The Stripy Strudel's Journal

In an imaginary, ideal and pitch abstract world live people who don't give a damn about being trapped in our thought experiment: they're people, too, and try to get their human fun from life. Just like us, they meet, make friends, mix and give each other simple pleasures. And just like in our world, they have social obstacles, having grown up in somewhat different cultures and then gotten mixed together. That's why what's natural for some is unthinkable for others.

For example, some people love massage of the head so much that they're willing to spend hours scratching, stroking and massaging each other's heads — if they find someone like them. But here's the catch: for some others touching the scalp is a taboo that can't even be mentioned. Because nobody knows whether it's disgusting or delightful for someone, you can't really offer this to a person: what if they get offended? So two head massage lovers don't dare to offer it to each other because each one of them is afraid that it's unacceptable for the other. Same thing with nose-rubbing, round dances, riding horses together, pat-a-cake and numerous other ways in which our speculative poor things bring enjoyment to each other.

Here is the problem the society is facing: invent a way for fans of various pleasure to recognize each other. It seems trivial: why not introduce conventional signs? For example, a red T-shirt could mean a round dance devotee. But it's not that easy: a round dance lover wouldn't like those for whom round dances are a taboo to know about their devotion. Hey, there are places where they won't let you in if you wear that! Therefore, a signaling system has to be more selective.

Let us call the whole range of ways to please each other acceptable for a person their easiness, as in “he's an easy (uncomplicated) person”, “she's easy to be with”. An easiness is a mathematical set. Let us designate the easiness of a person X as E_X. Then the requirement to a signaling system should be stated as follows: for every person Y, conventional signs worn by Y should suffice for X to derive E_X ∩ E_Y. Consequently, for each of his devotions X will only find out whether it's shared by Y, but he won't find out about those of Y's passions that X himself dislikes. He'll find out what he can what he shouldn't try with Y, but won't know anything shocking or destructive to their friendship.

A solution to this problem can be a variety of signs with limited knowledge of them. For every questionable pastime A enthusiasts establish a club, society or some other kind of community for A-doers. To become a member, one needs to do A with any current member. For lovers of A it's not a problem but rather a pleasure, but those for whom A is unacceptable won't even think about joining the community. Of course, the lists of community members are kept in secret. Because the world is ideal, everyone knows about every such community, and can and will join all the relevant ones. In a closed meeting, members of the A-doers society decide on a sign by which fans of A will recognize each other. It can be anything: an item of clothing, an accessory, a feature of speech or gait, a code word or gesture. Different communities pick essentially different signs, so that it's impossible to tell by the look of how many communities a person is a member. This way, everybody only knows the signs of belonging to those communities one is oneself a member of, and when X and Y meet, they instantly see what their common easiness, the intersection of E_X and E_Y, is, and within that intersection they feel at ease with each other.

The problem and the solution have been found in brainstorming together with Wheezle, for which I'm thankful to her. This way, we have determined by experiment that joint brainstorming is included in our common easiness. And if you, my dear readers, also love head massage — welcome to the club!

По-русски: Общество любителей фантазировать с умным видом

Here is what I found in my inbox today. That's right, I've got e-mails from HR departments of Yahoo! a Microsoft within less than half a day.



The one from Yahoo! was very short: they were just asking if I'm theoretically interested in working at their office in California, and for some reason asked me to send them my CV in Word format. Heh, good start: requiring me to use an expensive proprietary product which isn't even made for my OS, already during negotiation. Microsoft sent me a looong letter with a badly formatted plaintext version describing in a hardcore PR language how great it is to work in their Canada office, with a link to a video clip about it that only works on Windows or Mac. The message was essentially the same: whether I'm in principle interested in working for the villains.

It's time for me to get myself a piece of stationery like this for pinning down offers from companies I hate. I'm currently missing letters from Apple and Adobe for a complete collection.

Nevertheless, my attitude towards the giants who impede the industry doesn't preclude me from flying for interviews to the aforementioned countries for their expense and getting my tourist fun out of it. If it's not too hard to get the visas, that's what I'm going to do.

Some of my colleagues think that I should use offers from other companies to get a better salary at my current job, but here's the catch: if you're going to use a job offer in salary negotiations, you've got to be ready to pack up and leave. But the truth is, I'd never work for Yahoo! or, even worse, Microsoft. And even some other company, at least at this time, would have a hard time convincing me to leave the city I'm in love with.

I will only leave Opera Software when I realize that there is a job that I'd rather be doing than this one. And a boilerplate e-mail from some HR department will hardly be a reason for that.

По-русски: Интересует ли Вас работа в логове врага?