My Little Quest for Noah Gabriel Becker
So, this name, Noah Gabriel Becker, came across my desk, well, not really my desk, more like popped up in a chat message a few weeks back. It wasn’t for anything huge, just one of those small, fuzzy tasks you sometimes get.
My team lead, bless his heart, was putting together some research for a potential collaboration, or maybe it was competitor analysis, honestly, things were always a bit jumbled there. He pinged me: “Hey, see what you can dig up on a Noah Gabriel Becker. Anything interesting. Background, maybe projects?” Real specific, right?
Okay, so I started where anyone would. Fired up the browser, typed the name into the search bar. Noah Gabriel Becker. Hit enter. You know the drill. Got a scattering of results. Some social media profiles, maybe a mention in an old article, a couple of forum posts here and there.
Here’s the thing, though. None of it felt quite right. Lots of potential matches, but the details were all over the place. Different locations, different fields of work mentioned. Some looked like artists, others maybe students. It was a bit of a muddle.
- I spent a good hour just clicking through the first few pages of results.
- Tried variations of the name, added keywords like ‘tech’, ‘developer’, ‘artist’ based on the profiles I saw.
- Checked LinkedIn, hoping for something professional. Found a couple, but again, hard to tell if it was the right person.
- Even used that internal tool we had for searching public records, but it came up empty or with too many possibilities.
It got pretty frustrating pretty fast. It felt like chasing a ghost. You see bits and pieces, but nothing solidifies. I remember thinking, it’s kinda weird how much info is out there, but finding the right piece of info on a specific person can be like finding a needle in a haystack, especially with a common-ish name maybe?
I went back to my lead. Asked him, “Hey, got any more details? Like where he might work, or what specific area he’s known for?” He just gave me that vague hand wave, “Nah, just see what you find. Don’t spend ages on it.” Classic.
So, I timeboxed it. Gave it another hour, compiled the few semi-plausible links and bits of info into a quick doc. Made sure to add a big disclaimer: “Couldn’t definitively confirm any of these are the target individual without more specifics.”
Sent it off. And you know what? Never heard another word about Noah Gabriel Becker again. Poof. Gone from the priority list, just like that. Typical Tuesday, really. Just another reminder of how sometimes these tasks are just wild goose chases someone thought up without much planning. You do the digging, present the mud, and move on to the next hole.
