G: Man, i love that how stuff works here. Like A, like D, like me, like him, like anybody who ever worked here...you walk in, and the first week you gotta do things you don't understand at ALL.

J: Yah, i still remember my first week. "We need a help system. Go build a help system."

G: Right, and you didn't even know Java! I still remember A...after the first week he's calling me up saying "man, this M guy, he says 'do this' and i have no idea what's going on, i'm just reading lines of code for a day and a half, what the hell?!" And now N is here a week, he knows what CVS is, he knows how to do a checkout, he maybe knows what Tomcat is, and you want him making automated web deployments? it's crazy!

M: Well i think that's important, to be a self-directed learner. A key skill everyone should have. Now, i don't necessarily mean the ability to learn anything by reading books, but certainly the idea to grasp what's going on, and what questions to ask to figure out more. Like, i think it would be perfectly valid for you to say "so what the hell is Tomcat?", and i'd be perfectly happy to answer that question for you.

...pause

N: Right, so what the hell is Tomcat, anyway?