AT&T Bell Labs, Murray Hill NJ, Summer 1995
My time there is something I sorely miss. There is something about being immersed in a place that requires you to learn and challenge yourself while being surrounded by some of the greatest minds in science and technology – Brian Kernighan, Dennis Ritchie, Bjarne Stroustrup, Jim West and others. I walked the same grounds on which Paul Erdos strode, and played bocce ball and Killer Crayons with s_alice, s_ambrose and s_vipul, other summer interns with whom I share a deep bond. I sharpened my skills working under Kathy Shipley on a project called HuMaNet.
The grounds of the Bell Labs campus were so expansive and the hallways, lined with labs on either side, seemed to stretch on for miles. It is impossible to this day to wrap my head around the amount of innovation and science that must have been taking place on a given day.
I squinted down the long hallway one day and was able to make out a lab all the way at the end, one I decided to explore. I picked up my AT&T issue notebook and pen and started the journey. I entered the lab and was immediately greeted by the following, “I don’t know who you are and I don’t see any donuts.” I interpretted that to mean I should leave and return with some circular treats to be granted access.
The next day I returned, a twelve pack of Dunkin’ in my hands. I didn’t make out the person that addressed me the day before because no on turned away from their computer. This time, someone did and they started immediately, “Put the donuts there and sit down in front of this computer. I am going to teach you about Plan 9. We took all of the things we should have done in UNIX and built them into this OS. Everything is essentially a file.” All of this was so cryptic including the ritual I just went through. There were no names or introductions. No one else in the lab seemed to care who I was or why I was there. I sat down, listened and learned.
I spent several days making my way to the lab and sitting in front of this foreign operating system trying to figure it out. I focused so much attention on it and almost none on the people that I now believe sat around me and taught me this amazing project they were spending their time on. I believe they were Rob Pike, Ken Thompson, Dave Presotto, and Phil Winterbottom. In fact, I’m convinced that either Rob Pike, Ken Thompson or Tom Duff walked me through Plan 9 for which I had paid the paltry sum of 12 Dunkin’ Donuts. Either way, I was surrounded by genius and didn’t take even a minute to stop and appreciate it. To those temporary lab mates who inspired a tiny little college student like me I say, Thank You!
Those days are always sunny in my memory. Lunch by the bocce courts listening to the mad Russian and Hungarian scientists argue about something. Trying to concentrate in my lab with Vipul’s incessant “Testing 1…2…3″ in his thick, rich Indian accent. Trekking down to the supply room and picking up books about vi, LaTex and C++ all at no charge. Going to seminar after seminar and listening to some of the most brilliant people in the world tell me about their discoveries, their life’s work.
Somehow, I just don’t feel like I’ve lived up to my potential. I wonder if I’ve honored the brilliant people that came before me, those that let me work in the same spaces they did. I don’t think I have…yet.
