Temptation...
I realize now that I can write off any late-in-life career change to become a secret agent. I've been exposed to a tiny, tiny fraction of the company's innards and I can't tell you how difficult it is not to talk about all the cool new stuff I've found out. This is particularly true given how being a scientist basically means regressing back to that perfect state where you can't wait to tell anyone who'll listen about the cool new thing you figured out. Most people grow out of this stage around age 6 and then science types spend their entire grad school lives figuring out how to get back there. Of course, the NDA I signed when I was out in California basically gives them the right to litigate my ass back to the Stone Age if I say anything, which does help to keep one's tongue. However, the likelihood that I'm gonna have one too many Red Bulls before dinner and it's all gonna come out in one burst remains high.
In between worrying that my natural inclinations are gonna land me on the wrong side of an intellectual copyright infringement lawsuit, I've been figuring out how to manage this two career thing. I'd had the idea that I could do a reasonably good job of this by compartmentalizing based on location: when I'm at the office, I work on the Google stuff and when I get home I do the science stuff. Between talking to grad students and just general laziness, I never really got much done science-wise at the office anyway, so this seemed like a reasonable way to go. Project-wise, this has been working fairly well; despite the fairly steep learning curve as I adjust to the idea that more than one person is gonna be looking at my code, we're making some good progress this week. Unfortunately, I've been finding that I don't really start to hit my stride in the evenings until about 10pm or so and that lasts until about 2 or 3 in the morning. That's not so good when there's something of an expectation that you'll be in the office a respectable length of time before lunch is served at 11:30. Fortunately, I've spent the last four years convincing Andy that I can be productive and not get in until noon, so I think this will eventually work itself out. Either that, or I'm gonna have to invent the early evening nap and learn to sleep four hours at a time.
In between worrying that my natural inclinations are gonna land me on the wrong side of an intellectual copyright infringement lawsuit, I've been figuring out how to manage this two career thing. I'd had the idea that I could do a reasonably good job of this by compartmentalizing based on location: when I'm at the office, I work on the Google stuff and when I get home I do the science stuff. Between talking to grad students and just general laziness, I never really got much done science-wise at the office anyway, so this seemed like a reasonable way to go. Project-wise, this has been working fairly well; despite the fairly steep learning curve as I adjust to the idea that more than one person is gonna be looking at my code, we're making some good progress this week. Unfortunately, I've been finding that I don't really start to hit my stride in the evenings until about 10pm or so and that lasts until about 2 or 3 in the morning. That's not so good when there's something of an expectation that you'll be in the office a respectable length of time before lunch is served at 11:30. Fortunately, I've spent the last four years convincing Andy that I can be productive and not get in until noon, so I think this will eventually work itself out. Either that, or I'm gonna have to invent the early evening nap and learn to sleep four hours at a time.