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Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!cbosgd!ihnp4!ucbvax!decvax!yale!ISM780!darryl
From: darryl@ISM780.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.singles
Subject: Re: Re: Showing Off (Athletics VS Intell
Message-ID: <33100024@ISM780.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 9-Jul-85 09:04:00 EDT
Article-I.D.: ISM780.33100024
Posted: Tue Jul  9 09:04:00 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 13-Jul-85 11:42:39 EDT
References: <1030@trwatf.UUCP>
Lines: 30
Nf-ID: #R:trwatf:-103000:ISM780:33100024:000:1028
Nf-From: ISM780!darryl    Jul  9 09:04:00 1985


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?  For example

"What do you do?"
    "I write compilers."  nobody outside the industry knows what that is...
	-- or --
    "I am a computer programmer."
"Oh, what does your company do?"
    "We sell Unix ports to OEMs."   Huh?
	-- or --
    "I am a computer programmer."
"What do you program?"
    "I write language translators."
"Like English to Russian?"          "Sea?  Do you work in Atlantis?"  Sigh.
	-- and so on... --

How can I answer this without making them feel like they are stupid, but
also avoiding the path "It's a very technical job, you wouldn't understand
without a longwinded and boring discussion"?

	      --No Introduction in LA

(--Darryl Richman, INTERACTIVE Systems Corp.
...!cca!ima!ism780!darryl
The views expressed above are my opinions only.)