, is exactly the word you don’t want in a customer’s head when he or she is buying air tickets.

It blows my mind how someone can outlay a bunch of money on signs, on employees, on hardware and presumably a space, on all kinds of things, without stopping and asking, “Is this a good company name? Is our acronym appropriate?”

Sometimes, it seems to me stupidity is selected for among MBAs. Hmm.