Noise Between Stations

In Tillie’s, Fort Greene, Brooklyn

“Hey Man”
“Hey, how’s it going?”
“Good good. You know, I’m sorry to bother you, but I’ve been watching what you’re doing and it looks wild. What is that?”
“Oh, I’m sort of drawing a piece of software.”
“Drawing it? Is that how you do it?”
“Well ya, I draw what it’ll look like, and someone else makes it work.”
“How much of it do you have to draw?”
“Well, it depends. In this case, I’m drawing every screen.”
“Every screen?! Man, that is crazy, that is so far out. I didn’t know people did that. Draw every screen. Man, that’s something. Why do you do it that way?”
“You know, I’m not sure.”
“It’s kinda like an architect. Like you’re drawing a building. But I thought, you know, people just programmed and whatnot and that’s all you had to do.”
“Yeah. Yeah, that would be cool.”

Published by

Victor

Responses

  1. Anders Ramsay Avatar
    Anders Ramsay

    I love this. Few things are more refreshing (and potentially more insightful) than a totally ‘Other’ perspective on what we do – things that are obvious (maybe even boring) can be mesmerizingly interesting to an outsider – I remember, as a boy, visiting a friend of the family who built violins. I had expected his workshop to be filled with your traditional woodworking equipment but instead found that it was more of a chemistry lab, and that he spent nearly all his time perfecting various varnishes – I had always thought the varnish was just for looks, but apparently it’s an essential factor in determining the quality of the sound of a violin. I think, in response, I said something to him like:

    “Man, that is crazy, that is so far out. I didn’t know people did that.”

  2. Victor Avatar
    Victor

    :-)