Its been a while..
A lot has happened in the last 3 months.
I started a full time job at a start up in downtown Seattle that offered me partial ownership in a privately held company that was mostly owned by a well known rich guy in the area.. then lost the job after a disagreement with one of the other owners with more shares in the company then I had that made me - in part - decide to move on. To be honest, it was mutual but I negotiated aggressively even before I left and in the end managed to get enough for my non-vested shares to take a 3 week vacation from the world, just like old times, in the form of an extra paycheck so I did not have a tax burden from capital gains. I learned a lot about myself and my new interests in finance and business, and I decided that I really just can't be in a start-up that I don't fully control. And working for another person at salary is just not worth it; I hated working so much more for so much less.
So I'm back at Redmond on my third contract, working in the companies Games division for the duration of my contract. The minute the interview was over the guy who is now my boss asked me if I was interested in being a full time employee, and tried to sell me on the position enough to do another full day interview for that team. Since I had just interviewed for a contract position after realizing that I didn't want to work for ANYBODY at salary when I don't own a controlling position in the company, I simply responded by faking confusion and a sort of "wow I thank you I never thought of that" happiness before asking about the non-compete and anti-poaching agreement I know they had with the contracting company I used.. it was really the best way to turn it down, since it was never really an option anyway but I still have to be mindful of burning bridges.
I have noticed that the contract that I get seems to be connected to what my current interests are; I'm currently interested in gaming, game development, etc and so I go work at a game company.. when I was interested in radio broadcasting and embedded devices I worked with them, when I was interested in computer security and government/military cryptology I worked with that.. and my interests always seem to come first.
I stopped playing World Of Warcraft as much, got into Eve Online. I love Eve more, its more challenging and "real". In World of Warcraft there is not much PVP (Player Verses Player), and what it does have is limited to duals with no sense of loss; With Eve, I can work for a month on getting a new ship and lose it 1 minute later because I picked the wrong fight or was stupid and left myself defenseless against the attacker. Its like intergalactic chess against 50 thousand other people, with space ships, corporations that can own entire start systems, rail guns, and attack drones. I'm learning so much about human nature, military strategy, game development strategy, economics, management, etc from it, it just amazes me how realistic the economical data they give you for the player driven economy is, and the corporation structure is real enough that I was able to fake advanced knowledge of the game based on my prior self education in business and finance to become a Trade Director despite the fact that my character is not even 2 months old.
One thing I have started to notice about my learning style is that I really often think and learn by way of both simulation and transitive equivalence. For some odd reason extracting a transitive meaning out of something that at first glance does not seem related is just not that hard, and I find myself thinking that its harder not to do so. I think of a given subject, and the tree of references and connections just bloom. I don't know if its normal or not, but sometimes I feel like an outcast because of it.. sometimes nobody around me can see the connection I do. It makes me feel alone, even in a crowded room.
Another thing I noticed mostly during my time at that start up, was that my ability to think of concepts, numbers, math, etc as shapes I can taste/touch/feel/smell/hear as well as see as shapes in my head is just not normal. I had hopes, thought maybe it was a by-product of my technical background, but when I tried to explain to a PHD how I came to an answer to a technical question in his field so fast despite not knowing much about it, I was treated as if I was retarded, strange, etc for my ability. My attempts to backtrack, declare myself a lucky guesser, had no effects. The looks, the anger I faced, I think I really left the company that day, I felt so ... outcast.
I like this. I have always been able to be myself here, say what I wanted to say, write what I wanted to write. I need to start writing more, I really do.
I started a full time job at a start up in downtown Seattle that offered me partial ownership in a privately held company that was mostly owned by a well known rich guy in the area.. then lost the job after a disagreement with one of the other owners with more shares in the company then I had that made me - in part - decide to move on. To be honest, it was mutual but I negotiated aggressively even before I left and in the end managed to get enough for my non-vested shares to take a 3 week vacation from the world, just like old times, in the form of an extra paycheck so I did not have a tax burden from capital gains. I learned a lot about myself and my new interests in finance and business, and I decided that I really just can't be in a start-up that I don't fully control. And working for another person at salary is just not worth it; I hated working so much more for so much less.
So I'm back at Redmond on my third contract, working in the companies Games division for the duration of my contract. The minute the interview was over the guy who is now my boss asked me if I was interested in being a full time employee, and tried to sell me on the position enough to do another full day interview for that team. Since I had just interviewed for a contract position after realizing that I didn't want to work for ANYBODY at salary when I don't own a controlling position in the company, I simply responded by faking confusion and a sort of "wow I thank you I never thought of that" happiness before asking about the non-compete and anti-poaching agreement I know they had with the contracting company I used.. it was really the best way to turn it down, since it was never really an option anyway but I still have to be mindful of burning bridges.
I have noticed that the contract that I get seems to be connected to what my current interests are; I'm currently interested in gaming, game development, etc and so I go work at a game company.. when I was interested in radio broadcasting and embedded devices I worked with them, when I was interested in computer security and government/military cryptology I worked with that.. and my interests always seem to come first.
I stopped playing World Of Warcraft as much, got into Eve Online. I love Eve more, its more challenging and "real". In World of Warcraft there is not much PVP (Player Verses Player), and what it does have is limited to duals with no sense of loss; With Eve, I can work for a month on getting a new ship and lose it 1 minute later because I picked the wrong fight or was stupid and left myself defenseless against the attacker. Its like intergalactic chess against 50 thousand other people, with space ships, corporations that can own entire start systems, rail guns, and attack drones. I'm learning so much about human nature, military strategy, game development strategy, economics, management, etc from it, it just amazes me how realistic the economical data they give you for the player driven economy is, and the corporation structure is real enough that I was able to fake advanced knowledge of the game based on my prior self education in business and finance to become a Trade Director despite the fact that my character is not even 2 months old.
One thing I have started to notice about my learning style is that I really often think and learn by way of both simulation and transitive equivalence. For some odd reason extracting a transitive meaning out of something that at first glance does not seem related is just not that hard, and I find myself thinking that its harder not to do so. I think of a given subject, and the tree of references and connections just bloom. I don't know if its normal or not, but sometimes I feel like an outcast because of it.. sometimes nobody around me can see the connection I do. It makes me feel alone, even in a crowded room.
Another thing I noticed mostly during my time at that start up, was that my ability to think of concepts, numbers, math, etc as shapes I can taste/touch/feel/smell/hear as well as see as shapes in my head is just not normal. I had hopes, thought maybe it was a by-product of my technical background, but when I tried to explain to a PHD how I came to an answer to a technical question in his field so fast despite not knowing much about it, I was treated as if I was retarded, strange, etc for my ability. My attempts to backtrack, declare myself a lucky guesser, had no effects. The looks, the anger I faced, I think I really left the company that day, I felt so ... outcast.
I like this. I have always been able to be myself here, say what I wanted to say, write what I wanted to write. I need to start writing more, I really do.