Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site cornell.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxr!mhuxn!ihnp4!qantel!hplabs!tektronix!uw-beaver!cornell!rance From: rance@cornell.UUCP (W. Rance Cleaveland) Newsgroups: net.singles Subject: What Do You Do? Message-ID: <3133@cornell.UUCP> Date: Sun, 14-Jul-85 13:52:20 EDT Article-I.D.: cornell.3133 Posted: Sun Jul 14 13:52:20 1985 Date-Received: Thu, 18-Jul-85 03:13:27 EDT References: <1030@trwatf.UUCP> <33100024@ISM780.UUCP> Organization: Cornell Univ. CS Dept. Lines: 31 > > Dear Net Landers: > > At my job I work on C compilers, for a software company > that specializes in doing Unix ports. When I meet people socially, a > frequently asked question is "What do you do for a living?" How can I > answer without being boorish or boring? I have this problem too, and I expect that anyone in a technical field will as well. I can't very well tell my grandparents, or my SO's mother, that I'm investigating the possibilities of using constructive logics to aid in the reasoning about, and construction of, distributed systems. After stumbling and muttering on several occasions, I decided that a Strategy was in order. Here is what it is: 1. Use no terminology specific to your discipline. 2. Use analogies to subjects the listener understands. 3. Generalize away most technical details. Now, when Aunt Shirley asks me what I do, I say something like, "I'm working at developing a mathematical framework for analyzing whether certain types of computers behave the way you want them to." If she asks what kind of computers, I say, "Computer systems in which several computers communicate with each other to solve problems. Sometimes, just as two heads are better than one, two com- puters are better than one." Then I ask her about how she likes Savannah.... In your case, you could say something like, "I write programs which translate from a computer langauge which one computer cannot understand to one which it can understand." The translation analogy would work pretty well, I think.... Regards, Rance Cleaveland