More Parsing

Before I went to college, I felt like I was pretty good at figuring out what someone meant. I could read context, make connections, and even if something was unspecified or stated very indirectly I could pretty much figure out what was required.

College changed that. I remember getting assignment after assignment, particularly in my Engineering & Computer Science classes that would specify problems, projects, and programs using language that would trick me - I would think I understood what was needed, plow ahead, get stuck, look back and re-read, think about what else the writer of the assignment could have meant with his or her words, try again, etc. I feel like it was a valuable experience because it taught me to question all of my assumptions about a person's perspective, and to think of as many meanings for a statement as possible, and then assess all of the options, selecting the most consistent one.

That's all great. Except now sometimes I wonder if I'm too literal - particularly at work - sometimes I feel like I'm missing connections that a manager might think are obvious, sometimes I feel like I seek out too much of the "so, what do you actually want me to do?" kind of details, because I just don't think I have enough information to know what I'm supposed to do. Hard to tell, really, if the college experience impacted the way I can make connections and draw inferences without having much information, or if my manager is just naturally the type of person I don't communicate well with.

In other news. I started an online business. We'll see how it goes. Most people have been supportive, and a few people have told me I'm completely nuts. It's not like I'm being impractical and doing something like quitting my full time job for it, or taking out loans, or anything like that. It's something I enjoy doing and think I can earn a few bucks from. Hopefully I can grow it, but there's absolutely no risk involved for me since I've already got a steady income.