There is a beautiful tweet by svs which I keep coming back to when trying to describe how it feels like being in a control room.
Forget that. As a nerd, if Zomato sold NYE tickets to their war room, I’d probably be there instead at one of your proletarian parties.
— svs 🇮🇳 (@_svs_) January 2, 2024
I’ve been in war rooms. I’ve known friends who’ve been in IPL war rooms. And 99% of the people there know they’re lucky to be part of… https://t.co/u7KMfeLvGr
He is talking about this cocktail of curiosity, wonder and nothingness you feel when you are in a control room of any sorts.
I’m sure you have felt it at some point.
My first experience of being in a control room was when I was 7, my dad took me to the control room of the mumbai suburban local trains, he was a track engineer in the western railways.
That change of perspective from travelling in a train to actually looking at a screen where you could (possibly) see all the trains in flight. It was so good, it turned something in my head.
I have been in many physical and digital control rooms since then, I still feel the same tingle. My day job involves looking at an array of grafana dashboards, when staring at them I sometimes zone out and feel the same wonder.
Almost every cracked engineer I’ve met loves this feeling. Of being in the control room. Of observing something massive run and breathe.
And if lucky, of feeling the chills watching something they built grow into a formidable machine.
And I agree with svs, I would fucking pay to be in some of these control rooms, it’s a builder’s thing, truly.