Vesessination
A couple of weekends ago, the Vesess team took a much needed breather, and headed out for a weekend away from work, email and reddit. As a team with a lot of virtual members, the time we get to spend together in meatspace is limited. Although we’re used to always being in touch via email and IM, the weekend at Sigiriya was a chance for us to really engage each other IRL, and find out what makes each of us tick. From Python, to GNOME, Rails, and beyond, a lot of what we talked about was based on what we do.
Sigiriya, the ancient royal fortress that our coders use as inspiration when designing our data security policies.
Boring? Not in the least. What’s different about talking shop with a geek in his or her spare time is that the issues and projects that surface will most often be personal ones. From quick hacks used for everyday productivity, to complex applications written for class, I learnt a lot about each of our interests on this trip. It didn’t have to be just tech either. From general business sense, to global warming, rising oil prices, and the recent food shortages, I listened a lot, and learnt a lot.
As a recent graduate, I’d call myself lucky to be at a place like Vesess. While most people my age are filling out twenty page forms, and sitting in on meetings that last for hours and never seem to go anywhere, I get to push my ideas, voice my opinions, and interact with some genuinely talented people. In $BIGFIRM, I would be a PR junkie, a drone who spewed out manufactured, corporate prose. Over here at Vesess, I get to set the textual style and tone for each project. I get to design the flow of information, and map out where it goes, and how it is consumed.
Then, I think of our hackers. In a large company, they would be junior programmers, churning out line after line of code according to a specification they don’t even get to see in its entirety. Here at Vesess, they conceputalise, design and put together entire applications.
Lies, you say? Nay.
In fact, one such application is currently in private beta. Something which Lakshan, our resident RoR guru, wrote from the ground up, CurdBee is a great example of a pet project going prime time. While all the initial planning and hacking took place in his head, the entire team eventually pitched in to make it ready for the world at large.
CurdBee, a result of rapid Vesessination.
This, in essence, is what we call Vesessination – a single idea brought to fruition by everyone, working together. At Vesess, that’s essentially what’s we’re about. Small teams, big ideas, and a lot of experimentation. Well, that’s all for now, folks. Tune in next week for some quality time with Lakshan’s new baby.
