CIRCLE WITH A DOT

@grimalkina In a recent job interview, for a medical device cloud software company, I got asked:

What do you think your deliverables and accomplishments could be after the first 30 days at this job?

I gave my usual answer:

Not software. I spend the first month at any new job just asking questions and gathering stories. I focus hard on confidence: what are the places where devs tread lightly? Where do they have a nagging fear of the bus factor? What activities do they avoid? I find I my biggest impact is not from "10x tools", but from simple fixes to the scary parts. Confident is faster and safer.

The interviewer wasn't prepared for that answer and moved on quickly.

Later, when asked if I had any questions, I came back to the topic: where did the interviewer see their people losing confidence?

They had no answer for it. And couldn't come up with anything when pressed.

It amazes me how many leaders forget the human parts of building tech. It seems almost willfully avoidant.

@futurebird I looked into this maybe 15-20 years or so ago, after being enraptured with Modular Origami. I had stacks of books on the subject. Tomoko Fuse FTW!

At the time, there were a few research papers on the subject of computational origami, but I found them very unapproachable.

I did the same thing you did, and ended up writing my own DSL for describing sequences of folds. (This was in XML, for a sense of the time.) It basically boiled down to "starting with flat paper of this size and shape, here are the series of polygon cuts and rotations to get to the final 3D shape". I never got farther than that. I tried to do some OpenGL visualization (with SDL) and got so frustrated with it that I gave up the entire project.

But in the intervening years, I know NASA and other space agencies have thrown a ton of money at this. Space packing, self-expanding structures, that sort of thing.

Sorry I can't give you any solid links. I'm curious to see what you'll find these days!

@alice I admit, I weaponize my general social awkwardness for this purpose — I hug men friends and coworkers, and let them chalk it up to "Rick doesn't understand we don't have a hugging relationship". Rick very much understands, thank you.

I have no regrets about this. If they don't want hugs, they can say so, and no harm no foul. (I don't sneak attack hug. I'm very clear when I'm coming in for a hug.)