JOBSEARCH: Myths are killers in job search

Wednesday, May 5, 2010

http://www.pickthebrain.com/blog/6-myths-that-stand-in-your-way/

6 Myths That Stand In Your Way
April 18th, 2010 by Mark Harrison

*** begin quote ***

1. Myth: There is time

2. Myth: You can rely on other people

3. Myth: You are important

4. Myth: You should put others before yourself

5. Myth: Conflict should be avoided

6. Myth: The difference between success and failure is LUCK.

*** end quote ***

Ahhh, myths, I can relate to this one. I was so … … stupid, lazy, dumb,

Shoulda, coulda, and woulda!

Paradigms are the way we perceive the world (i.e., the JoHari window). Memes, like genes for ideas, are the units of thoughts that transfer and modify behavior.

Myths are a erroneous paradigms and memes.

So is the problem, the difference, that we now perceive them as “wrong”. By what standard?

So we have paradigms and memes that, being wrong, interfere with a successful life and a successful jobsearch.

Some of them that have particularly screwed me up.

1. I believed people. They lied. I acted on those beliefs. And, I did damage that I can’t even know or assess.

2. I “coasted” when it would have been trivial to do the work. Again, another hit that can’t be assessed.

3. I read a mensa piece (i.e., human being owner’s manual) many many moons ago. I thought it was a joke. Little did I know how true it was.

4. I have heard many of the self-help gurus and read many of the self-help texts. Read, but didn’t grok. Preused but didn’t action.

5. I didn’t play the “political game” at my various stops along my career path. Who knows what could have been?

6. I urged people to forgive themselves. I have to do the same. The “more than a year” amnesty. All sins forgiven; not forgotten.

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TECHNOLOGY: MEGAMILLIONS site is overwhelmed

Tuesday, May 4, 2010

Winning Numbers – Mega Millions Official Home

Winning Numbers: 4/30/2010. Mega Millions drawings are held Tuesday and Friday at 11:00 p.m. Five balls are drawn from a set of balls numbered 1 through 56; …

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The page cannot be displayed

The request cannot be processed at this time. The amount of traffic exceeds the Web site’s configured capacity.

Please try the following:

   * Click the Refresh button, or try again later.

   * If this error persists, contact the Web site administrator to inform them that this error continues to occur for this URL address.

HTTP Error 500.13 – Server error: Web server is too busy.

Internet Information Services (IIS)

Technical Information (for support personnel)

   * Go to Microsoft Product Support Services and perform a title search for the words HTTP and 500.

   * Open IIS Help, which is accessible in IIS Manager (inetmgr), and search for topics titled Monitoring and Tuning Web Application Performance, Performance Monitoring and Scalability Tools, and About Custom Error Messages.

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GOVERNACIDE: Kent State murders

Tuesday, May 4, 2010

http://aaeblog.com/2010/05/04/the-state-in-action/

*** begin quote ***

Forty years ago today, Ohio National Guardsmen murdered four unarmed students at Kent State and wounded nine others, permanently paralysing one.

*** end quote ***

So soon we forget.

From whence does the State, any state, get the right to execute its citizens?

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POLITICAL: What a novel idea: voluntary funding of services

Tuesday, May 4, 2010

http://www.lvrj.com/opinion/the-audacity-of-deceit-92614219.html

May. 02, 2010
The audacity of deceit
VIN SUPRYNOWICZ
I don’t think Barack Obama tells the truth.

*** begin quote ***

The freedom ideal would be no compulsory taxation, at all — let all keep their own earnings to invest in growing the economy, while what minimal government is required would be supported by voluntary user fees.

The statists will pretend to object on pragmatic grounds. Let them first answer whether or not they agree this would be the ideal. If they do, then we can try to solve the pragmatic problems. I grew up in a small town, for example, where voluntary membership fees funded the ambulance and the volunteer firemen. The ambulance and the firemen would still respond to a home that had not subscribed — but that homeowner would then receive a bill for the full cost of their services. Few waited to get a second bill before signing up as paid members.

*** end quote ***

My gripe with gooferment is:

  • It uses force even when not needed;
  • We pay for “services” that we don’t want.
  • We pay for “services” that we don’t need.
  • We pay for “services” that we can’t afford.
  • We pay for “services” that are “over priced”.
  • We pay for “services” that are “under functional”.
  • We pay for “services” that are delayed or way overdue.

And pay, and pay, and pay, and pay.

Enuf is enuf!

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RANT: ABC broke The View for OBH44

Tuesday, May 4, 2010

ABC broke The View for OBH44 to “update the American people”. Argh! They never did that for Bush. And, he’s congratulating everyone.

Hey guys, we were just lucky that this fellow was so inept.

And, our technology infrastructure can’t track folks traveling to and from Pakistan.

And, our gooferment is still as inept as it ever was.

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MONEY: WW2 Wage and Price control were disasterous and carry through today

Tuesday, May 4, 2010

On Apr 24, 2010, at 5:58 PM, LUDDITE wrote:

http://finance.yahoo.com/focus-retirement/article/107923/8-great-companies-to-retire-from.html?mod=fidelity-changingjobs

At a time when some firms have cut back on benefits, these employers offer notably generous plans. Fortune picks some of the best.

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Good for you. But bad for us as a society. Pensions and benefits are a result of the WW2 wage and price controls. Big companies bent the salary cap rules by giving these inducements to get good workers. This was a gooferment distortion of the employment marketplace which as usual has had disastrous side effects. I’m not a economist; nor a social scientist, but let see if I can enumerate the ones I know about.

(1) Medical insurance tied to employment had several bad effects. It locked up workers who couldn’t or wouldn’t change jobs due to losing their benefits or the “pre-existing conditions of going to a different insurer. Lose your job due to poor performance, bad economy (i.e., recession), or structural changes in the economy (i.e., rust belt) lose your benefits. It disconnected the link between the expense and the pain of paying thus inducing folks not shop around, negotiate, or even look at the bills.

(2) Pensions are in effect deferred compensation. It locks up capital in the company pension plan — with its risk in bankruptcy — from the individual. So, for example, an employee, if they had that money, could have used it as they saw fit to provide for their own retirement. In my own case, I could have had an extra X$/month to pay down my mortgage sooner and had that capital asset for my retirement. It’s about Freedom and liberty. I was FORCED to trade X$ per month at that time for a future cash flow at age 65 assuming I lived so long. If I didn’t, it was lost. Like “Social Security”!

(3) Pensions were such an expense that the Aircraft companies were firing “old” injineers just before their pensions vested to hire new graduates cheaper. (The fact that much of their work was for the military and the gooferment made it hurt even more.) Hence, having created the problem, the Gooferment gave us the solution — more gooferment — the ERISA laws. (Argh!)

(4) Pensions and benefits, due to it hidden sunken costs, makes the workforce less flexible and nimble. You had to have a much bigger opportunity in a new job in order to justify leaving the security, pension, and benefits in an old employer.

(5) Increased regulation of the workplace, such as OSHA, FALSA, and NLRB, all sprung out of that New Deal thinking. And, was as taxation and regulation, a drag on our economy.

So that’s why this is bad for us as a nation.

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JOBSEARCH: Build a inet biz; it may take off

Monday, May 3, 2010

http://techcrunch.com/2010/05/01/advice-from-founders-who-bootstrapped-their-way-to-success-2

Advice From Founders Who Bootstrapped Their Way to Success
by Vivek Wadhwa on May 1, 2010

*** begin quote ***

It was founded in 2000, after Nickell, then a 20-year-old web developer, won a t-shirt-design contest. With an investment of $1000, he built a website to which people submitted t-shirt designs, and the favorites were printed in limited-edition runs. In 2006, the company had gained traction, was generating nearly $10 million in revenue, and took a small investment from Insight Venture Partners.

My Q&A with Jake:

Would you have taken a VC investment if you could have, when you started?

Definitely not, as I was starting a hobby and not a business. It’s kind of like asking if I would consider a VC investment to help me start learning to skateboard. Sure, I’d spend a couple hundred bucks on a board, some pads and maybe some materials to build a ramp, but I’m not looking for millions or even hundreds or tens of thousands to just create something for fun. Even if I was starting a business, I don’t think I was raised that way or have that type of personality. I didn’t even have my first credit card until I was maybe 23, so I really just don’t do well with spending money I don’t have.

*** end quote ***

This timely post reinforces my formula points #5 and #6. (imho)

Success for your generation is:

{Extraneous Deleted}

(5) one or more internet based businesses — your store is always open;

(6) a free time hobby that generates income;

{Extraneous Deleted}

In the cited example, the hobby became his internet business and it carried him away. We should all be so lucky.

But don’t over look the essential point, bootstrap a hobby into a source of income.

Thanks to my old workmate Vivek. Guess I should have listened to him more when we worked together. Who knew he was so smart?

(Sotto voce: He didn’t seem that smart at the time.)

ROFL!

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INSPIRATIONAL: My Summertime friends

Monday, May 3, 2010

One of the interesting parts of owning a “summer home” is neighbors.

You become attached, involved, and friends.

But, only for the “summer”.

That’s defined for us from when we turn the water on to when we turn it off.

Each spring, we sort of hold our breaths while we find out if everyone survived. As one of the “younger couples” on the street, each year we dread losing a few neighbors.

“Life goes on.”

Some of the neighbors are like us and open up asap and close as late as possible.

(I wish it was year round. Virtually no people in the winter. Perfect for an ITSJ like me.)

When one of my neighbors was AWOL, I decided to break my own rules about phones — I didn’t have her email — and call. With some trepidation.

(Our “rutgers womens bball games” friends have also suffered the fate of old age and passed. We have a similar dread of the first game each season to see who didn’t make it.)

So I called fearing the worst.

But it was good news, there’s a baby on the way. So we’ll have a baby next door this summer. Great. It means life goes on. And, someone to inherit that family’s summer home.

And, maybe some one to mark when our time comes.

I informed the lady in question about the direct path to my will for children named “Ferdinand”. She thanked me for a good belly laugh.

That’s me just spreading humor around.

When I introduced myself as “her favorite author calling”, she laughingly told me that I was the only author she knew. (She’ll have to get out more.) And, she too had an excuse for not reading it over the winter. Pregnancy. Guess you have to keep your priorities straight.

She should have read the book! ROFL.

Great news!

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POLITICAL: Thinking about “fair”!

Monday, May 3, 2010

I was watching an old episode of Family Fued and one of the questions spurred a RANT. Really political.

“What do you think is a fair salary for a new teacher?”

Arghhhhhh!

Regardless of the answer, this had so many “teachable moments” it was astonishing.

(1) Opinions are like …, everyone has one. Who cares what people think is “fair”? The ONLY “fair” price is one that is freely offered and accepted. A marketplace establish what is “fair” better than any vote or opinion.

(2) The teacher is an employee of the gooferment. With a capturing captive union that exerts tremendous political pressure. Starting salary is political. Very political.

(3) The salary of day care “teachers” is by definition “fair”. And, much lower than that of “real teachers”. Why do we have gooferment “education”? I’d call it “youth propaganda prisons”. And we sneered at the Communists and their “political reeducation camps”; what’s different?

(4) The whole education system isn’t “fair”. I don’t decide ANYTHING in a child’s life, but I’m forced to pay for their education. That ain’t “fair”.

Argh!

Did I miss anything?

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FUN: 57 PIC from Mom’s stash

Monday, May 3, 2010

1957-DEC-XX Oregon Photo

My father, who everyone called “Ferdie”, my paternal grandmother Marie, me, and an unknown person.

Going through my Mom’s old pictures. Too bad people don’t write the names, date, and place. Start now to memorialize your history.

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