UPDATED: First Tuesday Dinner in SF


Always a high to be surrounded by smarts

UPDATED: After referring someone to this post, and thenreading it over I realized I had made a major error. That major error is corrected below...I meant to say that people assume I'm an EXtrovert and my SO is an INtrovert, not the other way around.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Spent a great, stimulating evening last night at the Delancey Street Restaurant with about 40 other people. Techie people, marketing people, business people, writing people...oh, let's just say way-smarter-than-me people.

I remember when I first got into high tech in '97. I was coming from the commodities industry. Commodities folks can be smart, no question...but it's a very Chicago/New York kind of industry. The people out here in California that are involved in it are mostly on the periphery...as I was, for example, working in accounting for commodity traders. I wasn't working with the smartest folks in my industry, and I wasn't, frankly, intrigued by the concept of becoming a trader, so there really wasn't the itch to learn much more than I was already doing.

When I joined my first tech company, Harmonic Inc, it was so cool to be surrounded by tons of folks who were simply smart than I. And to be dealing with this world of technology that was fascinating, that was intriguing.

Similarly, when I moved on from Harmonic, I joined Terayon and learned a whole new set of technologies and was once again surrounded by some brilliant people.

OK, are there stupid people in every company? Yes. Am I minimizing my own personal blend of common sense, surprising technical aptitude and cut-to-the-chase acuity? Not at all. I'm no blushing flower, if you know me, you know this well. But being around people where you have something to learn is exciting.

I didn't know what to expect when I showed up last night. I was invited by the host, Jeff, who was introduced to me by a mutual friend via email only. He suggested meeting in person, and he suggested meeting via this monthly dinner.

There were bloggers there, and writers, and engineers, and entrepreneurs, and small business owners, and academics and raconteurs and visionaries, I would guess. But what was lacking was pretension or awkwardness or pissing matches (OK, well maybe I witnessed one pissing match.)

We talked politics, technology, culture. You name it. I didn't sit with the person who invited me, or the one person I knew who was also there. But this was an expansive and open-minded crowd...never a dull or awkward moment.

I'm always talking about the introvert/extrovert conundrum.

Most people assume I am an inextrovert and my SO is an exintrovert.

But one definition of that scale is how you feel after social interaction. No matter how talkative you may have been, that is only one measure. It's how you feel. When the SO and I leave social functions, I am often drained. I can't wait to get home and decompress, be quiet, pet my cat...alone! He is all a tingle. He's Chatty Cathy. He's energized.

In my book that makes him almost more of an extrovert, don't you think?

Anyway, I digress.

My point was that I was really jazzed mentally on my long drive home last night.

A rare extroverted aftermath for me!

Posted: Fri - February 11, 2005 at 07:18 PM       EmailFeedback

©