What You Actually Do

Some human activity is more interesting than others.  Teaching a class, if it is material you enjoy can be remarkably satisfying.  Writing the exam less so.  Grading the exam yet again less exciting.  Proctoring an exam is certainly a chore.  Walk around.  Make sure there are no wandering eyes.  Answer a question or two and basically stand there, for two and a half hours trying to look serious. 

I went up to every student as they finished and congratulated them.  Shook their hands.  Wished them luck.  Told them to stay in touch.  I’m not sure if any professor did that for me.  But it feels like the right thing to do.  Even with the student who just sneezed in his hands not long ago.   Most kids finish after ninety-minutes, but of course a few take the full time, which is what I probably would have done as well.

Engaging with clients at the booth of a trade show can be interesting, especially if they are really there to learn and have a fair chance of becoming a customer.  But the end of trade show is notorious for being dry.  People come by to promote their services to you.  Most of anyone interested in what you actually do, has come and gone by these final few obligatory hours. 

I’ve gotten myself from Puxi to Pudong today, having finished up my proctoring obligations so I could join a client to man the last hundred and eighty minutes of the CES Asia show at our trade booth.  Not much of anyone comes by.  One fellow who’d been here, returns.  “Do come visit us.”  “OK.  We will.”  The folks from the booth adjoining ours stop by.  Hey, we’ve been side by side all this time and never figured out what you actually do.  We explain.  So do they.   We sift through all the contacts we’ve accumulated and chat about what’s next.  And at three o’clock sharp older men with x-acto knives appear and begin to cut away at the hall carpet and dismantle this virtual environment.  Soon we too are in the sea of traffic heading towards the exit hall.

Thursday, 6/13/19