There are obvious things to say about giantism. Andre the Giant (whose best work was definitely in The Princess Bride). Various 7-foot-plus NBA stars. That fellow in the Guinness Book of World Records.

BIG people.

It would be easy to stop there, and perhaps I should. But one of my favorite personal faults is that I never know when to quit.

Let’s take a look at m-w.com:

Main Entry: gi·ant·ism
Pronunciation: ‘jI-&n-”ti-z&m
Function: noun
1 : the quality or state of being a giant <giantism in industry>
2 : GIGANTISM 2
Gigantism is an excessive secretion of growth hormone

OK…some interesting things in there, but let’s move on to wikipedia before exploring them further.

Gigantism or giantism, (from Greek gigas, gigantas “giant”) is a condition characterized by excessive height growth and bigness significantly above average height. As a medical term, gigantism is rarely used except to refer to the rare condition of pituitary gigantism due to prepubertal growth hormone excess. There is no precise definition of the degree of height that qualifies a person to be termed a “giant.”

So here’s what I think: we have a fascination with categorizing people who are different from us. Whether we’re talking about giants, little people, aboriginal people, people from Mars (take my neighbors, for example) — we can’t get enough of telling them what they are and why they are.

It’s OK, really. We classify everything. That’s part of what makes us human.

Where it becomes a little unfortunate is when the Average Joe gets his jollies from the classification of those different from him. Average Joe loves a good freak show.

I doubt seriously if that will ever change - and ultimately, I’d rather hang around someone who’s fascinated by those who are different from them than those who are afraid of the “others”.

Of course, there’s also the mention that was made in the m-w definition above of the giants of business. I could go on about that one for a looooong time. But I have to go to work for my pipsqueak of business employer.

So allow me to sum up giantism as it pertains to both people and business in one of my favorite French sayings:

Vive la différence.