G as in Good H as in Happy

Everyone Who is Anyone Has One, M'Deah

June 28, 2008

My Peculiar Aristocratic Title is: Her Royal Highness Dilys the Formidable of Leg over Wallop Get your Peculiar Aristocratic Title

Sufficient unto the Day

June 26, 2008

Or, as the Chez Dilys mantra has it, Sufficient unto the evil, is the day thereof.

Worry is fruitless. Worrying about the future, we build in imagination a little fake world in which only the problem exists. Naturally, when the problem is the Senior Issue, it rules the roost.

In reality, when the day arrives, there is a world full of remedies, distractions, counter-causes and counter-effects. That is, yes, sometimes s**t happens. But, then, something else happens too. Things balance out, we find we've already adapted and prepared.

You don't have to like the smell of pine lumber to like Sippican Cottage. That's just a plus.

Courtesy Marginal Revolution

Job Candidates, Turn This Around

Here's some principled truth from Auren Hoffman of Rapleaf, whose very business is based on an understanding of how people think about you. it's good in every transaction between people, particularly important ones like jobs and relationships.

Pay attention, maintain high energy and self-respect, and don't sell yourself. Give the other person the information (s)he needs to make an independent but positive-toned judgment, and try to puncture unspoken illusions and assumptions up-front. He says it better.

As a job seeker, adjust this advice. Do highlight your strengths. But use the interview to ask these questions about the culture, and whether, when the interviewer sees your resume, he sees things that concern him. What an opportunity to clarify for both sides!

So, job seekers, here are some questions:

What do people find the hardest thing about working here?
What have you learned about employee match, and mis-match, with this job?
How would you describe the social and working culture here?
These [ ...] are my concerns about the job/culture.
--What is your view?
--Are they accurate?
--What's the best kind of employee in this culture?
            --Here add a prepared description of your personality and work style.

And don't lowball your salary. If they want you, they will pay, or it's an opportunity to negotiate for probation and an early salary review.

Just part of what you will remember if you check in with your Job Coach for Interview Preparation.

Courtesy GMU's Marginal Revolution

Lost Evidence, Lost Case

June 23, 2008

The prosecutor's non-explanation of "lost evidence" about a child's death is too vague to offer a foothold for any opinions.

It does, however, suggest that someone "wasn't doing his/her job." That phrase is usually a blanket judgemental condemnation delivered in a disgusted and superior tone; but from the standpoint of jobs and careers nationwide, it probably discloses one more symptom of being vague about what one's gifts and strengths actually are, and what kinds of responsibility match them.

In Myers Briggs terms, someone inspired by the idea of helping law enforcement, or seizing just any job (s)he can find for the paycheck, may not have the kind of mind that relishes order and systems, storing and retrieving property. They have other capabilities. In a job that does not match one's "type," sooner or later this kind of entropy sets in.

If you, or anyone you know, wants to troubleshoot his or her career direction, e-mail us and find out what can easily be done. You won't be sorry. Unpressured one-on-one coaching, offering

Information.

Encouragement.

Self-knowledge.

Enjoy your work. Enjoy your life.

If you don't ask, we can't help.

A New Book

June 13, 2008

...from René Girard.

Although Girard will turn 85 on Dec. 25 (he was born in Avignon), he is not resting on his laurels. Achever Clausewitz signals a new development of his line of thought, and he is already working on his next book, which will focus on St. Paul.

Courtesy Three Massketeers

Avec Mme, à Stanford.

Driven Underground and Into Corners, but not Gone

Even when things are normal, and especially when things begin to tilt topsy-turvy [as in the rapid disappearance of free speech in Canada under "Human Rights Commissions"], it's useful to estimate the probability of "who" is "where." See David Warren:

My own political education was provided in part by several impressive Czech exiles from Communism, with whom I fell in as a young man. What I learned from them is that under an ideological regime, the best men live in jail, or are assigned to work in tanneries and collieries, where other good men may be found. The worst men live in luxury and power.

Graphic on the subject of the Winter Olympics and deplorable goings-on in British Columbia.

Courtesy Maggie's Farm.

Real Lightworkers

June 8, 2008