Day 3: Starting Up
Welcome to day three! With 100% less questions to cause existential dread and exactly one more home-cooked meal than yesterday!
Starting off at home
With the trip to Target yesterday, breakfast became a lot simpler. Peanut butter toast is (in my opinion) a great, light fare. Coincidentally, that's what I ate. With a slower start that didn't require finding a restaurant, I got to sleep in a bit too (probably why I look much more awake than I did yesterday).
A chance to regroup and reflect
We met up in the morning in the common area of the condo complex we're staying at and all got a chance to share takeaways from yesterday's meetings. It's interesting to be able to get thoughts from my peers on what they thought the best takeaways were from everyone we heard from. Several people mentioned the concept of making mistakes, as well as the topic of finding your passions and following them. Personally, I'm still thinking about asking questions. Not just asking why I'm here now, but continuing to ask them. Yesterday at DomainTools, it was mentioned that we should ask ourselves the question, "if I won the lottery tomorrow, would I still come in to work next week?" Complacency is something that I know I'm good at. Why should I go out when it's so much easier to stay in? This trip has already pushed me out of my comfort zone. I've had a large amount of autonomy in a major city, and had to figure out what I'm going to do with it. And I'm having a great time. I think that if I can keep asking myself why I am where I am, I can help fight complacency in my life.
A trip to the Amazon
Reflections over, we set out towards one of the many, many, many Amazon buildings in Seattle. If you think I'm exaggerating, according to the Seattle Times, Amazon owns as much real estate as the city's next 40 biggest employers combined (link). We actually did get a little lost trying to find which Amazon building we were supposed to meet our contacts in. Luckily, after a brief moment of confusion, we figured out which large rectangular building it was (the colourful one next to the blue one, bonus points if you know which building I mean), and went in. After seeing the rather minimal layouts of Snapchat and DomainTools yesterday, the Amazon building was... a tad ridiculous. We went up through the first floor, which was almost entirely food vendors (there was even a stand outside the building giving away free bananas). The walls were decorated, the stairs were decorated, everything about the building seemed more like a modern art museum than a company (unfortunately I was too busy staring and trying not to be in people's way to take any pictures). We got to meet with Luther College alumni Jacob Miller '16, Robbie Nesmith '17, and Kirby Olson '17, as well as with a university recruiter--Stephanie Preovolos--and a personal friend of Brad's, Danny Tormoen. It was interesting hearing about the company from the perspective of a new hire. Robbie, Kirby, and Danny all work as software developers, and were able to shed a little light on the team structure of Amazon (google "two pizza team") as well as what it's like to be in a company that's growing so rapidly. Something interesting about Amazon is that their culture is almost entirely tied to their fourteen principles. They were set out by Jeff Bezos, now the richest person in the world, in order to guide everything at Amazon. If you haven't heard about them before, I recommend you look them up. There's some that seem pretty standard corporate goals: hire the best, think about the customer. But even there, they get taken to a whole other level. Amazon doesn't just think about the customer, they're obsessed with the customer. We were told that, unlike other large tech companies, Amazon doesn't give away free food, have crazy theme park offices, or give their employees ridiculous benefits. Instead they focus on using the resources that would have gone into that to give back to the consumer. Another one that caught our eye was, "have a backbone; disagree and commit." What this means is that you shouldn't just let an idea fall by the wayside, even if there's pushback on it. Even if you're challenging a superior on a decision, do it. However, the key to that is also then committing to the chosen path, even if it wasn't your position. And not just committing, then as soon as you leave the meeting bad-mouthing the chosen path to your other colleagues. It means really committing to the decision and pursuing it to its full extent.
More hunger
I mentioned yesterday the idea of being hungry, and that was something that came up again today in full force. Stephanie explicitly mentioned that Amazon is looking for employees who will be hungry. And that makes sense. It falls right in with Amazon's principles: learn and be curious, insist on high standards, think big. Passion is key, it seems, and that's got me still wondering, am I passionate about what I'm doing? Maybe that's the question that I need to keep asking myself. Or it's just another one to add to the list. I'm a senior this year, and people have been asking me what I want to do after college. It's actually become one of my top 10 most disliked questions, alongside "why don't you like chocolate?" I always say that I'm not sure what I want to do. The field of computer science is so vast nowadays that it's nigh impossible to be able to experience it all before I graduate. Right now, I'm interested and curious about cyber security. Maybe that's where I'll go next. But is it where my passion lies? I'll have to wait and see.
Even more hunger, but this time the physical kind
After a long talk at Amazon, we broke off again to go find lunch fare. Upon the recommendation of Kirby, a group of us made the long trek out to The Berliner Döner Kebab. They serve Turkish-style roast meat on German bread. Sounds weird, incredibly good. I had a "lamb and beef scorching kreuzberg," which consisted of lamb and beef meat, tomatoes, cucumber, red cabbage, and a house hot sauce. You can choose a wrap or the house bread; I chose the bread.
It was pretty spicy, which is good for me, but if you're spice adverse, there's options for a standard yogurt sauce or a garlic sauce. I also got Lassi, which is a sort of mango yogurt smoothie. Another one for the recommendation books.
Amazon Go
We actually did get to see in the Amazon Go store. For those who haven't been following the crazy ideas that Amazon comes up with, Amazon Go is an idea for a store without any cashiers. People just go in, scan their phone, and computers watch video feeds to see who grabbed which items and charger them for it. Unfortunately, we didn't get to go in. That's limited to Amazon employees and beta testers only. But from the outside looking in, it (like many other things at Amazon) was pretty wild.
Starting off at home
Casual Space Needle photobomb is mandatory when you can see it from your balcony
With the trip to Target yesterday, breakfast became a lot simpler. Peanut butter toast is (in my opinion) a great, light fare. Coincidentally, that's what I ate. With a slower start that didn't require finding a restaurant, I got to sleep in a bit too (probably why I look much more awake than I did yesterday).
A chance to regroup and reflect
We met up in the morning in the common area of the condo complex we're staying at and all got a chance to share takeaways from yesterday's meetings. It's interesting to be able to get thoughts from my peers on what they thought the best takeaways were from everyone we heard from. Several people mentioned the concept of making mistakes, as well as the topic of finding your passions and following them. Personally, I'm still thinking about asking questions. Not just asking why I'm here now, but continuing to ask them. Yesterday at DomainTools, it was mentioned that we should ask ourselves the question, "if I won the lottery tomorrow, would I still come in to work next week?" Complacency is something that I know I'm good at. Why should I go out when it's so much easier to stay in? This trip has already pushed me out of my comfort zone. I've had a large amount of autonomy in a major city, and had to figure out what I'm going to do with it. And I'm having a great time. I think that if I can keep asking myself why I am where I am, I can help fight complacency in my life.
A trip to the Amazon
Reflections over, we set out towards one of the many, many, many Amazon buildings in Seattle. If you think I'm exaggerating, according to the Seattle Times, Amazon owns as much real estate as the city's next 40 biggest employers combined (link). We actually did get a little lost trying to find which Amazon building we were supposed to meet our contacts in. Luckily, after a brief moment of confusion, we figured out which large rectangular building it was (the colourful one next to the blue one, bonus points if you know which building I mean), and went in. After seeing the rather minimal layouts of Snapchat and DomainTools yesterday, the Amazon building was... a tad ridiculous. We went up through the first floor, which was almost entirely food vendors (there was even a stand outside the building giving away free bananas). The walls were decorated, the stairs were decorated, everything about the building seemed more like a modern art museum than a company (unfortunately I was too busy staring and trying not to be in people's way to take any pictures). We got to meet with Luther College alumni Jacob Miller '16, Robbie Nesmith '17, and Kirby Olson '17, as well as with a university recruiter--Stephanie Preovolos--and a personal friend of Brad's, Danny Tormoen. It was interesting hearing about the company from the perspective of a new hire. Robbie, Kirby, and Danny all work as software developers, and were able to shed a little light on the team structure of Amazon (google "two pizza team") as well as what it's like to be in a company that's growing so rapidly. Something interesting about Amazon is that their culture is almost entirely tied to their fourteen principles. They were set out by Jeff Bezos, now the richest person in the world, in order to guide everything at Amazon. If you haven't heard about them before, I recommend you look them up. There's some that seem pretty standard corporate goals: hire the best, think about the customer. But even there, they get taken to a whole other level. Amazon doesn't just think about the customer, they're obsessed with the customer. We were told that, unlike other large tech companies, Amazon doesn't give away free food, have crazy theme park offices, or give their employees ridiculous benefits. Instead they focus on using the resources that would have gone into that to give back to the consumer. Another one that caught our eye was, "have a backbone; disagree and commit." What this means is that you shouldn't just let an idea fall by the wayside, even if there's pushback on it. Even if you're challenging a superior on a decision, do it. However, the key to that is also then committing to the chosen path, even if it wasn't your position. And not just committing, then as soon as you leave the meeting bad-mouthing the chosen path to your other colleagues. It means really committing to the decision and pursuing it to its full extent.
More hunger
I mentioned yesterday the idea of being hungry, and that was something that came up again today in full force. Stephanie explicitly mentioned that Amazon is looking for employees who will be hungry. And that makes sense. It falls right in with Amazon's principles: learn and be curious, insist on high standards, think big. Passion is key, it seems, and that's got me still wondering, am I passionate about what I'm doing? Maybe that's the question that I need to keep asking myself. Or it's just another one to add to the list. I'm a senior this year, and people have been asking me what I want to do after college. It's actually become one of my top 10 most disliked questions, alongside "why don't you like chocolate?" I always say that I'm not sure what I want to do. The field of computer science is so vast nowadays that it's nigh impossible to be able to experience it all before I graduate. Right now, I'm interested and curious about cyber security. Maybe that's where I'll go next. But is it where my passion lies? I'll have to wait and see.
Even more hunger, but this time the physical kind
After a long talk at Amazon, we broke off again to go find lunch fare. Upon the recommendation of Kirby, a group of us made the long trek out to The Berliner Döner Kebab. They serve Turkish-style roast meat on German bread. Sounds weird, incredibly good. I had a "lamb and beef scorching kreuzberg," which consisted of lamb and beef meat, tomatoes, cucumber, red cabbage, and a house hot sauce. You can choose a wrap or the house bread; I chose the bread.
Thank you to Tyler Conzett, who I borrowed this picture from
because I forgot to take one
Amazon Go
We actually did get to see in the Amazon Go store. For those who haven't been following the crazy ideas that Amazon comes up with, Amazon Go is an idea for a store without any cashiers. People just go in, scan their phone, and computers watch video feeds to see who grabbed which items and charger them for it. Unfortunately, we didn't get to go in. That's limited to Amazon employees and beta testers only. But from the outside looking in, it (like many other things at Amazon) was pretty wild.
This is only slightly less than we saw
Meeting our professor
We didn't have anything planned for the afternoon, so Brad volunteered his story to us about starting Net Perceptions. It was a dot com success story that made recommendation software for eCommerce stores. Essentially, they made the software that tells you what items people like you also buy. Unfortunately, like many dot com success stories, it fell prey to the dot com crash. I never realised that one of my professors at Luther had made such a valuable contribution to the Internet as a whole (and I'm not just saying that because he reads this blog). It really was interesting to hear Brad's story and really get to know where he's coming from and where he's looking to go in the future. There too, the topic of passion really came up, and Brad talked about finding things that he was really passionate about. Passion is why he ended up coming to Luther to teach. He mentioned a little voice that kept nagging at him, saying, "this is where you should be." Sometimes I feel like I'm trying to ignore that little voice in my head, so that I can do what I think I'm supposed to do. If there's one thing I'm getting from the meetings we've already had, it's that I'm doing it wrong. That's something I can work on.
Dinner: attempt number one
I mentioned yesterday that we picked up supplies to make dinner tonight. It's a pretty simple recipe called sheet-pan chicken. You basically chop up a bunch of vegetables, drizzle over some olive oil and seasonings, roast them for a bit, then add chicken, more olive oil, more seasonings, and let that bake for a while longer. Sounds pretty simple, right? Well things get a bit more stressful when you're in an unfamiliar kitchen and scrounging for the right supplies. Luckily, Tyler, Ryan, and Matt were able to supply us with olive oil, as well as a really nice fig and orange balsamic vinegar, both of which they found in their room. With a bit of powdered garlic and cayenne for seasoning, I set out to make dinner.
This is the face of concentration, but also the face of
someone who knows he should be using a cutting board
Working with dull knives and without a cutting board was somewhat difficult, but I managed to avoid injury and incident, while preparing dinner. Another instance of being forced out of my comfort zone on this trip. Definitely in a good way though.
The finished product
In the end, everything turned out great! I managed to avoid screwing up a pretty simple recipe, and delivered some pretty delicious food (even if the carrots could have used a bit more time).
Best part about cooking for friends? I don't have to do dishes!
I think we all had fun hanging out while we waited for food, and best of all, it was a heck of a lot cheaper than going out to eat.
Up and at 'um early
Tomorrow's an early start, we're heading off at 7:30 (no, it's not that bad, but it's early to me) in order to get to Redmond to visit Microsoft. It should be a fun trip (if I'm awake for it)!
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