As has
been mentioned out in the world, every once in a while Billg takes time to back
away from whatever he’s working on to think big thoughts. Employees are allowed
to influence those thoughts by sending in papers about whatever they want. I
heard about this a few days before the deadline and, as I had an idea for
something, I wrote up a quick treatment. In spite of the odds against me, I
couldn’t let such an opportunity pass by w/o even trying!
I sent my short
piece around internally and, because of it’s length (I only had time to put
together 2.5 pages), I expected to get all kinds of feedback of the lack of
depth. Surprisingly, I only got one of those and a bunch of positive feedback,
including some useful tweaks.
After applying the tweaks and running into
the limit of time I could spend on it (I did have any actual job to do, after
all : ), I sent my paper to the screener that makes sure that Bill’s not
bothered by trivial things, expecting to hear where to file it. But I didn’t
hear that. In fact, I didn’t hear anything at all ’til today when
my own patron St. VP thanked me for my submission, being all kinds of vague
about whether Bill will be handed my paper or not, but pointing me to some folks
internally about making my idea happen. I took this as letting me down gently,
but further emails indicated that my paper *had* been sent along to Bill.
Now I’m wondering what the heck Bill will do with it. Ignore it? Shred it? Send
me an email with a single line, “Make it so, #1?” I’m not sure which one is
scarier. After having survive my first encounter with a VP, I wonder if I’ll
survive my first encounter with it’s commander and chief. Keep your fingers
crossed. : )
