How Aaron Swartz Hires Programmers
There are three questions you have when you’re hiring a programmer (or anyone, for that matter): Are they smart? Can they get stuff done? Can you work with them? Someone who’s smart but doesn’t get stuff done should be your friend, not your employee. You can talk your problems over with them while they procrastinate on their actual job. Someone who gets stuff done but isn’t smart is inefficient: non-smart people get stuff done by doing it the hard way and working with them is slow and frustrating. Someone you can’t work with, you can’t work with.
The detail in the rest of the essay is well worth a read.
Interestingly, I’ve found this works on the interviewee side, as well. More often than not, it’s the casual interviews that give me a better sense of the company and people I’m about to work for. Pomp and circumstance just show both parties they can follow customs and often foreshadows an environment rife with poor communication.
(via John Gruber)
The Season of Stuff
In a few days, the Season of Stuff will officially begin. During this season, we are actively encouraged to get more stuff, buy more stuff, give stuff to those we “love”, and be thankful for the stuff we have.
This Friday, for instance, sellers of stuff will drop prices to all time lows in order to make it easier for you to give and receive this stuff. Of course, this is in the hopes that the money saved on this stuff will encourage you to buy other non-discounted stuff. You know this, of course, right? You cherry pick the cheap stuff and leave the other stuff for the suckers, right? Of course you do…
All of this stuff will generate a bunch of stuff to be thrown away or recycled. Wrapping, packaging, spent gift cards – they all have to end up somewhere. Not to mention all of the stuff we had to build and machines we run in order to make the stuff we give and receive.Then once the season is over, in fact the very next day, comes the inevitable stuff we have to return (for cash to buy stuff if you have the receipt, exchange for different stuff if not).
Just try to remember that there are plenty of ways to deal with this stuff. You can pledge to get rid of an amount of stuff equal to the amount you receive. You can let those who love you know that you do not want more stuff but want something less tangible instead (breakfast in bed, money for a favorite charity, etc.). Ask for specific stuff you really truly need that will add years of value to your life on a daily basis… and stuff. The point is, control the stuff. Don’t let the stuff control you.
Unemployment Rates by County: January 2007 to Present
An incredible month-to-month time lapse animation of U.S. unemployment by county since 2007. As you can imagine, things start to look really dire around the end of 2008.
“According to the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics, there are more than 31 million people currently unemployed – that’s including those involuntarily working parttime and those who want a job, but have given up on trying to find one. In the face of the worst economic upheaval since the Great Depression, millions of Americans are hurting. The above interactive map serves as a vivid representation of just how much. Watch the deteriorating transformation of the U.S. economy from January 2007 – approximately one year before the start of the recession – to the most recent unemployment data available today.”
