Friday, December 13, 2013

Is there anything you'd like to see me write about?

Is there anything you'd like to see me write about?

19 comments:

Maria Lopez said...

Ethical yard work -- If you can't do it yourself should you hire the guys in front of Home Depot?

Guns -- Do you need one for self defense or does the danger of suicide or having one used against you outweigh their usefulness for self defense?

Children's Safety -- Many people stay home to drive their kids places. Is this worth it? Stranger abductions have happened at bus stops but they are rare. Should responsible parents encourage their children to ride the bus to learn independence or should they discourage it for reasons of safety?

Anything weird -- I'm a sucker for rational arguments for positions that society currently finds stranger

Unknown said...

Could you please write more about job hunting for the over 50 worker? I am 51 and my office is moving from California to North Carolina and I was not invited to move with it. The shutdown and transition will take about 10 months and I am staying until the end so I have some time to plan. Of course, I am expected to train my replacement and they are holding my Severance Package hostage unless I comply. Any advice would be helpful.

Brian Watkins said...

How to coach others: coworkers, supervisees, and supervisors.

Dave said...

Write a piece on Allan Bloom's 'The Closing of the American Mind: "How Higher Education Has Failed Democracy and Impoverished the Souls of Today's Students' -- 25+ years on. Write on what has changed and what has not changed.

Maria Lopez said...

Marty didn't post my comments, probably because they were somewhat bizarre.

Following up with Mark's question is probably my favorite idea as it could helpful to me.

Mr. Bloom's book while popular, is I think, actually fairly irrelevant to today's higher ed. Their are still many strange humanities courses but most people going to college are there in the hope it give them a leg up professionally. Humanities, Music, and Fine Arts majors are a small fraction of the students. Most people go Business, Education, Healthcare or STEM. As a philosopher, Mr. Bloom was not interested in these fields.

By the by, there is a good article on higher ed reform up on Slate right now.

Anonymous said...

How does geography impact career advancement? I live in a small city of less than 100,000 people. The 2 closest cities are of similar size. I often wonder how much I am limiting myself by staying here and if it would be worth it to move to a major metropolitan area.

Marty Nemko said...

Maria, I don't have enough of value on those topics to write an article on any. Instead, I'll give you my quick takes:
1. I don't feel great about hiring illegals. That's rewarding someone
(or his or her parent) who snuck into the US illegally and often reaped such taxpaper-paid rewards as welfare, food stamps, and subsidized housing and health care. If I give that person a job, I am depriving a legal resident, who did nothing wrong, of a job. In addition, by rewarding an illegal, I'm encouraging more people to come to the US illegally.
2. I am of mixed minds about gun ownership. I suspect, in balance, though, that if a gun owner is responsible (hiding it away from children yet accessible to the adult), the net positive effects (mainly peace of mind that IN CASE of an armed intruder, you may be able to protect yourself) outweigh the probabilistic risks. I am against sport hunting---it seems wrong to kill an animal for sport.
3. The probability of a parent staying home preventing an abduction is tiny but the decrement to the parent's ability to contribute to society and to the child's ability to be self-efficacious far outweigh.
4. I tried writing articles on the issue that many people consider weird that I consider rational: for example, that men, net, are treated worse than women in 2013, and all I got for my trouble was an assault on the publisher (The Atlantic) which made him cave--the liberal media is very beholden to liberal special interest groups. Today, you must mouthe the PC orthodoxy or assume grave risk to your career.

Marty Nemko said...

Mark, I've written about all of value I have to say about older workers. This brief piece offers a summary of my thoughts: http://www.martynemko.com/articles/advice-for-job-seekers-over-40_id1186

Marty Nemko said...

Brian, I have written about the art of coaching: http://martynemko.blogspot.com/2012/03/art-of-coaching.html

Marty Nemko said...

Dave, I'm not sure that bringing back the classics is the answer. And I've written a ton on how higher ed has failed the nation. And writing more non PC stuff will just destroy my career more than my previous efforts already have. Sorry, but I'm feeling beaten down in this area.

Marty Nemko said...

Maria, I wouldn't not publish your comments because I thought they were off-base. All well-intentioned, respectful comments get posted. The only comments I recall not posting were from a troll who is hell-bent on making untrue personal attacks on me.

Marty Nemko said...

Anonymous, Alas, I have nothing of value to say about moving to a large city vs staying in a small one. Certainly, if you haven't had success in your small city, expand your job search to a large one. If you get a good enough offer to compensate for any negatives of moving, then go for it.

Marty Nemko said...

Thanks to all of you for your suggestions. A couple of people in a private email asked me to offer advice to parents of high school kids for whom college might not be the wisest choice. I will do that. With regard to the other suggestions, I've explained why I don't believe I can/should write an article on those topics and have, where justifiable, offered a few words on the topic.

Anonymous said...

Re hiring undocumented workers:

http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Myths_and_facts_about_immigration_to_the_United_States

I've never noticed any day workers who appear to be U.S. citizens looking for work outside Home Depot or near Fourth Street in Berkeley. I don't think those guys are taking jobs away from anybody. Additionally, if you are worried about some guy with a 5th grade education and who doesn't speak English taking your job, you've got bigger problems to deal with.

Anonymous said...

Marty,

Two topics I'd love your expertise on since I am exploring these options for myself:

1. Full-time careers that can be performed entirely or mostly at home with a computer, internet, and a smart phone. These can be careers where people are either self-employed or working for a company. Working from home gives people like me (and you!) the freedom to concentrate on getting the job done efficiently and without the feeling of being baby-sat all the time.

2. Realistic part-time gigs that people can have while working a full-time job. I can think of a few examples: tutor, bartender-for-hire, house sitter. I believe it would be wise for people who are able-bodied and able-minded to have another gig lined up to supplement their regular income in an age when employment in both the private and public sectors is tenuous.

Marty Nemko said...

Good ideas. I will write an article on my top 10 or 20 home bizes as one of my USNews.com pieces in January.

With regard to those part-time interim jobs, I wrote something that's fairly overlapping: http://martynemko.blogspot.com/2012/09/my-top-38-slacker-jobs.html

Maria Lopez said...

One thing about working from home is that gigs that do not require one on one contact can be done by anyone in the world. This nay not be a problem if you are an expert in diagnosing amphibian diseases or creating large databases using Facebook's SQL on Hadoop technology, but if what you do is basic web design you'll have a lot of competition.

Shawn said...

I would like you to write about the military draft. If we had the draft, and the burden of war was distributed across broad swaths of the elite, America would only go to war when it is absolutely necessary.

Marty Nemko said...

Shawn, you raise an interesting point. Alas, it's not something I'm competent to write about. But perhaps you'll find a few of my thoughts of some value:

My first instinct is that you're correct.

My second instinct is to raise the question, "Is society net better if its future doctors, leaders, etc are sent to war and die in proportion to the population?

My third thought is that the decision to go to war should not be based disproportionately on who will be the soldiers but on the many factors that should be considered, all of which boil down to, "What's best, net for humankind: Would the human and fiscal costs be better spent in another way?"

 

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