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You would think so, but still... <crickets />. It was one, admittedly very minor, thing I was kind of excited about when I got into it compared to my prior jobs

You would think so, but still... <crickets />. It was one, admittedly very minor, thing I was kind of excited about when I got into it compared to my prior jobs in various shapes of distributed systems development (FinTech, ML, databases, etc). I figured, "Well almost everybody has a car, and this kind of thing is in the news a lot these days, and it's pretty sci-fi-y, so unlike everything else I've ever done... surely self-driving cars won't be a thing where I'm at a table surrounded by blank stares... surely." Sadly, no. "I make websites." works a lot better because then people just start talking about random stuff they do on the Internet and things carry right along.

mistersquid 9y ago
> Sadly, no. "I make websites." works a lot better because then people > just start talking about random stuff they do on the Internet and things > carry right along. This is the heart of conversational wisdom which is that in group conversations people don't usually want to know the details of one person. Rather, in group conversations each member of the group wants a chance to contribute something to the conversation and offering someting about yourself in terms that each member of the group can relate to is to advance the group conversation. If the group conversation breaks out into smaller conversations, then greater detail might be warranted depending on the inclination and knowledgeability of the participants. But it's a balancing act. So I don't think it's "Sadly, no" at all. It's actually great that you can say something to which people can relate.
xelxebar 9y ago
As a math grad student, I really feel you on the crickets thing. My research is some obscure application of agebraic topology to general relativity. Over the years I've played with all kinds of ways to relate what I do to people. These days I kind of feel that the storytelling is more important than accurately describing my research. So instead of answering with some compact three-sentence explanation, I'll take the opportunity to start telling stories about space and the mysteries of the universe. I'm not sure people walk away with an understanding of what I do in any useful sense, but the conversations are often fun and I feel like they at least understand how I feel about my research. FWIW, you job sounds pretty badass to me. :)

mistersquid 9y ago

> Sadly, no. "I make websites." works a lot better because then people > just start talking about random stuff they do on the Internet and things > carry right along. This is the heart of conversational wisdom which is that in group conversations people don't usually want to know the details of one person. Rather, in group conversations each member of the group wants a chance to contribute something to the conversation and offering someting about yourself in terms that each member of the group can relate to is to advance the group conversation. If the group conversation breaks out into smaller conversations, then greater detail might be warranted depending on the inclination and knowledgeability of the participants. But it's a balancing act. So I don't think it's "Sadly, no" at all. It's actually great that you can say something to which people can relate.

xelxebar 9y ago

As a math grad student, I really feel you on the crickets thing. My research is some obscure application of agebraic topology to general relativity. Over the years I've played with all kinds of ways to relate what I do to people. These days I kind of feel that the storytelling is more important than accurately describing my research. So instead of answering with some compact three-sentence explanation, I'll take the opportunity to start telling stories about space and the mysteries of the universe. I'm not sure people walk away with an understanding of what I do in any useful sense, but the conversations are often fun and I feel like they at least understand how I feel about my research. FWIW, you job sounds pretty badass to me. :)