Almost three weeks ago, I started the fist steps towards the development of the Six Word Description Theory, a theory that posits that an object’s physical and non-physical qualities can be adequately described in six words. I launched an online survey with a sample of 100 respondents (primarily due to SurveyMonkey’s limit for free accounts.) The number is rather low, assuming a global population of 6 billion and a confidence level of 95% and confidence interval of 10%.

The data gathering has been complete and I am in the process of statistically analying the data. I may be able to gain some significant insights on this by early next year. but off hand, the results are encouraging. People seem to be satisfied by describing an object with six words.

Some questions on the methodology and theory were raised in the last few weeks. Some points like differentiation (ie, two objects may share the same set of descriptions) and the fact that some people are OK with less than six descriptive words. I do plan to check the validity of the Six Word Description Theory for abstract ideas as well.

So, thank you to all those who answered the survey and please do keep a watch on the results of the analysis. If you are interested in this research topic, pleasedo email me at regnard (at) raquedan.com.