Does anybody else find it hard to talk about Lego IRL

[ShaydDeGrai]

I've deliberately left job candidates alone with a bucket of bricks (along with assorted other distractions) just to see who is comfortable tinkering (versus reading over their own resume or picking up a newspaper checking their phone, etc.) and, depending on the situation, ask people if they have a favorite set or theme.  A woman from Human Resources once chided me for "asking about toys" as she interpreted the question as a proxy for asking how old the candidate was.  In her mind, if I could date their favorite toy and knew the age range for that toy I could guess their age.  (Many corporations in the US expressly forbid interviewers from asking candidates their age for fear of age discrimination lawsuits)

Despite my best attempts at a poker face, I laughed at her.  Then I showed her a few dozen photos on my phone from that years BrickFair and asked her to guess the ages of the creators of the various MOCs.  Then I explained that if I wanted to guess their age, I'd just add their years of experience and years of education that they'd claimed on their resume; what I was really after was a sense of their self-confidence, creativity, ingenuity and interests. 

[jimmynick]

 I just don't talk to anyone IRL 

More seriously, I've posted a couple of MOCs on my personal website that is on my CV, so I suppose if a prospective employer is sufficiently curious, they can talk to me about it.

[MinusAndy]

"Childish" is meant to be an insult, but really childhood is the best part of most peoples lives (the Fritzl family aside). The things I felt as a child that could be improved upon were not having enough cash to buy toys and do cool stuff and grown-ups telling me what I could and couldn't do. By not caring about other peoples perceptions of you and being true to yourself you are doing yourself a great service. Simon Pegg said in an interview a while back that being a geek just meant being true to yourself and embracing the things you love and obsess about. I actually feel sorry for people who don't have something like that in their lives.

I started skateboarding when I was 6, I'm 45 next week. I still skate, Ironically its more acceptable now than when I started. When I was a teenager you had to make a conscious choice between skating and having a girlfriend. Nowadays it seems you can have both. I've never really given a monkeys what other people think about what I do and continuing to do things I enjoy as an adult is liberating as hell. What is the cut-off age for doing things you enjoy? Pretty sure it's when you stop enjoying them and thats yourdecision and no one elses.