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From Nick Branstator, Software Engineer:Assertion: Tripod is the advanced philosophy program I always wished for but could never seem to find.
Let me explain myself.
Most of us graduate from college with some abstract notion of what we want to do with our lives, but little that is concrete (to the eternal chagrin of older relatives). When I graduated a year and a half ago, I was no different. As a philosophy major, my diploma seemed next to worthless -- there aren't many uses for knowledge of ancient Greek these days, and I wasn't much good at the language anyway -- and somehow I hadn't managed to rid myself of the sense that I needed more philosophy to be satisfied. It should be no surprise that my first post-grad job was as an assistant cook.
No need to go into the gritty details, but the next stop was The Big Apple for a little law schoolin', me figuring that law was about as close as you got to a practical application of philosophy. I hated it. There's nothing to like about law school unless you are born for the law, which admittedly some people are. But not this dog. For a smidge over $100,000, you too can experience three years of boring reading, a guaranteed job post-graduation spending 80 hours a week helping The Man do whatever He wants as you struggle to pay off that debt, and an extended lesson in humility from the just-but-severe cadre of professors. I cancelled my contract early and struck out into the cold of the job market. Lucky me, I landed a job here at Tripod.
The way I see it, there are three clear ways to squeeze as much philosophical growth out of your environment as possible, all of which Tripod provides. (English majors, catch that odor of the five-paragraph/three-point essay? Sorry, I was a writing tutor in college, it's hardwired now.) First off, Tripod is itself a philosophical project. Roam around the site, and you know that the collection of content and services is unified, somehow -- maybe not cleanly, maybe even kinda motley, but nevertheless there's this sensibility to it all. It's refreshing after one too many brushes with a world of otherwise vacant media; some sentience lurks behind these eyes.
Tripod is also a philosophical challenge. We walk a tightrope here between vision and reality, between radical, aimless projects with no earning potential and "selling out." The latter term is one heard a lot but rarely explained or given much thought. Reading first about the rebels in Peru, then thinking about all the accusations of American imperialism throughout the world, the true weight of what it could mean to "sell out" descends upon me. Has Tripod done so yet? I doubt it. But as we start to rub noses with multi-nationals and so forth, it's imperative to bear the question in mind, tempting though it may be to do as so many have done before and turn a blind eye.
Lastly and fortunately, Tripod's rampant with philosophical folks. Like some idealized Greek polis, 'Pods are addicted to discussion, be it of current events, of where the company is going, or just of where to eat. Mostly the latter. In fact, we probably do our best thinking seated around the round tables at the Moonlight Diner. Last week the subject was bandwidth and how to get more of it; tonight, it was the meaning of the words "camp" and "genius".
What does this all mean? It means I work for a damn fine company. And I am so damned happy to be here.
Be careful out there on the tightrope.
Love, Nick
P.S. Me 'n' Christmas Bodice Barbie would like to wish you all Happy Holidays from the snowy Berkshires.
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