🚀 The Curious Case of the Binary Elevator: A Story of Engineering Culture 🚀

It was a cloudy Tuesday morning when I first stepped into Redacted’s sleek new office. The lobby was a blend of minimalist design and cutting-edge tech aesthetics, everything you’d expect from a forward-thinking company striving to push boundaries.

But as I approached the elevator, something unusual caught my eye.

Instead of the traditional number pad where I could simply press “10” for the tenth floor, I was greeted with a small digital panel displaying only the digits 1 and 0… Binary input required.

“Wait, What?”

At Redacted, you don’t just select a floor like any other building. Instead, you have to think a little, well… binary.

Need to get to the 10th floor? Put your engineering skills to work: 1010 in binary.
14th floor? Easy, 1110.

At first, it might seem like a puzzling inconvenience to anyone outside of the engineering world, but to those inside Redacted? It’s a stroke of genius that speaks volumes about their culture.

Engineering is Everywhere 💡

The elevator was, ironically, a metaphor—a microcosm of what the company stands for. It was as if Redacted was telling every employee, client, and visitor from the get-go:

“Here, we solve puzzles. We embrace complexity. And we take joy in understanding the logic behind things.”

The binary elevator didn’t just end up in the building by accident.

“One day the team was talking about how embedded systems and low-level programming languages are fundamental to everything we do,” says Dan.
“We wanted an everyday reminder of the importance of binary logic and computational thinking, even in our physical spaces.”

Everyday activities like riding an elevator are now an opportunity for intentional thought—whether you’re an engineer steeped in binary, or a non-technical member of the team who suddenly has to recalibrate your thinking.

This little innovation further embeds the company ethos: problem-solving starts the moment you step into the office.

A Symbol of Engineering Excellence 🚀

The binary elevator is more than just a cool feature. It’s become a symbol for the company’s approach towards innovation and engineering, serving as a daily reminder:

• You need to think critically and approach challenges from different angles.

• You don’t just memorize floors, you understand them deeply. How many times have you converted your floor number to binary, really?

• Details matter. Whether you’re coding a line of asynchronous logic, debugging a microservice, or… well, just getting to the right floor.

And that’s the trick: beyond just convenience, the binary elevator serves as a cultural hack to keep engineers thinking creatively and technically at the same time.

An employee laughed during a chat by the coffee machine:

“One visitor thought there was a technical malfunction, but for us, it’s a daily challenge we’ve come to love. My first day here, I had to google ‘binary to decimal converter’ on my phone, but now I breeze through it without thinking!”

New Hires and Visitors Go Through a Learning Curve 🤔

Sure, it takes a while for people to adjust—there’s always that initial moment of uncertainty for newcomers. But that’s exactly what makes it so on-brand for Redacted.

For new hires, figuring out the binary input on their first day is a rite of passage. It signals that you’re entering a place where constant learning and curiosity are encouraged. It’s a small but reinforcing message:

“You belong here if you love to solve problems at their core.”

Visitors usually need a helping hand, but it often sparks conversations that lead to building excitement about the work Redacted is doing.

As one recent partner said after his trip to the office:

“As a visitor, it’s a little confusing at first, but then I quickly realized it was the cleverest way I’d ever been reminded to think more carefully about my inputs!”

Part of the Everyday Fun 🎉

This quirky little feature has become a part of the team’s daily banter, too. People joke in binary. When asked in the hallway where someone is headed, a quick “I’m off to 1011” gets a knowing nod. It has created a sense of camaraderie among employees—a little inside joke that drives home the shared expertise and culture of the place.

What’s more, it’s a reminder to never settle for the obvious answer. The binary elevator may seem like a simple tweak, but the underlying message is profound:

Great engineers think beyond the surface.

The Redacted Takeaway 🔑

Culture isn’t something you hang on the wall. It’s something you live every day. At Redacted, the binary elevator is a small but significant way to show that engineering is central—not just to what they build—but to how they think, collaborate, and grow.

So next time you visit Redacted and press 0110 for the 6th floor, maybe pause for a second. You might just crack a smile and think, “I’m in good company.”

#EngineeringCulture #BinaryElevator #Innovation #ProblemSolving #TechLife #WhereCodeMeetsCulture