How to socialise as a hacker

I’m in need of a solution to one of the greatest hurdles when meeting new people. How do you explain to someone you’ve never met before what you do?

Meeting students from other universities is always a fruitful experience and this weekend I had the opportunity to accompany a friend to a house-warming party in Stockholm for another one of those experiences. It turned out the majority of the students at the party are studying medicine and soon to be doctors, with a knack for good laughs and down to earth conversations. I bet that you in similar situations, among people you have never met before, have to introduce yourself, why you’re there and what you do, in a short and easy to understand fashion.

Most commonly my introductions end up something like along the following lines:

Sophie – “So, what do you do again?”
Marcus – “I’m studying IT in Gothenburg”
Sophie – “Aaah, that means you’re good at computers? Right?” (once in a while computers can be replaced with “I’ve never understood what the purpose of computer games are” and then you’re lost)
Marcus – “Well, I’m not working with the hardware itself, it’s what runs on them that’s interesting… “
Sophie – “You mean like computer games?” (obviously this is true, praise and use perhaps?)

What I’ve found so far is that it helps understanding what the person you’re talking to does first. While he or she is talking make mental notes all the things that easily relate to software engineering. Make sure to use the terminology that you’ve just picked up to make the connections clear once it’s your turn to explain what you do.

Secondly, avoid software engineering terminology at all costs! No one understands what an architecture is, they will relate it to architecture of buildings, which is not the same thing. Hey, I’m not even sure I know what an architecture is.

Be polite and patient; it might seem like an obvious attitude to have, yet there are so many times that I feel my questions to seek understanding is ignored. Only once I know the person I’m talking to understands the concept I allow myself to dig into details. Otherwise I’m more likely to end as the lonesome nerd in the corner, and in that corner I’m not going to meet new friends, challenge my perceptions or learn something new!

Nevertheless, there are also more things to talk about than studies. How do you introduce yourself to people you’ve never met? I volunteer to try new ways anytime. If there is an universal solution, you’ll be the first to know. Promise.

A Christmas Carol

Gifts exchange owners at SEM Christmas Party 2009

Uni is relatively empty today. There are only a few members of my project group here although I have seen some lonewolfs around too. Christmas is coming as fast as the snow is falling. Most projects are over for the SEM students, thus there was a great Christmas Party last week. Photos from the event can be found here: http://event.quandoo.se/photos/christmas2009/

Just because uni is empty does, however, not equal to nothing to do. Our research project (studying the relationships between organisations who have introduced Free/Libre Open Source Software and communities) continues with a second, somewhat weird, deadline on the 4 January 2010. The 4th may not seem so innocuous at first, but the course requirements tells another story. A story where students aren’t singing Christmas carols, snow is replaced by heavy rain and days are turned into nights. In this story, students are visiting their grandparents accompanied by their laptops, frantically squeezing a minute of typing in between Kalle Anka and the Risgrynsgröt.

In an attempt to rectify the problem and possibly give 50 students a white Christmas we composed an e-mail to our course coordinator giving two alternatives. One where the deadline is postponed to match the requirements, and a second where the course requirements are corrected to match the absurd deadline. Now all we can do is to hope for some sympathy.

“Have yourself a merry little Christmas,
let your heart be light.
From now on,
our troubles will be out of sight.”

Merry Christmas everyone