Humor at the Heart

It’s been 128 days since I joined the Hackership.

I remember applying for the program in October of 2021.

I remember thinking how recruiters would peep through their fancy reading glasses, sipping on a cup of coffee while some soft music played in the background. I imagined how they would roll their eyes and sneer at a pitch I had written and edited one too many times.

I remember the nights I spent combing through the HackerNoon website. I observed the highly pixelated avatar-like faces of each team member, wondering if they looked anything like their avatars. I recall wondering why their eyes had to dart from side to side the way they did. Was it a tacit attempt to bring back the packman-like UI of the ’80s? Would this mean they were more millennial than Gen Zs?

My long-time unwanted friend would come knocking as my trepidations grew. The imposter’s voice within was gradually being stimulating, slowly drowning out any block of confidence I had conscientiously nurtured as I went through each page.

I remember getting ready for an interview session 7 hours earlier because I had mixed up the time zones. Long story short, it didn’t go too bad. My interviewer was surprisingly easy to talk to and she was quite blunt about her opinions which suited me just fine. I’ll rather avoid sugar-coated conversations, thank you. I vividly recall a statement she made during the interview

“We don’t take ourselves too seriously around here” and I recalled thinking to myself “Is that a good or a bad thing?”

Fast forward to January 2022, I was starting my role as an intern at an international tech publishing company and those were the exact words I used when I had to explain to anyone who cared to know. I’ve learned a whole lot in such a short time. From reading through the replies on the Tech Support channels where conversations trails could get to over a hundred, to the intriguing moments I had editing content from established or aspiring writers.

My Fun Moments

I took the time to go through every channel thread on the company’s slack workspace and I mean every single one of them whether I understood what was being discussed or not. You see, for me, it was an easy way to get to know what everyone was like, getting to know them and appreciate them for who they are and the wealth of knowledge they bring to the table.

What struck me most was the humor in some of these chats. And even though the jokes came reeling in now and then, there was no confusion about the work that had to be done. And gosh! There were a lot of those times. I only decided halfway through the program that I was going to write this story, so I decided to go through as many threads as I could to find those super fun, tongue-in-cheek moments I feel are worth sharing. So, in the voice of Rebecca Brayton, “Here are my top 5 hilarious moments” in no particular order.

The GOAT

The highly anticipated Batman movie starring Robert Pattison Batman came out in March. A very interesting slogging thread was created to determine who the greatest Batman character of all time was. There were several interesting opinions, but Linh’s description did it for me. It was point-blank hilarious and fascinating, to say the least.

Our Hero

The COO had pointed out some changes that required a relatively easy fix on delays in publishing stories and that’s when Utsav stepped in to save the day. And after fixing the automation job with Zapier, all that was left was to add the role of a developer to his resume and I hope he has too!

Spy Kids

Sidra has beautiful kids, I can tell but one day she decided that the best course of action as punishment for acts of naughtiness was to ban gaming time for a whole 24 hours.…the agony… She was hunted mercilessly, and she didn’t even see it coming or maybe she did. Had to add this to the list, it left me laughing all through the day every time I remembered.

Ellen’s “As Far As” Series

It’s not really a series, but I wish it was. Ellen has a way with words! She writes exactly as she speaks, adding every expression, punctuation, side comment, mind thought to make her words literally come alive.

L is for ….

I don’t know why but it seems google may have something against Limarc. It may have been a harmless malfunction of Google’s AI bots but these days, nothing is ever as it seems. One thing’s for sure, and I think we can all agree that Google is unequivocally and emphatically wrong, this time!

The list is way more with several rib-cracking comments, opinions, and dialogue I can’t share because they aren’t really fit for public consumption, if you know what I mean. I have some honorary mentions too but for the same reasons, I still can’t put it out here, I don’t want to be Hang-ed *clears throat*

I hope this gives an idea of how fun the good people of HackerNoon are. To set the record straight, this is not a promotional story, it’s simply a genuine share of some fun times at a cool place to work.

I hope you’ve had as much fun reading this story as I had writing it.