Saturday, February 11, 2012

Yes, Mom, That IS Me

Herewith, an excerpt from I'm Feeling Lucky: The Confessions of Google Employee Number 59 by Douglas Edwards, page 354:


(I'm pretty sure this is the first time my name has appeared in an actual book from a major publisher. Top of the world, ma!)

You can read more about that recruiting campaign, including details on several of the puzzles, on MathWorld News: Mathematica's Google Aptitude. And though I didn't come up with the idea for the billboard, I am the guy who calculated the proper ten digits for the domain name (with a Python script, natch) and then leaned on Schwim to get the server deployed in time. I should also point out that many of the puzzles were contributed by other engineers who knew their math a lot better than I did.

Anyway, I'm Feeling Lucky (an impulse checkout from my last trip to the public library) was a nice trip down memory lane--Doug's employment at Google overlapped my time there by maybe two years, and I later worked with one of his successors in marketing, Dylan Casey, on another puzzle project. Given my personal connections to the subject matter, I'm not sure I can give an objective review of the book, but if you've ever wondered what life inside the Googleplex is like, this book will give you a taste. (Current Googler Larry Hosken is also a fan.)

Curtis

1 comment:

Matt said...

I'm extraordinarily embarrassed that I missed that (perhaps most important) part when I read the book. By that point I was skimming names as he included so many. But really, no excuse.