One of the best parts about my job is that the people I work with tend to be smart, funny and generally likable (when they’re not purposely being assholes). In particular, it’s nice that there is a large contingent of other AEs, who each have a broad array of quirky interests and backgrounds. This translates into fairly entertaining lunchtime discussions, which leap from Hegel to how to escape from a locked trunk in a matter of seconds. I’m not sure what everyone else talks about at lunch, but we jokingly call ourselves the “Witty Banter Table,” and I’m pretty sure we’re the most hilarious lunch table EVER.
Over the past few months, I’ve been taking notes on topics of conversation at lunch, which have been loosely grouped into categories. I make no claims that this is a fully representative sampling, but I am a little bit surprised that economics isn’t a more frequent topic of discussion. Only a little. Without further ado:
- Merits of Kindles vs books: shelf-life, eyestrain, DRM
- Physics of cycling: drafting, relationship between weight and momentum
- Question: Is it possible to shoot a projectile and have it land >100 miles away? You must take into account the earth’s curvature, cannot move to outer space, and must use materials that would not be incinerated. Answer: Yes, you just need to move the earth backwards.
- Case history of the serial killer whale, whether it can be rehabilitated into the wild
- Sexbots
- Potatoes: should they be considered a vegetable given their nutritional profile?
- Organic clawed spider farming
- Cell phone radiation: are fears about cancer are founded? Followed by declarations that cell phones are so safe, one should wear a cellphone codpiece.
- Mechanics and ease of generating electricity: could it be done by a group of AEs who happened to land in Somalia
- Distillation of liquor
- iPad suckitude and general Apple paternalism
- Offshore oil drilling