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DOUG STEVENSON: Hey, everybody.
Welcome to "Meet Firebase," where
you get to meet the Googlers that make Firebase happen.
On the show with me today is Alex Geboff.
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Alex.
ALEX GEBOFF: Hey.
DOUG STEVENSON: It's great having you on the show.
Thanks for being here.
Now, would you like to tell me, what do
you do with the Firebase team?
ALEX GEBOFF: I'm a tech writer.
And I work on Firebase app indexing, real-time database,
and the iOS SDKs.
DOUG STEVENSON: OK, great.
So if the people at home have used the iOS SDK,
they've probably encountered some of your work
at some point.
ALEX GEBOFF: Absolutely.
DOUG STEVENSON: So tell me, where are you from?
ALEX GEBOFF: I'm from San Diego originally.
And then I moved up here for school
and then moved back to San Diego and then back up here.
DOUG STEVENSON: OK, so you've bounced
around California a bit, but you're a California native.
ALEX GEBOFF: Indeed.
DOUG STEVENSON: So you're the first California native
we've had on the show, even though we are filming here
in Mountain View.
So you are a native speaker of Spanish.
Now, this, of course, makes you at least bilingual.
Is that right?
ALEX GEBOFF: Mm-hmm.
Hablo Espanol y anche parlo Italiano.
DOUG STEVENSON: OK, so you're trilingual.
ALEX GEBOFF: Yeah, I learned Italian in college
and studied abroad in Florence.
And I've since forgotten a lot of Italian.
But I still can get by.
DOUG STEVENSON: But English is not your first language though.
ALEX GEBOFF: Nope.
My parents are both from Mexico, so they were also
Spanish speakers.
And they wanted me to learn Spanish at an early age.
So they spoke to me in Spanish and then
they had me watch a lot of "Sesame Street" and "Mr.
Rogers" and "Snorks."
[BOTH LAUGH]
DOUG STEVENSON: I like that show.
ALEX GEBOFF: Yeah, that's a good show, right?
And Mr. Rogers is responsible for my cardigan.
And then my dad was a really big believer
in learning grammar and making sure
that you had a solid foundation in language.
So he gave me grammar lessons in both Spanish and English.
And I was able to read and write in both languages
by the time I hit kindergarten.
DOUG STEVENSON: Oh, that's fascinating.
So that probably had a lot to do with leading up
into your career as a tech writer.
ALEX GEBOFF: Yeah.
DOUG STEVENSON: I mean, that very strong background
in grammar.
ALEX GEBOFF: Writing drills at an early age.
DOUG STEVENSON: And then you ended up
majoring in English Lit.
But that's not what you originally wanted to do.
What happened there?
ALEX GEBOFF: I actually went to school thinking
that I was going to major in biochem.
And then Stanford has a really great management,
science, and engineering major that looked really cool.
And then I just really wanted to take English classes
and maybe go to law school.
So I started taking more and more English Lit classes
and loved writing and loved it.
And so I stuck with it.
DOUG STEVENSON: OK, so you crossed
streams into literature eventually.
ALEX GEBOFF: Yeah.
DOUG STEVENSON: You also didn't expect to get into tech.
So how did that happen?
ALEX GEBOFF: When I graduated from college,
I really thought that I would pursue
a writing or an editing or a publishing career,
do that for a couple of years, and then go to law school.
But I learned HTML, CSS, and JavaScript,
and started applying that on the job
at the newspaper where I worked.
And once the newspaper started going progressively more
downhill and layoffs were on the horizon,
I started applying to more and more writing jobs
and took a tech writing job at ESET,
which married the skills of writing, which
I had a strong background in, and my interest in tech,
and my love for all things tech.
And I just loved it.
DOUG STEVENSON: Oh, that's interesting.
So you're formally trained as a writer,
but you had enough tech experience
that you were able to merge the two.
ALEX GEBOFF: Yeah.
DOUG STEVENSON: So like most writers,
I assume you like to read.
ALEX GEBOFF: Mm-hmm.
DOUG STEVENSON: I like to read.
I read mostly nonfiction and news and tech articles
and stuff like that.
So what kind of stuff do you like to read?
ALEX GEBOFF: I like to read a lot of science fiction
and fantasy novels.
So huge Harry Potter fan, and then
Patrick Rothfuss and his "KingKiller Chronicle"
is one of my favorites.
"Name of The Wind" and "Wise Man's Fear" are great books.
DOUG STEVENSON: OK, OK.
So you're a tech writer.
You read fantasy.
That makes you-- pushes you into the dirty, geeky side
of things, which is-- yeah, I'm there as well myself.
And so Nate also likes to read.
He seems to read the same book a lot.
So that's his choice.
So I'd also like to point out, on the issue of being
kind of nerdy and geeky, you were married on Super Pi Day.
ALEX GEBOFF: Indeed.
DOUG STEVENSON: Now, I know what that is.
I don't know if everyone at home knows what that is.
Could you explain what that is, Super Pi Day?
ALEX GEBOFF: Sure thing.
So pi is 3.141592653 and then et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.
DOUG STEVENSON: It goes on forever.
ALEX GEBOFF: Yeah.
And 2015, March 14th, was Super Pi Day, because it was 3.14.15.
And my husband and I got I married at 9:26 in the morning.
And we like to say it was 9:26:53
and we got it exactly on the dot, which is totally true.
DOUG STEVENSON: So March 14th, 2015, 3, 14, 15.
And then the time also matched up.
ALEX GEBOFF: Yeah, I had to get up very early in the morning.
DOUG STEVENSON: Yeah, well, I'm sure it was worth it.
Right?
ALEX GEBOFF: Totally.
DOUG STEVENSON: So how did that go?
ALEX GEBOFF: So the wedding was very carefully planned.
We got married at Castle Rock on top of a boulder.
And then we went wine-tasting afterwards, ate a lot of pie.
Everything was kind of like-- the last detail was planned.
And then when we went on our honeymoon,
the best laid plans really did fall apart on that one.
We were supposed to go from Oktoberfest in Munich
to Venice via overnight train.
And we had booked this sleeper compartment.
DOUG STEVENSON: Oh, fancy.
ALEX GEBOFF: And yeah, it looked super fancy.
The pamphlet made it look amazing.
And our tickets and everything was all set.
And we got an email at 8:00 PM--
and our train was supposed to leave
at 11:00-- saying that our stop was canceled,
which was kind of mysterious and not very informative at all.
So we went to the train station and asked at information,
you know, our stop is canceled.
What does that mean?
And the gentleman at the information station
was like, well, you have to go pick it up in Salzburg.
And you have four minutes to get to Platform 10.
And that's where the train leaves from.
So go!
DOUG STEVENSON: You had to high tail it.
ALEX GEBOFF: Yeah.
So we ran across the train station, got on the train.
And then it turned out that all of the borders
were actually closed in Germany because it
was during the refugee crisis.
And that's why our stop was canceled.
So we ended up hopping on this train
to the border of Germany and Austria,
then go via bus across the border,
and then wait until 2:00 AM, when the train actually
left from Salzburg in Austria.
And the whole time that we're on this train,
we have really no idea what's going on.
The conductor of the train in Austria was like,
this is an Austrian train, and these are German tickets.
You know, like, you stupid American.
[BOTH LAUGH]
And then it turned out our sleeper compartment
didn't actually come over because the border was
being closed.
So we just had to find a random place to sleep.
But we made it to Venice, and it worked.
And you know, it's kind of first-world problems.
Right?
DOUG STEVENSON: Yeah.
You make all the plans, and not everything works out the way
that you want.
But as a tech writer, you still you still have to make plans.
And you probably have some sort of a process involved to plan
for Firebase documentation.
So can you tell me a little bit about what
you do to plan for that?
ALEX GEBOFF: Yeah.
Typically, when we have a new feature that's launching,
or an update that's ongoing for a product, when
you go to write documentation for it,
you look at what the actual user journey is going to be like.
So if I'm a developer and I'm working with this product
or working with this feature, what
is my process going through it?
And then documenting that.
DOUG STEVENSON: So the user's perspective.
So you try to imagine what the user will
be trying to do or accomplish, what their goal is.
ALEX GEBOFF: Yeah, exactly.
And then you start to think about other developers
and how they would approach it.
And you try to cover it from all angles
and put together a doc plan, an outline of the process,
an outline the steps.
And then as you're actually documenting it,
use the feature, use of the tool.
A lot of times, tech writers are the ones who spot really
big user experience errors because you're
going through it, and you're just like,
this really doesn't work.
This actually is broken in the product.
And so you can funnel that back, which is really satisfying.
And then most of the time, it works really great.
And then you get to document it.
DOUG STEVENSON: Oh, that's great.
Yeah.
So I notice that we get a lot of good feedback
about our documentation.
So it's good to know who's contributing to that.
Now, one thing that's interesting
about technical writing that you told me earlier
is that you're not allowed to use slang words,
because that's not appropriate, like maybe you
would in less formal writing, or creative writing.
You can kind of play fast and loose with English.
But in technical writing, you can't really do that.
So one of the things you told me earlier about tech writing
is that you're not really supposed
to use slang in your writing.
So, like, for creative writing, you
might play very fast and loose with the English language,
but you can't really do that for technical documentation
because it just doesn't make sense.
You'll lose readers.
Right?
But the fact of the matter is, English speakers
around the world, and even within the United States,
use different words for the same thing.
It's just a matter of fact.
It's not that it's slang.
It's just that they just use different words.
So I was wondering if you would play a little game with me
to explore that a little bit.
ALEX GEBOFF: Sure.
DOUG STEVENSON: I'm going to ask you some questions,
and I'll ask for your opinion what you would say,
not that it's right or wrong.
But we'll compare that to what other people in the United
States might say.
So let's do the first one.
How do you address a group of two or more people?
ALEX GEBOFF: I would say, "you guys,"
because I'm from California.
DOUG STEVENSON: Because you're from California?
Or just because it sounds natural.
So you'd say "you guys."
Other people might just say "you," where in the South,
it's "y'all."
Or as you said, it's also just "you guys."
So I think that is what most of US would say is "you guys."
So very sort of on the norm for American speaking.
All right.
Let's do the next one.
What do you call it when several roads meet in a circle
and you drive around in that circle?
ALEX GEBOFF: A "roundabout."
DOUG STEVENSON: It's a "roundabout"?
OK, so you chose roundabout.
That's very common in the West.
So we're here in California.
That's in the West.
In the East, it's called a "traffic circle."
And in the far Northeast, it's a "rotary."
So I'd never really heard that word
until I lived in the Northeast.
ALEX GEBOFF: Like a phone.
DOUG STEVENSON: Yeah, it was like rotary dial phone.
Exactly.
Yeah.
All right.
Let's do the next one.
What do you call a long sandwich that has cold cuts, lettuce,
and other toppings on a bun?
ALEX GEBOFF: A "sub."
DOUG STEVENSON: A "sub."
OK, so that's what most of the US would say.
It's a sub.
However, in Pennsylvania, in Philadelphia in particular,
it's called a "hoagie." also a "gyro."
Some people will use the words "grinder"
or "torpedo sandwich."
ALEX GEBOFF: Wow.
DOUG STEVENSON: Yeah, so I had heard
most of those living in Ohio.
That's where I grew up.
But yeah, sub is what most people would say.
All right, let's do the next one.
What apparatus, sometimes attached to a wall,
do you use to get a drink of water?
ALEX GEBOFF: A "drinking fountain."
DOUG STEVENSON: A "drinking fountain."
OK, drinking fountain is, again, what
most people would say in the West of the United States.
So you're on the norm for the West.
In the East and the South, it's a "water fountain."
That's what I grew up saying mostly.
But the really interesting thing is in Wisconsin and Rhode
Island, it's called a "bubbler."
ALEX GEBOFF: That's amazing.
DOUG STEVENSON: Had you heard that before?
ALEX GEBOFF: No.
DOUG STEVENSON: Now, I had a friend from Wisconsin,
and she told me that.
And I was genuinely shocked.
I'm like, oh, that's a thing.
OK, interesting.
All right, next one.
What is the most general term for shoes
you might wear for athletics?
ALEX GEBOFF: "Sneakers."
DOUG STEVENSON: "Sneakers."
OK.
So you've deviated from the norm for people in the West.
So "tennis shoes" is most common in the West of the United
States.
"Sneakers" is a very New England thing.
ALEX GEBOFF: Interesting.
DOUG STEVENSON: That's what a lot of people
would say where I lived in Boston for a while.
And other parts of the world, you just might say "gym shoes."
ALEX GEBOFF: Yeah.
DOUG STEVENSON: All right, let's do another one.
What is the road with multiple lanes
where traffic moves quickly?
ALEX GEBOFF: "Freeway."
DOUG STEVENSON: "Freeway."
OK, so that's a very Western thing.
In the East, it's "highway."
And some people would go further and say
that a freeway and a highway are two different things.
A freeway is wider than a highway.
OK, another one.
What are you referring to when you say "the city"?
ALEX GEBOFF: [LAUGHS] New York.
DOUG STEVENSON: New York.
Oh, that's what you mean.
Really?
OK.
Because most people around here in the Bay Area
would say San Francisco.
Yeah, but most of the United States refers to New York
as "the city."
ALEX GEBOFF: But my husband's from Jersey.
And that's a huge pet peeve of his.
DOUG STEVENSON: Really?
That's interesting.
ALEX GEBOFF: Yeah.
For marital bliss, I just say New York.
DOUG STEVENSON: Yeah, OK, you can change
the way you think about it.
That's fine.
So people who live near Boston would also say Boston.
And Chicago also has a following.
But that's interesting that you adopted
a different way of saying it.
Looks like you speak very much like a West Coaster,
with a few exceptions, of course.
So thanks for playing, and thanks for being on the show.
It was great having you.
ALEX GEBOFF: Thank you for having me.
DOUG STEVENSON: And if you want to read more of Alex's work
on the Firebase documentation be sure to do that
by clicking the link below.
If you want to subscribe to more video content like this,
do that by clicking the Subscribe button right here
on the Firebase Channel on YouTube.
Thanks for watching "Meet Firebase."
I'll see you next time.
ALEX GEBOFF: Bye.
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