🪨 Plate V

It was the oddest job interview I’d ever experienced. First of all, we arrived at the lobby as one big group, brought in on bespoke company transport—black vehicles with tinted windows. It rained on the way over, so everyone was wet, shaking out their umbrellas in a rustling like birds’ wings. We took the elevators up in staggered intervals. Filed into a conference room with chairs set up around the perimeter in the shape of an oval. At the center was a desk with a clay ball sitting on top of it, stabbed full of miscellaneous objects.Second of all, we were told not to speak but write—with old-fashioned paper and pencil—staring at this crazy ball. “You are being tested,” the proctor said. “Write a set of instructions on how to build this object. Strive to be informative, but not helpful. Descriptive, but not colorful.”Confused faces all around. I felt I understood. As a chemist by training, I was taught not to ascribe human motivations to insentient reactions. The match doesn’t…