Nerdery Culture

Nerdery-mentored kids go to Congress

“Give a nerd a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a nerd to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.”
– adapted proverb, some liberties taken

Congress just got an earful from a group of Nerdery-mentored 8th grade students from Project Infinite Green who hit up Dave Kam, our Chicago branch manager, for some after-school tutelage in programming.

“Their advisor, Catherine Greenspon, heard about us due to the Overnight Website Challenge and contacted me to see if we would be interested in building an app for them,” said Kam. “I told them we could mentor the students so they could build it themselves. It was decided that they would come in and we would give them guidance.”

Project Infinite Green was built to encourage STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) education by taking school children on a journey through U.S. energy sources.

“The kids have studied both renewable and nonrenewable energy sources,” said Catherine. “After completing the nuclear module, our nuclear team decided that our nation, at large, does not understand the realities of nuclear energy. Their plan is to start a nuclear awareness campaign – one component of the campaign is the nuclear awareness windows mobile app.”

“The programming of the app has forced the kids to really think about the variables of the nuclear plant,” said Catherine. “We also have one student, Jeremy, who is now thinking he wants to be Dave when he grows up. He was originally thinking of becoming a chemical engineer.”

The students are in D.C. May 16-18, presenting to the STEM ED Caucus (members are from both the House and Senate) and the Global Environment Facility (The GEF). Catherine said she hoped Congressional leaders would “give the kids a global perspective on their green business plans and also help them apply their plans to emerging countries.”

“I would wager even Congress is never really ready for their day with Congress, but I think the kids are well on their way” said Kam. “They have a wealth of information and various presentations they have prepared. The web app we worked on is just part of all that. I was impressed with their eagerness to learn. Not just about HTML/CSS/Javascript, but about things in general. The kids are focusing on nuclear energy and have been doing a good amount of research on the subject. They are pretty much like sponges and soak everything up.”

“The Nerdery has provided a unique opportunity for me to learn to code,” said Kevin, an eighth-grader with Project Infinite Green. “Dave spent over 20 hours helping us develop our app. With his expertise we have created an excellent beta version of our Nuclear Awareness app.”

Asked if he sees any future Nerds among these students, Dave replied, “I’d say so! The kids have shown a high degree of self motivation and should succeed in whatever they choose to pursue in the future. They should now have basic HTML/CSS skills and have a better understanding on how web technology works. They were briefly exposed to Javascript and OOP (Object Oriented Programming) as well. So hopefully that sparks their interest in software development in general.”

“My time at The Nerdery has been a wonderful,” said Philip, an eighth-grader. “I was able to learn more about computer coding than I would have been able to learn on my own in 24 hours. The people here are also very friendly and they make my stressful Wednesday more fun. We also learn about each other while we are here and how well everyone is doing with computer coding … I believe that The Nerdery is the best place ever!”

“It was great working with people who may not know what exactly web development entails and getting the opportunity to explain it to them and even guide them while they got their hands dirty doing it,” said Dave. “It was a lot of fun!”

“The team didn’t want to leave  on our last night,” said Catherine. “ They were all wondering when we would see Dave again. He has a fan club.”

Canine colleagues

Today on “CBS This Morning” they did a story on a study by the Virginia Commonwealth University about how bringing your dog to work lowers stress and makes a lot of people more productive. Of course, The Nerdery could have told you that.

But the best part about this story is that the man they interview from the university is named Dr. Randolph Barker. You can’t make that up people.

Entirely Different State of Mind

This video is offered without comment because mere words would fail to describe its glory. The only thing that could do it justice, perhaps, is interpretive dance.

New study finds lab coats make you feel smarter

Have you ever taken a look at the People section of The Nerdery? Of course you have, right. Well then you’re familiar with the fact that all the nerds are adorned in spiffy white lab coats.

Knowing all that, you’ll understand why linking to The Brain Focusing Power of the Lab Coat is a must. From the post:

“. . . a newly published study, which found wearing a white lab coat — a piece of clothing associated with care and attentiveness — improved performance on tests requiring close and sustained attention. Importantly, the effect was not found when the garment in question was identified as a visual artist’s coat.”

The joy in discovering Top Workplaces

In the StarTribune this weekend, Editor and Senior Vice President Nancy Barnes wrote about how the luncheon that honors the Top Workplaces in Minnesota has become one of her favorite events of the year. In the column she gave the reasons the event has won a special place in her heart:

“Here’s one: A little company called The Nerdery, which took home an award last year for empowering everyone in the organization to take charge as if they were all copresidents. They came to lunch dressed exactly as one might think a group of nerds might dress.”

If you read the whole column on the Strib’s website, you can see some of our nerds in their nerdiest finery.

Getting On The Lawn

This is a public shout out to our sales directors and development directors who left their cozy offices to carve out common ground right in the middle of The Nerdery. I’ve admired their unprovoked, bold move to blur the lines that separated their teams in order to improve our lines of communication. Instead of saying “Get off my lawn,” development and sales directors created The Lawn. Good call. It’s working.

No company can avoid people problems, and with 300+ people it matters more and more how we roll with changes. But organizational growth doesn’t have to mean more baggage and protocol, and we’re willing and able to reinvent ourselves in order to form a more perfect Nerdery. Our work is about overcoming challenges with technology, but technology can’t do this by itself – it takes people, relationships and trust to succeed. The business of custom software is very challenging. There will always be problems during production. We won’t pretend to have all the answers but we’re good at figuring things out – including nontechnical things of a more human nature.

The Lawn has become our fertile ground for cultivating relationships that allow us to handle problems as they arise. Eric Johnson, our director of project management, explains, “The Lawn provides Nerdery leadership with instant access to peers and interdepartmental leadership. We work collaboratively to solve problems and address company needs on a daily basis.”

The communication methods of our recent past were not keeping up with organizational growth, which introduced risk to employee experience, and, ultimately, customer experience and quality of work. Distributed leadership works well here because significant changes need not be top-down decrees. Territorialism is as out-of-place here as signs that say, “Get off my lawn.”

Instead of protecting their individual “lawns,” development and sales directors created a bigger, better lawn they could all share. The idea of leaving their comfortable existing workspace for something more collaborative was a sacrifice these Nerds were willing to take. Jon Pettersson, our director of software engineering, wasn’t exactly stoked. “I was very much opposed to moving to The Lawn at first. But after witnessing firsthand the efficiency of being able to simply get things done, I have been convinced of the benefits.”

Jake Trippel, director of our enterprise partner program notes, “I have had the awesome opportunity to get to know my colleagues better personally, as well as professionally.”

The simple, effective solution of physical proximity in The Lawn is a testament to the pragmatism and humility of our development and sales leaders’ ability to adapt to the needs of our growing company. Where they could have built new process, rules, or protocols, they opted for simple relationship building and physical collaboration. For years we have bragged to potential recruits that they’d never hear the phrase “read the f&#*ing manual.” I’m stoked to say that “get off my lawn” is not welcome either.

Friday Links: The secret power of introverts

• We’ve added pics from last night’s Open House & Spirit Showcase to the Spirit Week album on Facebook.
• This is how you sell products, on the adorable movie about the new red Field Notes notebook.
• The secret power of introverts.
• Five year old analyzes logos.
• In defense of video games: more than just an entertaining time sink.
• You’ve seen the LEGO Moleskine notebooks, right? Please tell me you’ve seen them, they’re awesome.
• Where’s the pixel? Does not work with a dirty monitor. Also it might make your eyes a little wiggy. Finally, lots of fun.
• A peek inside LEGO Headquarters.
• Saatchi & Saatchi CEO Kevin Roberts claims marketing is dead.
• The Flaming Lips have a new song called “Now I Understand” featuring Siri.
• Unreal estate.

Nerd Spirit Week & Open House

In grand high school tradition, The Nerdery has been dressing up for Nerd Spirit week — Jock Day, Favorite Iconic Nerd Day, and today, Twin Day. You can see more pictures of spirited nerds over on Facebook.

This is all gearing up for tomorrow night’s Open House & Spirit Showcase. The Open House is from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. (that’s tomorrow, February 2nd, 2012) right here at The Nerdery: 9555 James Ave S. Suite 245, Bloomington, MN 55431.

Winter Pentathanerd 2012 – Final Results

A yeti-like photo of this year's lego luge contraption

The Winter Pentathanerd games wrapped up this week with three exciting events; Anna Grahams, Lego Luge and a clever variation on The Price is Right as the final round. Below are the detailed accounts of each event as written by Mark Seemann, the founder and organizer of the Pentathanerd games…

Wednesday – Anna Graham

“For the Anna Grahams event, contestants had to unscramble words or phrases to guess the original word or phrase based on the selected category. In groups of three, teams had to get four correct to move on to the final round of three. The categories were:
Steel Men (Elements)
Hip Cretaceous Stirrer (Prehistoric Creatures)
See Ample Money (Employee Names)
Creates Niches (Earth Sciences)
In the first round after choosing Earth Sciences, WYSIWYG blasted to a quick victory against Teh Awsumbs and QWERTY, leaving them with nothing on the board. In the second round, The Nerderlands’ knowledge of Elements gave them an easy path to victory over Teh Newbs and Nausea, with each of the others scoring a single point. In the third round, Chicago’s team RAGE! phoned

in and managed to get a point in the category Prehistoric Creatures; Don’t Blink came close with three, but We Are Not Cheaters pulled away with the win.
In the final round, We Are Not Cheaters’ Annette J took a quick lead with her knowledge of Employee Names, but WYSIWYG’s Sean Hickey and The Nerderlands’ Jim Barrett kept the scores close. Easily the most entertaining category, among the anagrams were “dimmest hick” and “cranky urea.” After a number of unanswered anagrams, a snap *snap* judgement had to be made to continue, after running out of anagrams in the category; we resumed the round with the remaining unsolved Elements anagrams.
The score quickly tied up, three points for each team. The final clue – “tiny moan” – was solved by The Nerderlands.

Try your hand at unscrambling the same clues as the challengers here: http://pentathanerd.com/ag/“

Thursday – Lego Luge

“A record crowd braved the chilly 76-degree weather in the Nerditorium to witness the first ever indoors Lego Luge event of the Pentathanerd. Thanks to the tireless efforts of Eric Myers, the indoor track made for a spectacle of its own, as competitors waited their turn to try out their luge designs in “the series of tubes.”

Participants were expected to bring their Lego vehicle – complete with rider – to the event for approval from the Head Judge (Kai Esbensen). Then, the competitors handed their luge to the Primary Luge Launch Technician (Mark Seemann, standing on a ladder), who placed the luge carefully in the pre-calibrated “Flusher.” Once docked in the “Flusher,” a member from the team pulled on the release mechanism, occasionally needing to jiggle the handle, to begin the luge’s descent toward the luge track. Based on the results, the following points were awarded:

300 pts – Clearing the flusher earned 300 points
500 pts – Making it into the luge track (not as easy as it sounds!)
700 pts – Getting caught in the “lint trap”
800 pts – Getting into the garbage can
900-1200 pts – Clearing the entire luge track, depending where the Lego rider ended up on a field of points

Three teams managed to propel their craft all the way down the luge track; WYSIWYG, Nerderlanders, and Ridin’ QWERTY. WYSIWYG missed the scoring field of points, earning 900 points. The Nerderlanders landered [sic] on the board, but just outside a colored scoring area, earning 1000 points. QWERTY made a solid showing in this event, also landing on the board but outside bonus points areas, tying for first place.”

Friday – Price is Right

“The Friday event was Teh Price Is Right. The game, as was revealed right at the start of the event, was to guess how Jansen Price would answer questions (hence, [Jansen] Price Is Right). There were eight warm-up questions, worth 100 points for the first four and 200 points for the second four, leading up to the wager-style bet-it-all final question.

The Nerdery gets some recognition for untraditional recruiting efforts

Head on over to Finance & Commerce for a great post about how LinkedIn, Twitter, even craigslist can help recruit job candidates (it’s also a good read for job seekers too). Of course, we point you to this post because it’s got some find quotes from David, our own Nerd Hunter, and Hilary, an internal producer who had this to say about Nerdery recruitment:

“Our site is designed to show off our culture but also our capabilities. We have a casual dress code and free soda, but we’re also advanced in terms of technology, and we hire people who have a passion about that. Our site helps to showcase what we offer.”

Speaking of what we have to offer, you should RSVP for our Open House & Spirit Showcase on February 2nd. This is where you can come and tour The Nerdery, talk to our Nerd Hunters about working here, check out some of our clubs, and, best of all, participate in (or watch) the Talent Show. You can get more details and RSVP on Facebook.