How do you know an extroverted engineer?

He looks at your shoes when he talks to you.

Engineer jokes abound for a reason. I think we get trained to think in math and look at everything as a problem to be solved. Plus we seem to have a lot of introverts. A lot of the time most people spent practicing social interaction, we spent hanging out in our heads and never finessed the people skill set. Personally, I think we hang our old posters up in academic buildings so we can look at something besides the other people in the hall as we walk by them.

However, yesterday I walked across the engineering quad and was looking at someone who had a sweatshirt I liked. In that awkward moment when he realized I was staring, instead of the standard everyone-looks-away or the territorial stare-down, he just smiled and everyone's day carried on a little more smoothly. Now, to implement a new interaction algorithm!

I know you from *somewhere*...

An encounter with social grace is always a good moment for me. Today, I ran into a department head when I was going out to lunch. I'd previously met him when I'd been visiting as an industry partner rather than my current persona of a slightly disoriented first semester grad student. I said a “hello” and slowed down past his table, and he stopped me, “I know I recognize you, but I can't remember where from.” After a quick refresh, he was very interested in how I was doing here. As one of those people who is great with faces and shamefully poor at remembering names (the faces are so effortless and the names such a struggle...what makes this happen?), I've often used a similar line to re-engage with people and wondered how it felt to be on the other side. I certainly preferred it to the minimal acknowledgement I was expecting, and it was nice to know he recognized me.