Missives from the 6th Floor

Yesterday morning I had a conversation with Kathy and Scott @ Valve (yea, ok, it's that game company, I'm tired of dancing around it), which helped address a few of my outstanding concerns (like that based on my tech interview I'd have scarlet letter on my door and be constantly needing to prove myself - she assured me, having sat in on the post-interview powwow, and more generally just based on the culture, that was far from the case). By the end of the call, I was way up on the Valve thing.

This morning I had coffee with one of the folks @ exbiblio (what's behind door number two), and as I predicted, I left the conversation jazzed about the prospect of working with them.

The more I critically think about the role at exbiblio, the more cautious I get. After being a bureaucrat for the last year or so, I really want to focus on solving technical problems again, rather than organizational or business problems.

That's pretty much Valve to a 'T', and while I could probably avoid direct management @ exbiblio (certainly in the short term, the engineering team could report to to Fred or Adam), it's probably unrealistic to believe I could escape the foundational conversations and decision making.

Additionally, one of my major issues with Real is their short-term revenue focus which often leads the organization to make bad decisions, sometimes in spite of a desire to "do the right thing." Financial pressure is certainly more of an issue at exbiblio than Valve.

The gears in my head keep turning...