My junior year at college was a lot of work but also a lot of fun. I took several Computer Science classes, and I loved every one of them. Sometimes the programming assignments took an exorbitant amount of time, but I enjoyed working on them, so I didn't mind.
There was a two week stretch where I was working on a major assignment, and I was not getting much sleep. After finishing the code, I scrambled to write enough documentation to explain what I had done. When I finally pressed 'Submit' late Friday night to turn in my program, I immediately went to sleep. I think I slept 20 hours over the next two days, but the late nights turned out to be a good investment. My work on that one assignment drastically changed my life.
When I got to class on Tuesday, our guest Teaching Assistant, Joanna, was there. I was surprised, as I thought she was only teaching the class for the prior two weeks because our regular TA, Jack, had to travel to meetings in Washington, D.C. to meet with one of the federal agencies that funded his research. Joanna said Jack couldn't make it today, so she was here one more time. She started the class by announcing our next assignment was similar to our prior assignment - the one that cost me two weeks of sleep - but there were some changes to the requirements. She then proceeded to list what some of my classmates considered major changes. In some cases, she added new requirements. In other cases, she took some of the "givens" from the prior assignment and said, "Oh, sorry, what I told you was wrong." Then she gave us totally
different
givens. If you hadn't written the program well, this could almost amount to a complete rewrite.
"So," she started, "how long will you need to make these changes?" Then she pointed to a guy in the front row.
"About 2 months!" he answered, bringing lots of laughter from everyone.
She called on someone else who said she'd need at least half as much time as it took to write the first program. Then she looked down at her notes.
"Is Richard Nelson here?" she asked.
I raised my hand.
"How long will it take you, Mr. Nelson."
"I think I understood everything you said," I started. "I think I'll need about ten minutes."
"Bullshit!" someone behind me said, and Joanna just smiled.
"How could you possibly make those changes in ten minutes?" Joanna asked, her smile giving away that she already knew the answer.
"All those changes just require some new run-time parameters or adding records to my meta-data tables."
"Please show us the design of some of those tables," she replied. "Here is your documentation, in case you don't remember."
I walked up to the board and started showing how I structured the tables that drove my logic. I didn't need my documentation; I spent so many late nights on that program, it was still stuck in my brain.
A few people asked questions, but they were easy to answer.
"That's a nice design," Joanna said, "but did you consider this?"
She then suggested a couple of simple changes that would have made the code even simpler.
"Wow, no, I didn't. But I should have!" I said. "That's brilliant."
I took my seat and Joanna continued talking about different techniques we could have used. As class wrapped up, she said there was no assignment for the next class, and no one had to modify their program. A few people cheered.
"That's it for today," she finished, and everyone started filing out.
As I walked to the front of the class, Joanna turned to me.
"Richard, can you stick around for a minute?"
"Sure," I replied.
After everyone left, Joanna sat on the front of the desk.
"You did a really nice job on that last assignment. You were the only one who got every feature working, and your solution was quite elegant."
I tried to hide my internal smile; I don't know if I was successful.
"Are you interested in a part-time job during the school year, and, if it works out, full time during the summer?"
"Oh, YEAH!" I said, perhaps a little too excitedly.
"We're looking for another person to do some programming on one of Professor Teller's research projects. We were thinking we'd look for another PhD student, but I think you'd work out better. Can you talk to him at 2:30 this afternoon? I'm supposed to meet with him then."
"Absolutely," I said.
At 2:25, I opened the outer door to the office where the research project was housed. Professor Teller's office was behind another door inside. As soon as I walked in, I froze. There she was. "The girl." I didn't know her name, but I had seen her walking the halls. She was the prettiest girl I had ever seen. She had a small, round face with friendly, brown eyes and a small nose. She usually wore her light brunette hair pulled back in a ponytail with a colored scrunchie. She was tall and thin, with small breasts. Her ass had a tiny curve to it; it was perfect. When she looked up at me and smiled, I melted.
"Hi, are you Richard?" she asked?
I nodded, almost unable to speak.
"Hi, I'm Tracy. C'mon in. Professor Teller is expecting you. He's finishing up a call, so you can have a seat until he's done."
I nodded again and croaked out a "Thanks."
After a couple of minutes, Tracy softly said, "Don't be nervous - he's actually a really nice guy."
The smile she flashed could make a person facing a firing squad feel comfortable.
After a couple more minutes, a buzzer on Tracy's desk went off.
"He's ready for you," she said. "Go on in."
I opened the door, and Professor Teller stood up. He was a tall, imposing man. He also had a reputation as a bigwig in the Computer Science community, both within the university and in the research community. He didn't exactly smile as he extended his hand, but he didn't look mean.
"How do you do, Richard. Please have a seat."
He didn't introduce himself, even though this was our first meeting. He just assumed I knew who he was.
"Joanna had some very good things to say about you," he started. "We need someone to help her with some programming work. Are you interested in doing that?"
"Yes, sir, very much so."