The high earnings of doctors and lawyers are well known, and it is expected to see them in luxurious homes. It is a little surprising when one finds a modest businessman of no apparent specialty, intellect, or skill in possession of an impressive estate earned through prolonged scrappiness. Yet in wealthy areas, there are dozens…
Author: Office Manager
Jobs are jails at which we suffer needlessly
Resignation Matters
Some employees fantasize about writing a dramatic resignation letter in which they imagine will destroy their boss. Realistically, all a nasty interaction accomplishes at work is burning a bridge by displaying how crazy and spiteful you really are. Better to hold it in and simply write the minimal to communicate your intentions. Give your 2…
Hippie Career Obliviousness
I never considered the idea of a career because I lived as a hippie. There was always some job that paid enough so I had food and a place to live. Modern life seemed to make a wife and kids improbable, so there was no pressure to have a complex job paying enough to support…
Avoid Advice
I recently received an unsolicited call from a recruiter who had found my resume online and wanted to discuss a c-level position. This was of interest because I hadn’t considered myself a candidate for such a position. We spoke for 30 minutes and he requested a current resume, so I set about researching the details…
Defiance
When I was splitting my time between three clients, one of them persisted in offering me a full time job every few months. I politely refused each time because one of the purposes of consulting is to not be worn down by a job. The independence and use of focused time, as well as superior…
Aggressive With Recruiters
Recruiters are like bargain hunters trying to take advantage of senior citizens at a yard sale with mispriced offerings. The recruiter recognizes market value but wants it cheap, knowing they pocket the difference when they know someone else will pay dearly to have value in their service. They betray their scheme in the first conversation,…
Idiots Replacing Experts
Google’s first contribution to debasing civilization was making information easily available to people who were utterly unsuited to interpreting it. Medical information available by search engine encouraged ignorant laymen to think their three minutes of reading a superficial description made them superior to doctors who studied the topic in detailed context, had decades of experience…
Education Illusion
Universities have been forced to online classes, which students quickly see through as being just someone talking while giving links to documents and videos to consume. There’s maybe a hundred dollars of value there in curation, but not $50,000 a semester. Was all education always just self-education with a mediocre life coach? Many thought highly…
A Glimpse of Normalcy
Changing routine tests assumptions, and undergoing quarantine has forced a reconsideration of how our lives were ordered against our interests. Sleep is better and longer, with less stress and worries because the next day will be methodical and adhere to a plan instead of subjected to crazed chaos reacting to the urgent need of the…
Neither Career Nor Good Work
We were a bunch of savages gathering random parts collected haphazardly
rather than planning to craft greatness.
Escape From Misery
One of my duties is interviewing prospects for open positions. Rather then ask detailed technical questions, I assess their skills and personalities by getting them to talk and tell me their understanding of things as well as their responsibilities. In this conversational interview format I also try to sense their daily work environment, and why…
Certification Pretense
The manager walked into the room to announce the big push for a new certification the customer requested. Two dozen developers laughed uncomfortably, knowing what was to follow. The manager asked what developers thought of the certification and after a few rounds of tepid talk, someone spoke up honestly and broke the taboo. “It’s just…