Avogadro Corp: The Singularity Is Closer Than It Appears Read Online Free PDF Page A

early morning light.
    “ Where do you want to be in a couple of years?” David asked suddenly, breaking the silence.
    Mike glanced sideways at him. “Woah, dude. That’s a weighty question for oh dark thirty.” He paused to consider it. “You know, I’m happy now. I’m working on the most interesting project I can imagine, and, with great people. I’ve got a good manager, even if I have to keep you in line from time to time.”
    David smiled at the compliment.
    “ I’d be happy to be doing more of the same,” Mike went on. “I don’t think I could ask for more. More servers maybe.”
    They both chuckled at that.
    “ How about you?”
    “ I’ve been thinking about it.” David was quiet for a moment. “Worrying about Gary and his deadline keeps me awake at night.”
    “ Man, you don’t have to do that. We’ll solve the problem. Or we won’t, and Sean will give us more servers somehow. It’s not worth losing precious sleep over. We all need more of that.”
    “ It’s not just that. Yes, of course I want ELOPe to be released and the project to be a success. Being hired to run ELOPe was a great break for me.” David paused and shook his head. “No, the real thing is that I don’t want to be under anyone’s thumb like we are with Gary. We’re doing all the work here, and sure we’ll get some credit, but in the end, all of it will go into Gary Mitchell’s bottom line. Meanwhile, we have to take shit from him.”
    Mike paused. “What are you thinking?”
    “ I think we can take the credibility we have right after we release ELOPe. We can build on that, and get the support to do something big from the ground up. A brand new product for Avogadro. Something that won’t get subordinated to Gary. Something that can change the world.”
    Mike nodded. “Sure, that would be nice, but --”
    “ Not just nice,” David cut him off. “It’s what I’m meant to do. I know it deep in my bones.”
    Mike glanced over at David, hoping it was just coffee talking, but fearing worse.
    * * *
    Sixty miles east and an hour later, Mike slid down the lift ramp, and then snapped into his bindings. David had already started down the run. Mike jumped to get some forward momentum and followed him down the mountain.
    He just didn’t understand David sometimes. David was blindingly brilliant and fun to be friends with. On the other hand, he was so driven, always focused on what was just beyond the horizon, that he seemed to lose sight of where he was.
    Damn, David was far ahead of him. Mike bent further to pick up a little more speed. The cold mountain air whistled around the vent holes in his snowboarding helmet.
    Mike was amazed how he and David could be immersed in the same situation and see it two completely different ways. Mike was having the best time of his career working on an exciting project with great people. Sure, folks like Gary came along, but that just added to the challenge. David looked at the same situation, and took personal affront at Gary’s influence. Worse, he was starting to see the project as merely a stepping stone to something bigger. What about friendship? What about enjoying the journey?
    Mike looked up, and turned the board sideways to stop. When his board crunched to a halt, it was utterly silent in the cold mountain air. The ski run split here, and David was already out of sight. Which way did he go?
    * * *
    “ Got a minute?” Mike asked, poking his head into David’s office, a few days later.
    “ Sure, let me just wrap this up.” David poked and prodded his computer into submission, and then looked up. “What can I do for you?”
    It was late Tuesday evening, just three days before Gary’s deadline. Most of the team had stayed through dinner, and David had sprung for pizza for the team. Mike knew the department budget was exhausted from the purchase of a small pool of servers David had bought a few months earlier. That meant David had probably paid for the food out of his own pocket.