Managing Editor Lisa Ampleman: Lucy Zhang’s piece “How to make me orgasm,” which we featured recently in our miCRo series, uses technical language to describe the erotic, a rare approach: “Step back, look at the big-picture questions. Are you triggering properly? Is the power supply on? Do you understand the schematic? Did you build it correctly? Did you mix up the pins for V+ and V-? Is the input impedance high enough? Is the output button on the function generator green (is it outputting a signal)?” Fitting, since Zhang is a software engineer in her day job! I asked her if she’d share her experience as part of this series:
How would you describe what you do for your day job?
I’m a software engineer who works on operating systems, installation, and software updates. The work spans the front-end user interface (including the annoying notifications that always bug you to update) to lower-level file systems interactions. I spend most of the time investigating and fixing bugs, working on new features for our yearly release cycle cadence, and wondering why I’ve bricked my machine.
What do you enjoy about that job?
Because my work covers a huge surface area, there’s always something new to debug, implement, and investigate. I work with really smart people, and I love that the work I do actually gets shipped to customers’ hands and I can see social-media posts and news articles covering the features I had a hand in. It’s not always positive news coverage, but it’s still cool to have that kind of visibility. It feels like I’m making a real impact and am not just a code monkey behind corporate America (although maybe I still am). At the end of the day, I’m a creator, whether that’s for software or art or writing. I want to see the thing I’ve made touch people’s lives in however small of a way it can.
How, if at all, does your day job inform—or relate to—your writing life?
My writing often incorporates technical elements that directly come from my work as an engineer. I like mixing the pure logical aspect of code with the ambiguous and subjective nature of writing, although I’ve admittedly gotten lost in technical descriptions and have to filter myself. I’ve especially tried to do this with my interactive/code hybrid pieces. But also, sometimes I just want a break from seeing my writing being rejected for who-knows-what-reason. The compiler never tells me “we enjoyed reading this, but this code is not for us, try again next time.”
What creative projects are you working on right now?
I’ve been working on a few comics, graphic narratives, and code hybrids. I only recently picked up drawing, so we’ll see where that goes. I’ve also been writing more and longer stories with a speculative bent. I don’t have any big ongoing projects right now, maybe because I’m a results-driven person who needs to see an end product within a month (more like a week). I’ve been too spoiled by watching code just work (or fail) within the hour.
Lucy Zhang writes, codes, and watches anime. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in Black Warrior Review, New Orleans Review, The Offing, Passages North, Portland Review, West Branch, and elsewhere. Her work is included in Best Microfiction 2021 and Best Small Fictions 2021, was a finalist in Best of the Net 2020, and was long-listed in the Wigleaf Top 50. Find her at kowaretasekai.wordpress.com or on Twitter @Dango_Ramen.
