Reluctant Technosaur

There’s an old saying, “You can’t teach an old dog new tricks.” Now, I don’t know about dogs, but when it comes to us humans, especially us older folks, it seems we’re not too keen on learning new tricks either, especially when those tricks involve fancy gadgets and interwebs. Picture this: You’ve spent half a…

Middle Management

My friend pointed out that despite all the credentials and ability, a big group of us were trapped under a glass ceiling in middle management and had no path or connections to anything better. Middle management is a lonely no-man’s land. Workers hate you for keeping them on task. They are infantile and just want…

Preparing For the Future

Emerging trends clearly indication how young boys will have to find good career paths. Since 2015, women are the majority of college graduates, now at 60% and projected to continue increasing their dominance. “In the next few years, two women will earn a college degree for every man, if the trend continues, said Douglas Shapiro,…

Take an Extended Break

You can take a break for a while and rediscover yourself again. A short pause might be enough, or a few years if you need. Shift your costs to the public while getting free food, housing, and medical care. Small crimes will get you 60 or 90 days away from jobs. More significant crimes might…

Honor and Money

“Honor and money cannot fit in the same bag.” -Proverb So it is. When the goal is money, it is clear that you must renounce honor. This is the purpose of workplace culture displacing normal standards. In the office you are asked to remain silent about your values, preferences, or beliefs while complying with orders…

Reluctant Master’s Degree

Realizing an undergraduate degree led to a no man’s land of cubicle dwelling, we reluctantly turned to credential acquisition. All you have to do is pay for classes, show up, listen, and complete your work. Anyone can do it; some do. A year or two later, you have another degree. Never believers in having degrees,…

Money Left On The Table

Some people in IT obviously earned good money, but how they earned it was unclear. Top talent was often well paid, but not rich, while those who received millions in stock were often mediocre and seemed to be lucky to get free money because their company was acquired. An organized approach for using talent to…

Antiwork Censorship

I’m all for reforming jobs, offices, and workplace practices. It seemed r/antiwork would be the perfect place to discuss ideas about that and organize with similar minded people. It only took a few days to be banned from r/antiwork. Nothing I said was hostile or inflammatory. My thoughts slightly deviated from their narratives and that…

Living in Triplicate

Because of instability and chaotic reactivity throughout society, you have to operate in triplicate for resilience. In addition to your primary career, you need to keep a secondary career in case your specialty falls out of favor and is replaced. You’ll also need to develop a third career as a backup, one which is midrange…

Ask For What You Want

The best lesson for job discussions I ever got was from a prank phone call. The core advice is to simply ask for what you want rather than complying with established norms or accepting something you don’t want. Changing jobs is not a time to compromise and begin a new undertaking that focuses on what…

Neither Career Nor Good Work

We were a bunch of savages gathering random parts collected haphazardly
rather than planning to craft greatness.

Faking a Career

To maximize your income you have to switch jobs every year or two. Employers will lay you off at an instant, so you can’t reasonably have any loyalty. The relationship is just a temporary convenience without any promises or future. We churn between jobs, needing only to pass an interview to get into a position…