A Day In The Life...

Engineers working in the defense industry face the same amount of stress as engineers working for a Silicon Valley company. However after working in both environment, I honestly feel that working at NG can be more stressful than Apple at times.

I found, as I worked with different software groups at NG, that developers tend to pick on each other to alleviate stress. I don't know why, but it does save you from the brink of insanity.

Scenarios

The following scenes have been dramatized for humorous effect. However, rest assured they have transpired throughout my almost ONE YEAR of working at NG (holy crap has it been that long?!).

An aphorism for every morning (as quoted by Crionofarr):

Coffee is the word for god on the minds and lips of every hapless engineers.

One day with a test engineer about someone else's code:

Co-worker: So, how well do you know the code that Aldo wrote?
Me: Well, I only just looked at it a couple of days ago.
Co-worker: Oh good, so you're an expert.

Prior to product delivery, lead/manager tends to check up on the underlings frequently...sometimes more often than it is healthy.

Co-worker: Good mornin'.
Me: If you keep coming in here every morning I'm going to start developing hives when you're around.
Co-worker: ... Well, nice to see you too.

And last but not least:

Co-worker: I know you're a horrible programmer, but can you for once in your life disprove that claim?!
Me: Well, I'm not fired yet.