# You Could Extinguish a Star by Robin Sloan ## Metadata - Author: [[Robin Sloan]] - Full Title: You Could Extinguish a Star - Category: #articles - URL: https://www.robinsloan.com/newsletters/extinguish-a-star/ ## Highlights added April 22, 2024 at 9:21 AM When you name something, you label the thing; frame it. This is an important job, before anyone has actually encountered that thing! But, very quickly, the flow of meaning reverses. The thing’s specific characteristics and its performance — its great success, we hope — fill the vessel of its name, which was pretty empty all along. Then, instead of the name defining the thing, the thing (re)defines the name. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hw2n6bb11jpyep8twt2q575z))