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Richard Ristow...contd. |
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Richard sits in the Friends Meeting House, Providence
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 Richard’s interests are and were eclectic, which diverted him, early on, from being a pure mathematician…although there is no conflict in his mind between being a mathematician and playing the trombone in the orchestras at Swarthmore, M.I.T. and Brown. As a child, he was a good student, but preferred learning about fascinating subjects in the library rather than sitting at a desk in the too slow and intellectually restricting classroom. And he always thought better than he did:
But I may have been most wrong in referring to Richard as in any way “intimidating.” Richard’s a relaxed, friendly, supportive and engaging kind of fellow. He’s also a Quaker, a member of the Society of Friends who are a peace-loving, inclusive group—and the formal portion of our interview took place in the Friends’ Meeting House in Providence. Some time after our interview, he sent me a book of poems written by a friend of his, Anne Shelley, who had passed away. In the hand-written letter that accompanied the book, he quotes her: “Did they know this state was settled by renegades, Jews and Quakers…?' King Douglas: Describe your interest, ability and skill in SPSS. [This question, originally overlooked in the formal interview, was answered by Richard via e-mail, as follows] Richard Ristow: Hmmmph. this is the end of a long day when I beat my head over importing three smallish Excel spreadsheets into SPSS to make one file. It was ALMOST working, and they sent me one new file and a revision of another, and the whole merge seems to be falling apart from too much code to fix one thing or another, and finally I don't know what's going on. Yes, I design; but then trying to fix this and that once it’s designed. So tonight, it's hard to find much interest in SPSS except raw hatred. It doesn't feel like I've got any ability or skill, either. Maybe I'll feel better in the morning.
Well, I think I found the bug that was frustrating me last night, so I feel better this morning. I used the "print a listing and look at it before sleeping" technique. SPSS and I have almost grown up together. I was introduced to SPSS when I first became a full-time computing professional, and I've been there while it got really powerful. It's a long-time tool for me, and a long-time subject where I've helped other users. I once said, "You don't know software until you can hate it creatively." I love SPSS, and hate parts of it, like a member of the family. King Douglas: How did you learn SPSS?
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