User talk:Tonyc
General Introduction to The Geek
Impressions
I'll just dump out a brief summary of each day, then give my general take afterward.
Day 1, Tuesday, Oct. 21
Met up with Laurel for initial check-in and to go over the basics. Felt that she prepped me pretty well for what was ahead, especially the overwhelming nature of getting acclimated at FG. Discussion of all the comm systems (RT, db, lists, double-wiki) was most intimidating aspect, both in understanding what they were and how they worked together. Seemed like the use of all these technologies was both highly tech, and cultural...hard to grasp. She made it clear that the answer to a good chunk of my questions in the first two weeks would be "It's on the wiki." Made the value of having a high degree of documentation clear in saving time training new hires. But I was dreading hearing that answer instead of getting one from a human on the spot. Committees were easier to grasp. Luiz recommended I shop around and attend each committee at least once before choosing. Richard soon afterward said this had never been actually done before by a new hire. It's funny that all the contradictory advice I got over the day, the fact that it was so contradictory, was strangely reassuring. It was tiring to process and sort out, but once I realized everyone here had a different way of plugging in a and functioning, it felt a little more freeing to find my own way.
Luiz laid out his general plan that I spend a couple days in pre-build and receiving before receiving the "brain dump" in the store.
Spending time in pre-build seemed like a good place to start in general. Working alongside newer volunteers allowed me to soak in the atmosphere without feeling completely out of the loop. Card sorting taught me a lot, and also made me feel like I kind of new what I was doing. I was worried the computer side would be entirely new, but I recognized most stuff. I am not a flowchart kinda guy. You should know this about me. I can't really use them, and I have never made one. It is not the way I am wired, but it seems to be a large part of the culture. Luckily I had Blaine there to walk me through, so I didn't have to use the charts too much.
By the time I left, I was fully overloaded, and stayed that way all night, getting about one hour sleep. I think this is a physical response to learning so much at once, like the energy required to form that many synapses is more than the system can handle. I laid there and retraced the layout of the space, and saw people's faces, heard voices, saw the wiki. maybe somebody really did slip me something, but I think I'd just been thrown in the deep end. I think the full tour for closing procedure right at the end was what did me in.
Day 2, Wed.
Did not sleep the night before Went home in the afternoon. started off in prebuild, then working on cable sort
Day 3, Thurs.
Attended action comm meeting. Luiz pulled me off the walk after we'd taken the field trip. met with laurel for a brief checkin
Day 4, Fri.
Day 5, Sat.
Challenges
Overstimulation By about 3 hrs into the first day, I felt like someone had slipped me something, or actually more like I had a concussion.