Why Good People Can’t Find Jobs – Part 2

The sad truth is that it’s costly and risky to hire anyone to do anything, and “bankable projects” that might generate profit/require more labor are few and far between. The overhead costs for employees have skyrocketed. So even though the wages employees see on their paychecks have stagnated, the total compensation costs the employer pays have risen substantially.

via charles hugh smith-Dear Person Seeking a Job: Why I Can’t Hire You.

Go read this article.  There are quite a few insightful observations.

Steven Pressfield – The Lunch Pail Manifesto

The Lunch Pail Manifesto

  1. We must find the work that brings our lives meaning.
  2. We must strive to make our work purposeful, truthful, and authentic, a pure offering to our Muse and fellow human beings.
  3. We must wage a lifelong war with Resistance and accept that instant gratification is an oxymoron.
  4. We must not speak of our work with false modesty or braggadocio.
  5. We must not debase our work for short term gain nor elevate it above its rightful station to inflate our ego.
  6. We must not covet the fruits of our work, or the fruits of others’ work.
  7. We must respect others’ work and offer aid to fellow professional laborers.
  8. We must accept that our work will never be perfect.
  9. We must accept that our work will never be without merit.
  10. We must accept that our work will never cease.

via Standing 8 Count | Black Irish Books | Get In the Ring!.

What Captures Your Attention Controls Your Life – HBR

A few years ago, DisneyWorld executives were wondering what most captured the attention of toddlers and infants at their theme park and hotels in Orlando, Florida. So they hired me and a cultural anthropologist to observe them as they passed by all the costumed cast members, animated creatures, twirling rides, sweet-smelling snacks, and colorful toys. But after a couple of hours of close observation, we realized that what most captured the young children’s attention wasn’t Disney-conjured magic. Instead it was their parents’ cell phones, especially when the parents were using them.

via What Captures Your Attention Controls Your Life – Kare Anderson – Harvard Business Review.

How many people are not really where they are but someplace else?

How to Be Happier at Work – Start Something!

Start something. More specifically, start something outside of work.

via How to Be Happier at Work – Leonard A. Schlesinger, Charles F. Kiefer, and Paul B. Brown – Harvard Business Review.

Before you get mad at me take note of where this article comes from.  Harvard Business Review Blog Network is the source of this article.  This article reminds me of what I did several years ago.  I started something.

When I started something I had no clue what it was I started.  What I thought I started was not what I am doing today.  In other words, my original plan failed but ultimately my little business succeeded.

Take a risk.  Start something!

  What are you avoiding doing that you know needs to be done?”  We seem to have a talent for burying the truth, covering it up, distracting ourselves from it… When was the last time you took a risk in the direction of your dance?

Laurie Beth Jones

 

You Are Not A Computer – HBR

The Internet, and all it has come to include, is the most powerful interruption technology ever invented. It slices and dices our focus, fractures and distracts it, gives us less and less of more and more. It prompts us to skim, scan, and skip rather than immerse ourselves in any one thing.

Technology has no business setting our agenda, but it has turned into our dominatrix. Masochistically — but all too willingly — we submit to it. Emailing, texting and tweeting, searching Google, checking Facebook, and surfing websites not only consumes our time and energy, it also diminishes our capacity to pay attention to anything for very long — or to resist the next digital temptation.

via You Are Not A Computer (Try As You May) – Tony Schwartz – Harvard Business Review.

Why So Many Ph.D.s Are On Food Stamps : NPR

Tony Yang received his Ph.D. in history from the University of California, Riverside in 2009. Since then, he’s worked on and off as a history lecturer, but has had to depend on unemployment and food stamps to get by.

In his best year since getting his Ph.D., Yang says he made about $32,000; in his worst, about $10,000. He says there’s a perception that if you have a doctorate, you automatically walk into a high-paying job.

“I have the prestige of holding a Ph.D., but that [isn’t] paying the bills,” he says.

via Why So Many Ph.D.s Are On Food Stamps : NPR.

Intelligence Is Overrated: What You Really Need To Succeed – Forbes

Research carried out by the Carnegie Institute of Technology shows that 85 percent of your financial success is due to skills in “human engineering,” your personality and ability to communicate, negotiate, and lead. Shockingly, only 15 percent is due to technical knowledge. Additionally, Nobel Prize winning Israeli-American psychologist, Daniel Kahneman, found that people would rather do business with a person they like and trust rather than someone they don’t, even if the likeable person is offering a lower quality product or service at a higher price.

via Intelligence Is Overrated: What You Really Need To Succeed – Forbes.