Like most of you, I sign stuff a lot.
Like many of you, I’m usually a bit embarrassed when I do it. My signature has devolved from a relatively legible cursive “Noah Stephens-Davidowitz” when I was in high school to my college “Noah S-D” to my post-graduation “N S-D” to my current series of four squiggles, which one might be persuaded are loosely derived from my initials together with a hyphen.
My business partner, Thomas, told me (I think only half-jokingly) that it was unacceptable for signing contracts with our clients. He accused me of just writing the number 900 lazily and sloppily. (I personally think it typically looks more like 907, but that day, I concede, it looked pretty 900ish.) Even people delivering food to my apartment, who only ask for my signature to protect themselves in the unlikely event that I later claim to have not received my food, have asked me to confirm that my signature is in fact a signature.
I would post an image of it for my readership to laugh at, but I suppose that that would be a bit of a security vulnerability.
But, isn’t that incredibly silly? I have in my mental possession four vaguely defined squiggles. For some reason, I’m forced to show people my squiggles all the time as some sort of confirmation that I, Noah Stephens-Davidowitz, am agreeing to something . And, it’s not just with delivery guys; I use my squiggles for extremely important interaction with governments, clients, my bank, etc. But, in spite of the fact that I show this thing all the time, I’m also keenly aware of the fact that posting it publicly on the internet is a terrible idea.
All of this is in case I at some point I say “No, I never agreed to that.” Because of my signature, a slick lawyer could then confidently respond “But, if you didn’t agree to that, then why are these four squiggles here? Who but you could have squiggled four times on this piece of paper in such a way?”
Touche, slick lawyer.