It goes like this, people hear of something brand new to them, and if it at all seems questionable, or deeper than what can be gleaned from a quick surface glance, all they retain is maybe its name and a two or three word description, this is because their reasoning is "I've never heard anyone else mention this anywhere before, clearly this source is out of the societal loop, i don't need to think about this." However, if when people see something that they are unfamiliar with, yet they have all ready heard of it before, they say to themselves "I've heard of that" and they are much more likely to be interested in it because they are beginning to feel "out of the societal loop" themselves.

What does this mean to bitcoiners?

Well, if you are under the impression that you will benefit from others learning about bitcoin, then create as many of those first exposures as possible. this can be done many ways, graffiti, public spectacles.. just to name two. A less risky/embarrassing option is creating little notes that say things as simple as "what is bitcoin?" or "internet:information as bitcoin:money" or "bitcoin, the napster of money" or "I have bitcoins" or "state currency if for slaves, buy bitcoins" or "The lord sayeth, thou shalt buy bitcoins" No need for anything fancy, just the word bitcoin is possibly enough, however, comedy is a rocket ideas can ride on. These notes can be left anywhere, private viewing stalls at adult video stores, catholic confessional boxes, public shitters, on the graves of famous people, anywhere. All you are trying to do is plant a seed, not build a house, just get the word bitcoin in their head so that when their second exposure comes along, a blog, a friend, news, whatever, they are much more likely to be interested.

It's a nice theory and all, but is it true?

well, if by true you mean an objective absolute, i'm feel you may never have your question answered.

i suppose the closest one could get to finding out would be to take one idea, give it two names, try the theory on one(which simply put is blanket advertisement), and not try it on the other, and find out which one gets more popular.

II question the necessarity of this experiment.

i think what it comes down to on a personal level is this, "is my cost (time and money) to do this, worth the payoff?" and that is a question that i believe cannot be answered before doing it, considering the only way to find out if it pays off would be to wait until people start saying that the first time they saw the word bitcoin was on a piece of paper that read something like "My bitcoin can kick you Dollars ass" while they were sitting in a McDonalds restroom facility. Even then it would be tough to say because you don't know how many papers have been put out.

However, i would suggest that the cost is quite low indeed. The time to make the papers for those equipped with a computer would probably be 2 to 10 minutes of human time, and printer time is up to the efficiency of the printer and the number of pages printed (you can save on the time it takes to cut the slips a number of ways, buy a paper cutter and do many sheets at once [you can return it afterwards to keep your cost down], have your children do it, or just chill out, smoke a fatty and have fun with it.... i'd avoid combining all 3 though because giving a paper cutter to stoned KIds is bit Assholish) Costwise, you can buy alot of paper and ink for a microscopic percentage of what most people who share on this forum have most likely already profited from bitcoins. Then there is the time it takes to deliver the slips, i'd be so bold as to say it is as low as 0, unless there is something else you would rather be doing with your hands while you have a bowl movement.

And II think campaign signs are brilliant :-)

John Galt?!? its a joke..