smarts.
Man, nice trip to Charlottesville last weekend. Both shows were good and we spent most of Saturday on a screened porch, working on music. We're figuring out this thing more and more; Brad and I are getting better at playing Mulch live, and the three of us are learning to communicate better. If you count "play something, bitch!" as communicating.
If you're into the ambient soundscape thing, there's a 12-minute excerpt from our Saturday set at eocene.org.
While I was in town, I dropped in to see of my favorite computer science professors from college. His research topic is software engineering, which seemed dull when I was an undergrad but seems painfully important now. We talked for three hours about writing software and how the real world had turned out for me compared to school. One of his great observations: "you really need to be surrounded by smart people at work". Yessir. Given the choice, you'd rather be the worst guy in the band. That's why I like playing with Brad and Bob. I'm always running to keep up.
His graduate students, he explained, are extremely bright, if quirky. His job is to exploit that brightness. He does that by working with their quirks, and by removing as many distractions and barriers as he can so they hole up and be smart. Basically, his students' brains are windmills and his job is to keep them pointed into the wind.
Using people for their strengths. Crazy!
Are you surrounded by smart people?