Sometimes when I was repairing my house, I remembered the handyman skills I learned from the “Christmas party” at NVIDIA back at its frugal day.

NVIDIA did not have “Christmas party” back then. In fact, Jensen took us to one of the schools in Santa Clara County to repair the campus — rebuilding the fence, repainting the murals, raising a new sunshade roof for the lunch area, etc.

Bill Dally, the head of NVIDIA Research, was in fact a very avid home builder. He taught us how to mix concrete, operating heavy tools and nailing the wood nails on the frame with a sledge hammer.

I did bend some nails a couple times.

Jensen would go around and check how everyone was doing. At the end of the work under the sun, we sat on the ground for lunch, with dirty pants and shirts.

Foolish I was, I envied my friends at Google or Facebook for their cocktail theme parties. But now looking back, I did pick up a few things or two that are still useful today.