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I dread the "what do you do?" question so much; lately I just deflect with "I'm one of the assholes ruining San Francisco, what about you?" Granted that's in t

I dread the "what do you do?" question so much; lately I just deflect with "I'm one of the assholes ruining San Francisco, what about you?" Granted that's in the context of hanging out with people other than startup people. At meetups and whatnot I usually give them some of the highs and the lows, it lets the other person know they can open up too. We don't all have to be fronting positivity 24/7.

foxylad 12y ago
The socially accepted response is a one sentence description which then allows the person to enquire more if they are interested, or move on to other topics if not. In general society "I'm a web developer" works for me. At a startup meet, I'd be more specific: "I'm developing an online petting zoo". The key is to listen for prompts before you go deeper. If someone responded to "what do you do?" with a five minute exposition of either their successes or challenges without further prompting from me, I'd be a bit taken aback. After all, I only asked so they'd ask me back and I could tell them how exciting/challenging my job is.
sanderjd 12y ago
Yeah, it must be so nice to do something that everybody understands. "What do you do?" "I'm a lawyer."
- Mandatum 12y ago
  "I'm an electrician" "I'm a teacher" "I'm in the military" .. It's weird.