Tuesday, April 29, 2014

April 29, 2014

GoDaddy doesn't have much of a reputation in their place of origin, and they're not doing anything to remedy this in India. Nothing says 'Pimp!' better than using a gaudily-dressed Mithun "Dude, where's my neck?" Chakraborty and an entourage of scantily-clad women for selling their wares here.

Staying on the subject of TV ads, I think the phrase you're looking for is "Botox Barbie".

I think it's time to invent a new acronym, unwieldy as it may be, IKIGTHFT: I Know I'm Going To Hell For This, considering the amount of snark I've been using recently.

***
Dileep Premachandran's excellent article on Chelsea's recent win over Liverpool. Master tactician my ass, indeed. To me Mourinho will always be a crass boor with a perennial chip on his shoulder. I did applaud the second goal (a little schadenfreude now and then never hurt anybody), but I'm of two minds as to whether I want City or Liverpool to win the Premiership. No two ways about how I would feel if Chelsea sneaked in.

Saturday, April 19, 2014

April 19, 2014

If the AAP government in Delhi rouses some people from Africa on suspicion of drug dealing and other illegal activities, it's called racism. When The Hindu calls the entire state of Arizona 'rednecks', it's not. Got it.

Friday, April 04, 2014

April 4, 2014



A couple of questions (disclaimer: I love Dave's writing):
  1. What is a conspiracy theorist doing on LinkedIn?
  2. How the %^&$ does LinkedIn know my interest in Dave's writing? I bought Programmed to Kill eons ago, but I can't for the life of me think of any other connection.

Thursday, April 03, 2014

April 3, 2014

Long ago I made a promise to myself that I would not read anything from The New York Times, but I have broken this promise on multiple occasions since. This piece is the latest one benefiting from my lack of resolve. Well, 'benefit' might be a misnomer, since I don't have anything nice to say about it. As the saying goes, if you don't have anything nice to say, move your ass pronto to your personal blog, so move my ass I did.

Let's focus on a couple of things.
Don’t mindlessly favor people with high G.P.A.s. Students who get straight As have an ability to prudentially master their passions so they can achieve proficiency across a range of subjects. But you probably want employees who are relentlessly dedicated to one subject. In school, those people often got As in subjects they were passionate about but got Bs in subjects that did not arouse their imagination.
Students who get straight A's have demonstrated something quite valuable from an employer's point of view: giving their best and excelling in all courses, even the ones which may not have been their favourites (let's face it, even when you major in a discipline of your choice, you will not love all of them. If you do, we get it, you're really exceptional; hold on a sec while I finish this post, I'll go get your candy treat). Replace courses with projects on the job, and you have stick-it-to-vity.
Bias hiring decisions toward dualists. The people you want to hire should have achieved some measure of conventional success, but they should have also engaged in some desperate lark that made no sense from a career or social status perspective. Maybe a person left a successful banking job to rescue the family dry-cleaning business in Akron. Maybe another had great grades at a fancy East Coast prep school but went off to a Christian college because she wanted a place to explore her values. These peoples have done at least one Deeply Unfashionable Thing. Such people have intrinsic motivation, native curiosity and social courage.
Nope, rescuing the family dry-cleaning business or going off to a Christian college to explore one's values is not a Deeply Unfashionable Thing; these are things that get you brownie points in the 'right' circles (and probably help you get laid a lot too, come to think of it. Chicks dig deep guys who explore their values. Not to mention clean laundry). You know what's a really Deeply Unfashionable thing? Taking a year off to explore the dynamics of violence-based sexual relationships by becoming a serial rapist. Try spinning that one in your first interview coming in from the cold.