Recently my sister visited us in San Diego to spend time with our family. It is beginning to be a tradition for her and my brother in law to visit us before the holidays. A chef in trade, we wanted to support Carline’s business so we asked her to serve one of her staple course meals with our family. She kindly obliged. As part of her menu, Carline was going to prepare crème brûlée as the desert so it required us to make a run to the grocery store.

One of the key ingredients was vanilla extract which we did not have. So I went to the nearby Ralph’s grocery store by myself and was — truthfully — overwhelmed at how many options there were. This was perhaps my first time buying this in my life but I recognized one of the brands immediately: McCormick. Without even caring if it was the most cost effective option I immediately picked that brand knowing that there were other options that may have been cost-effective.

I mention this story just because I have more empathy for all of the chefs like my sister out there who have so much to choose from on any given ingredient. Moreover, this experience also gives more meaning for what I do in my job at Intel. Creating and establishing preference for PCs powered by Intel products matters at an early age. This is why what I believe we are doing in education is so critical to the company for the long-term. I think I’ll be using this vanilla extract experience going forward to help give perspective on why what we do is so important.