Sunday, July 5, 2009
Friday, July 3, 2009
Best Wedding RSVP Ever
Got an invite to a friend's wedding today. It was written in the less traditional choose-your-own-adventure format. At the end it contained this RSVP card. At last, one that allows me to express my precise sentiments.
I'll be enthusiastically declining due to prior engagements, yet swinging by for the after party.
-Dusty.
I'll be enthusiastically declining due to prior engagements, yet swinging by for the after party.
-Dusty.
Thursday, June 18, 2009
Lowering the Bar on Our Future
Found this site today TeacherComplaints.com
Why slant the site towards the negative? Am I going to go to a site called Teacher Complaints to rave about my favorite teacher, or are others going to go there to learn about great teachers? Or, am I going to go there to rant about a teacher I really don't like, and complain with the rest of the disgruntled masses about the really poor teachers we had? Do we really need to discourage more people away from teaching and lower the bar further on who we let teach our kids?
Sad. Very sad and downright disappointing. We should be calling out and encouraging our great teachers. Dealing with the bad, yes, but more importantly encouraging the good. You'll attract far more flies with honey than with vinegar.
So. Anyone interested in creating an alternative site, RockstarTeachers.com? Or perhaps an objective one at least like, RateMyTeacher.com?
-Dusty.
Why slant the site towards the negative? Am I going to go to a site called Teacher Complaints to rave about my favorite teacher, or are others going to go there to learn about great teachers? Or, am I going to go there to rant about a teacher I really don't like, and complain with the rest of the disgruntled masses about the really poor teachers we had? Do we really need to discourage more people away from teaching and lower the bar further on who we let teach our kids?
Sad. Very sad and downright disappointing. We should be calling out and encouraging our great teachers. Dealing with the bad, yes, but more importantly encouraging the good. You'll attract far more flies with honey than with vinegar.
So. Anyone interested in creating an alternative site, RockstarTeachers.com? Or perhaps an objective one at least like, RateMyTeacher.com?
-Dusty.
Monday, June 15, 2009
Fundamental Flaws w/ Recruiting & Job Searching
Would you hire someone to build an addition on your house who you *knew* would not do a great job? Would your answer be the same if you knew this same person had 20 years of experience building decks? Have you ever encountered someone who's worked in the same career for 20 years, and yet their results are subpar, average, or otherwise unextraordinary? Ever encountered *a lot* of people like this?
On the other side of the coin. Would you hire someone to build your deck for you who's only ever done it once before, but who did it beautifully building one of the nicest decks you've ever seen? What if I were to add in the fact that this person will do it for 3/4 the cost of the other guy?
With that in mind, I have some questions. Why do we hire people based on experience? Why is time our first requirement, when what we really care about is quality and results? At the end of the day, we want to maximize our investment... right?
Aren't businesses more interested in how much money you will make or save them versus the salary that they pay you? Isn't it a simple cost/benefit analysis? In that case, wouldn't you want to hire the cheapest, most high performing individuals possible? Heck, this is the reason so many jobs go over seas, isn't it? (Though one may argue the "quality" side of that equation, but let's not go there now.) Why then aren't we applying this same principle to our recruiting efforts in our the US? Why are we still using the same, centuries-old criteria?
Anyway, this conundrum go me thinking. This is one massive opportunity for someone to exploit a rather large piece of the job seeking market, and when's a better time than now to do so when we have access to all sorts of professional information about millions of people worlwide via sites like LinkedIn. On the other side, we've got all sorts of employment statistics, market, and company data too. Why aren't we exploiting this to our own benefit?
How hard would it be to start up a "career genome project" similar to what pandora.com did for music? Why don't we gather up all this great data out there on people and businesses, toss a genetic algorithm on top of the data to figure out the strongest correlations, and then build a job seeking website that actually works.
I would just love to logon to a career website one day and get Amazon.com or Pandora.com quality recommendations. Is this really so much to ask?
Thought I'd expound. Hopefully someone, somewhere is fixing this as we speak. Otherwise... anyone got a few million lying around? I know of a great investment opportunity. :)
Nuf said,
-Dusty.
On the other side of the coin. Would you hire someone to build your deck for you who's only ever done it once before, but who did it beautifully building one of the nicest decks you've ever seen? What if I were to add in the fact that this person will do it for 3/4 the cost of the other guy?
With that in mind, I have some questions. Why do we hire people based on experience? Why is time our first requirement, when what we really care about is quality and results? At the end of the day, we want to maximize our investment... right?
Aren't businesses more interested in how much money you will make or save them versus the salary that they pay you? Isn't it a simple cost/benefit analysis? In that case, wouldn't you want to hire the cheapest, most high performing individuals possible? Heck, this is the reason so many jobs go over seas, isn't it? (Though one may argue the "quality" side of that equation, but let's not go there now.) Why then aren't we applying this same principle to our recruiting efforts in our the US? Why are we still using the same, centuries-old criteria?
Anyway, this conundrum go me thinking. This is one massive opportunity for someone to exploit a rather large piece of the job seeking market, and when's a better time than now to do so when we have access to all sorts of professional information about millions of people worlwide via sites like LinkedIn. On the other side, we've got all sorts of employment statistics, market, and company data too. Why aren't we exploiting this to our own benefit?
How hard would it be to start up a "career genome project" similar to what pandora.com did for music? Why don't we gather up all this great data out there on people and businesses, toss a genetic algorithm on top of the data to figure out the strongest correlations, and then build a job seeking website that actually works.
I would just love to logon to a career website one day and get Amazon.com or Pandora.com quality recommendations. Is this really so much to ask?
Thought I'd expound. Hopefully someone, somewhere is fixing this as we speak. Otherwise... anyone got a few million lying around? I know of a great investment opportunity. :)
Nuf said,
-Dusty.
Friday, June 12, 2009
Threadfree Chuckles
Did something I hadn’t done in a while, hopped on Threadless. Ah, sweet bastion of nerdy wit and sarcastic jibes. I’ve missed thee.
Here’s a few favorites I pulled while browsing:
Ninjas and pirates agree.
Cowboys suck
Rock is dead!
And paper killed it.
To Err is Human
To Arr is Pirate
I listen to bands that don’t even exist yet.
It’s just safer to assume that I know karate.
Actually medicine is the best medicine.
DEATH: Our nation’s number one killer
Stupid Raisins!
Stay out of my cookies!
Meat is murder
Tasty, tasty murder.
Inexplicably feeling the need to fire up the grill,
-Dusty.
Here’s a few favorites I pulled while browsing:
Ninjas and pirates agree.
Cowboys suck
Rock is dead!
And paper killed it.
To Err is Human
To Arr is Pirate
I listen to bands that don’t even exist yet.
It’s just safer to assume that I know karate.
Actually medicine is the best medicine.
DEATH: Our nation’s number one killer
Stupid Raisins!
Stay out of my cookies!
Meat is murder
Tasty, tasty murder.
Inexplicably feeling the need to fire up the grill,
-Dusty.
Numero Uno
Hmm... my first blog post. Well, I'm reminded of one of my favorite Demotivators which (aptly enough) is on Blogging.
Thus begins my ongoing conversation with myself.
I hope I enjoy the show.
-Dusty.
Thus begins my ongoing conversation with myself. I hope I enjoy the show.
-Dusty.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
