Editor’s Note: This post originally appeared on the WaPo Labs blog on December 23, 2011. To learn more about the Labs team’s secret superpowers, check out all of our Six Questions features.
One of the reasons we launched this blog was to give you, the reader, a chance to get to know the members of our team as individuals. So we’re kicking off Six Questions, a feature that will spotlight one WaPo Labs staffer at a time.
Say hi to our inaugural guinea pig, software engineer Jay Stricks.
Which Labs projects do you work on?
I work a little in both web development and data operations. So, for example, I built an internal site to help monitor and graph things like inbound requests for the apps we’ve built, whether they’re experiencing latency, etc. I also write scripts to automate system monitoring, and have recently been working on improving our production support documentation to make “pager duty” a little less painful — if that’s even possible.
How would you describe WaPo Labs to someone unacquainted with the team?
Labs has a nice balance in many ways — low key, yet committed; organized, but organic; a start-up group in a large media company. Its filled with good people and lots of humor. I laugh a lot at work.
What’s one thing that few people know about you?
I can read minds.
When you were young, what did you want to be when you grew up?
I’m still young, you know. I’d like to be a wealthy benefactor who gives fireside chats when I grow up.
Whom do you admire?
People with dedication to a cause or craft: writing, science, business, charity — whatever they’re passionate about.
What superpower would you most like to have?
I can already read minds, man.
Is there anything else you would like to add?
I knew you’d ask that.
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