I think people, maybe even Noah included, are reading a bit too much into what seems to be a simple case of crossed wires, or neurons, in this case.

Just this weekend I called my cousin, whom I've been close friends with for over a decade, by his brother's name. It was the first time I've seen him in about a year but we've been very close for very long. I was thinking about his brother in the moment I meant to use his name and it just came out. There was no thought.

I like the article. It's important to talk about this sort of thing. But the comments here... Please consider they are essentially casting judgement on people for not actively thinking to themselves, "Call them X, call them X..." in the moment X should come out of their mouths. What human actually does that in the normal course of verbal communication? Why are we expecting people to do such a thing?

It doesn't sound like Noah's reading too much into crossed wires.

He's just expressing how it's hard on him when people do get their wires crossed.

There are two guys at work that look nothing like each other but get their names mixed up all the time. I have worked with them for a few years. But because they are Asian, someone accidentally called them by the opposite name, and it became a running joke ever since then. But ever since then, the accidental switching of their names has increased. Even I have to stop and think about it for a second, and I never had that problem until they started joking about it. Psychology is a really weird thing.