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by khafra 6394 days ago
What I do to my relatives is difficult to explain.

My explanations of my work, though, vary with the comprehension I expect from the listener. For my uncle, an engineer with more patents than I've had drunken inspirations, I go in-depth into whatever has me most excited at the moment. For my cousin, the horse trader and Counterstrike fan, I give a general description of CND, bowdlerizing it of anything glamorous so I don't get asked to teach him how to hack.

The more difficult query comes when I don't know the questor quite as well. Unless the truth matters, and it usually doesn't, I'll take a peripheral aspect of my work and practice my story-telling abilities.