PAUL O’SULLIVAN LOUNGED around his apartment in the US city of Baltimore one evening in 2014, feeling bored. So, like a lot of people with nothing better to do, he logged on to Facebook. Just for fun, he decided to try to find out how many other people on the social network shared his name. Moments later, dozens of Paul O’Sullivans, name twins from around the world, filled his screen. On a whim, the then-27-year-old human resources employee sent friend requests to them all.
Many of his fellow Paul O’Sullivans ignored him, but a few felt too curious to pass up his invitation. Says Paul O’Sullivan from Rotterdam in the Netherlands, “My first reaction was, ‘Who is this guy and what does he want from me?’ So I thought about it for a while.” Ultimately, he
