I’ve recently written some things a bit critical about America and American culture (particularly pop culture), and—seeing as how it’s nearing our Independence Day—I figure I ought to share a more positive vibe.  Therefore, I’m offering a few things below (in no particular order) that make me happy to be an American and living in America .  I know that not all of these things are unique to my country or nationality, but I think—in combination—they highlight a positive uniqueness.

1. The freedom to fail and make a comeback (or comebacks!)
   I know of no other countries where folks can fail—go bankrupt, make their companies go bankrupt, do something really stupid or dastardly in public—and still have such high chances of redeeming themselves with later, more favorable actions.  Sure, there’s still often some stigma to failing, but it’s not fatal or absolute.

2. The encouragement to be creative and innovative
   I’ve lived in Europe, I’ve traveled to at least two dozen countries around the world, and I’ve never seen a culture with such an openness to wacky, outlandish, and yes, impossible dreams.  This, among admittedly many other factors, is why America has been and remains the center of dot.com bold insanity and brilliance.
   
    
   Read the full entry...

   ---

   - Blathered by Adam on Monday, July 3, 2006 at 16:52 Permalink
   - Filed under Personal • Society
   - Commented on by 21 folks so far. Visit the full entry page and join in!

I wrote this quite a while ago, both to vent my frustrations and also to sincerely urge HR folks and interviewers to improve their practices.  I’ve had pleasurable experiences with most of the companies I’ve interviewed with in the past, but there has still often been quite a bit of room for improvement.  Also, I figured my rant below might make for a useful counterpoint to the plethora of interviewee-advice pages out there .

* * *

Dear HR folks and interviewers:

Write or call back when you say you will.  If you don’t, apologize.

Don’t ask us about our salary history.  That’s rude and completely irrelevant.  Perhaps we were working for the Peace Corp.  Maybe we were wildly underpaid at our last job.  Or crazily overpaid.  Instead, tell us (at least a range of) how much your position is paying and we’ll let you know if that’s aligned with our expectations.

Make job descriptions descriptive… complete with some day-to-day details.  Cut the jargon and market’y crap.  When your Craigslist ad contains verbiage about “best of breed solutions” and “every customer is #1” and “we offer GENAROUS [sic] benefits! [ahem, such as?]” we don’t know whether to laugh hysterically or run screaming.

$29 for nosebleed seats at a recent baseball game.  You’ve got to be kidding me.

Okay, first let me admit a few things.  Baseball itself bores the hell out of me; I attended only for the social atmosphere and the opportunity to hang with some friends.  And yes, I do pay (less grudgingly) $40-$70 for an evening of live theatre.

But I got to thinking… $29 for this activity is just ridiculous, and not because it’s not worth $29 of fun for some people.  No, it’s because I’m being inundated with bazillions of blaring, garish ads all around me, I can barely see what’s going on on the field without binoculars, and these overpaid oft-steroid’ed babies down there are raking in millions of bucks per year.  Frankly, if all was right with the world, I thought, these folks (and their managers and everyone associated with such a non-critical function of society) would make, say, $150,000 a year, tops.

Earlier this week, I got an e-mail from an acquaintance which basically started off… “Hey man, you know a lot about [x], right?  So would you recommend...”

That in itself isn’t so offensive.  But when someone routinely takes and takes (advice, help, my time via his rantings, etc.) and never gives (a sincere “How are things?”, a random “Hey, I was thinking of you” without a request for help, etc.)… well, that just gets incredibly annoying.

Luckily, I don’t know many people like this.  I have much better taste in friends, and I’ve been really pleased to end up with colleagues who are consistently thoughtful and personable.  But still… there are still enough clueless leeches I hear from that I ought to come up with decent ways of addressing this situation.  And I’d love some of your insight and recommendations!

A couple of months ago, I became a Googler.  Since my boss—Matt Cutts—has already so kindly introduced me on his blog, I feel this is probably a good time to say a few words about my new job

The short version:  I’m honored, humbled, a bit nervous, and yes, very happy.  As a lifelong geek who’s been excited about search and Google in particular for many years, it’s hugely fascinating to be experiencing new adventures from the “inside.”

Okay, now for the longer version!

I was suitably inspired by this commentary on ”keeping up.”

And so I’ll ask you what I asked myself over the last few weeks:
How many undealt-with messages do you have in your inbox?
How many paper magazines or newspapers do you get regularly?
How many RSS feeds do you subscribe to?
How many “must see” pages do you have bookmarked in your Web browser?

How many of these items make you happy, provide you with essential information, truly help you have a better life?

I’ll tell you where I stood a few weeks ago. 4,000+ e-mails in my inbox.  Over 100 e-mails coming in daily (and no, that doesn’t include mails at work).  Many thousands of unread blog items. Nearly a thousand to-do items.

Now I’m making progress. My inbox is down to fewer than 100 mails.  I’ve begun trimming my RSS feeds.  I decided not to renew two of my magazine subscriptions.  And I cleaned up my browser bookmarks.

Here are some of the cleaning techniques I’ve used; perhaps you’ll find some of them helpful.

Are you thinking about going to law school or business school?  Or perhaps—like crazy yours truly—both at the same time?  This blog entry covers the following:

- Is law school right for me?
- Is business school right for me?
- How do I narrow down which school to apply to or attend?
- Okay, I picked a school and got in!  Now how do I prepare?!

* * *

As seen by this Australian TV commercial from Super Geek and this admittedly damn funny Fear of Girls video, we learn that…
- Geeks are all guys, and not particularly attractive fellas, either
- Geeks are typically sporting taped-up glasses and completely uncool fashion
- Women AREN’T geeks (and they’re most often confusing/confused AND helpless)

Like many of you, I read a lot of news and opinion pieces on the Internet and am therefore bombarded by a mixture of dry and rabid facts and opinions.  It can be exausting and frustrating!

That’s why I’m particularly pleased to have found these two useful resources:

The Week Magazine
The Week expertly summarizes information and opinions from leading newspapers and journals around the world into a 30-40 page concise and fascinating overview.  From political news to information about current scientific issues to aggregated theatre and art reviews, this magazine offers a superb opportunity to become familiar with key global debates and concerns.

While you can read many of the articles online, I do recommend that you subscribe to the paper edition.  If you have airline frequent flyer miles, you’ll find that you can get this magazine for just a few hundred milepoints a year—a significant savings over the equivalent monetary subscription charges.  Search for [{your airline} miles magazines].

FactCheck.org
This outstanding FactCheck.org Web site—maintained by the Annenberg School of Communication—and its accompanying e-mail newsletter do a fabulous job delving into the truth of political campaign ads.  Beyond just calling specific claims flatly “true” or “false”, FactCheck evaluates the claims in context and leans neither to the right nor left.  Campaign claims by Democrats, Republicans, and Liberatarians are all scrutinized dispassionately and thoroughly.  It’s a wonderful antidote to the frothing right-wing and left-wing blogs out there which’ll seemingly twist anything to fit their particular agenda.

* * *

Know of any other unbiased and thoughtful resources for understanding world events, politics, and the arts?  I’d love to hear from you!

I recently got an e-mail from a former workmate, asking if I'd be willing to join him for a coffee or a meal to give "some career advice [...] and honest opinion[s]."

I'm very flattered and I like doing this sort of thing for many reasons.