Offline Comments
18 Feb 2009I’ve received a few offline comments from friends and family about my last couple of posts that I wanted to share and expand upon here.
::Plus I’m excited I know a least two people are reading…damn, now I need to clean up the language, damn, damn, damn…wait…::
The Software Can do Whatever I Tell it to Do
My college friend Andy passed along this recent Dilbert cartoon with this note:
Ben,
I saved this because I experience it all the time when designing
mechanical devices. Seems to go nicely with your Alan Cooper blog post.
-Andy
I get scared every time I read a Dilbert cartoon that is so close to my own life. Afterwards I start to wonder about all the other comics I read that I haven’t personally experienced yet. I then start to wonder if Scott Adams personally has experienced each one of these situations or not, and then I get depressed. There are a lot of people out there working in engineering in one form or another…one of us probably lives the life of Dilbert, the odds are too good to not have it happen. What does that one person read and laugh about on a daily basis?
We have Dilbert; we laugh at their life…what gives them a chuckle? So help me if you say Cathy, no one laughs at Cathy.
Tales from the Interview
Tales from the Interview is actually an on going series posted on TheDailyWtf.com, where contributors write in to share experiences they have had on both sides of the interview, giving and receiving. Some of these shared stories are hard to believe they actually happen, however like Dilbert above, well, I’ve been depressed once tonight, I rather not think there is a another poor soul out there who has experienced each one of these types of interviews…
I was however asked to share a little bit more on my interview script and where the character of ‘The Jerk’ came from. I was actually accused of being The Jerk…and I have been, but not as often as some might believe. The role of The Jerk evolved over time as we more clearly defined the roles of the interview process itself. In our first couple of iterations, my team and I were rotating roles and often crossing boundaries from role to role. Through almost natural selection, each one of us slipped into a role that best suited us. It was actually a very organic transition to a place where we all felt comfortable during the process.