Say hello to “Verse”.
If Verse looks familiar, that’s because it’s Whip with a new pair of shoes. I want to track it as a separate bike to keep the stats separate and to better track servicing milestones.
So how did I land on this name? Well, here was the progression.
A new set of wheels for a bike is like a new pair of shoes.
And since these “shoes” are intended for higher performance (compared to the gravel shoes on Whip before), I was thinking of shoe ads that hyped performance. And I was reminded of a classic Larry Johnson NBA commercial from the early 90’s, that included the line “Converse shoes make you play so good, my grandmama could whip you in ’em.” (first 1min of this montage: Converse Grandmama 1991 1996).
So that got me to converse. But I’m a fan of “5 letters of fewer”, so I was looking to shorten it. “Verse” can mean “versatility” (which is fitting for what these wheels do to Whip … turning it into a second bike for a fraction of the cost). “Verse” can also be a reference to the final “Contribute a verse” line of Walt Whitman’s “O Me O Life”. I love that poem for many reasons, one big one being the use of it in Dead Poets Society, my #1 movie of all time. And, at work, this is a common line that I use when talking about how we’re all trying to contribute a piece to the overall employee development story. Our CEO Satya also encourages this mindset with his “use Microsoft as a platform to realize your dreams.”
So “Verse” it is.