Archive for the 'Life' Category

Hiring Preferences

Published
by
cdeagle
on June 27, 2008
in Business and Life
. 0 Comments

In the world there are somewhere in the neighborhood of 5 billion different types of people.  Because I wouldn’t even COUNT to five billion (I could, but I wouldn’t) I’m not going to talk about each type.  But I will take 5 billion people and greatly simplify their astonishing uniqueness.  When hiring for a technical position I’ve run into four broad types of people.

1. Qualified / Unmotivated

This person is perfect for a position as a mall security guard, but may not be proactive enough to look for problems before they occur.  The problems with the Qualified / Unmotivated candidate often stem from their qualification.  Because they have experience with XYZ and know enough to recover from most major issues with the system, they’ve become lax in upkeep.  It costs them less time to repair a problem that has occured than it does to be proactive and take steps to prevent that problem, so they wait for disaster to strike before doing anything.

2. Unqualified / Unmotivated

The best combination of useless traits, the Unqualified / Unmotivated candidate often comes with an interesting Fringe Benefit: they think they’re the best thing since sliced bread.  These people either delude themselves, or know the truth and grossly exaggerate their own skill level.  In addition to being completely unqualified for the position you’ve advertised, they are so impressed with themselves that they feel no obligation to even pretend like they’ve studied, or are willing to study, the systems that you work with.

3. Unqualified / Motivated

These candidates can become the rock-stars of your team.  They know they’re starting out at a disadvantage, and if they’re sufficiently motivated and interested in their jobs they’ll expend Personal Energy* to bridge the gap, often learning more about their given responsibilities than a Qualified / Unmotivated person would ever learn.  The Unqualified / Motivated employee can be a boon to a manager that is only authorized to hire a Junior level resource.

4. Qualified / Motivated

This combination does not exist.  It has been rumored in several organizations, but I have seen no direct evidence of it being real.  People who are motivated by a desire to learn and excel (to be elite) are constantly putting themselves into positions for which they are unqualified.  By refusing to linger in a job that they are totally qualified for, but unchallenged by, they push themselves through often rapid and extreme personal and professional growth.  These are the only types of people that will ever reach the pinnacle of their profession, and when they get there they often take a very “Meta” view of their profession.  They look down at the mountain that they have climbed and start innovating, making the mountain better.  What else is there to challenge yourself with when you’ve mastered something, except improving the thing that you’ve just mastered?

I think that the best employee to hire is the one who has shown evidence of their ability to learn (growth within each previous position) evidence of responsibility (growth of duties and tenure), and that can articulate a desire to learn and a motivation for that desire.  Irrespective of their experience with the specific technology that your company specializes in.  If you find this person, and you can hire either them or a lukewarm but well qualified individual who has been doing the same job for 10 years, there is almost no scenario in which it will be better for your department or company to hire the lukewarm “Qualified / Unmotivated” candidate.

In fact, hiring this person would be actively detrimental to your productivity.  Maybe next week I’ll write a post on the importance of Culture vs. Consistency.

On a completely unrelated note, is it tacky to Share your own blog post in your Google Reader?  ;)

*: Personal Energy is a broad term that I use to describe the chi, the animus, the life-force of an employee outside of work hours.  This “personal energy” is usually used to hang out with friends, or go to Borders, or watch Lost.  Sometimes, it’s used to read technical manuals, write or tinker with programs that are work related, or think about better ways of doing ones job.  If a person is passionate about what they’re doing, and about the Vision of their organization, they will expend Personal Energy to accomplish Work Goals.

In the Pipeline, and other news

Published
by
cdeagle
on June 20, 2008
in Life, Writing and music
. 1 Comment

I just wanted to let you all know that I haven’t stopped blogging, or writing, or being alive.  It’s been a crazy week, and I’m actually working on something that Tesson asked for, which is a bit bigger than the little blurbs I’ve been posting every night.  Once that’s finished I’ll release it here.

I’m also working on a sermon for Sunday, which is slightly (and only slightly) more important than satisfying Tesson’s desire for gothic content.

I’ve been listening to the new Jakob Dylan album, “Seeing Things“.  Jakob Dylan is the former lead singer of the Wallflowers and son of Bob Dylan.  If you like the ‘flowers vocals, you’ll probably like this album.  It’s a little slower than the Wallflowers stuff, but very good.  He sounds like his dad, but he sings a little more melodically.  Bob Dylan meets James Taylor.  Very nice guitar, solid bass…traditional folk sound.
I don’t know if my next post will be Sunday or Monday, as I’m shooting a wedding on Sunday and will be busy all day.  We’ll see how it goes.  That’s all for now, thanks for stopping by.

-D

Patience is a Virtue

Published
by
cdeagle
on May 6, 2008
in Life and Writing
. 0 Comments

I love that the link I click on to write a blog entry is “create”.  I don’t think of writing as an act of creation, but of expression.  Maybe that’s the wrong way to look at it…It’s informed by my understanding of what I’m doing.  I’m not writing down something new or interesting, I’m just sort of..documenting what’s in me.  I think that’s why I like the Neil Gaiman quote that I posted a few months ago.  We’re all overflowing with worlds.  Hundreds of them, maybe thousands.  And I’m lazy about writing, so the only thing that gets out is the world, or the idea, or whatever, that pushes itself to the top, that bangs against the side of my head and screams its throat raw.

And then I only write it because it needs to be sanitized.  You can’t just SAY “I cut the daisy from my throat” — you can’t say that you write something because if you don’t, you’ll have to crack your skull open to let it out, because it amplifies, and roils, and pushes, until it’s all you see when you close your eyes and all you hear when the radio turns off and the neighbors dog stops barking and the traffic is phased out by that part of your brain that decides what is, and is not relevant.  So I write it, I write it because I’m afraid of what I’ll say if I don’t sanitize my outputs.  And Natalie says that the goal should be learning to avoid sanitization, learning to speak frankly?  That’s crazy.  What would the neighbors say?

 

That’s not what I meant to write about. 

Patience is a virtue, which I do not possess.  When you find out that something you’ve been waiting for is about to become very, very real, it’s easy to get excited about it.  When you find out that you have to wait, it’s frustrating.  I’m glad we don’t have to induce, that’s awesome, but I (greedily) hate that I have to wait.

The joke at the time of the wedding was “Are you ready?”…I think the expectation was a look of nervousness, or fear.  A split second.  In body language, they’re “Micro gestures”, the moment before you gain control of your face, erect the facade, when you are accidentally honest in your expression of whatever emotion you’re feeling.  I may even have pandered to that joke, said “Well, I guess”, fabricated a hesitation or a grim smile, as one going to the gallows.  If I did, it was because the alternative was ridicule.  Ready? Yes.  Really?  Absolutely. 

Impossible.  The arrogance of youth.  This just proves it, doesn’t it?  Not ready, has no idea.  Doesn’t know what he’s getting into.

But I felt ready, and if the last three years are any indication I was sufficiently prepared.

Here we are then.  It’s going to turn my world upside-down.  I can’t prepare for it.  Nothing anyone says is going to tell me what it’s like and I simply can’t be ready for it.  Impossible.  I can only speak from ignorance, and I’ll certainly be regretting that, mark my words.  I should be happy that I have another week and a half, though it won’t come close to preparing me!

Spare me that. 

I’m ready.  I am eager.  In the core of my being I am deeply unconcerned.  Which leaves only impatience.  To see, to touch, to smell, to hear, and to know.

But mostly, I want to eat her toes.

I’ll be with you till the day I die

Published
by
cdeagle
on April 17, 2008
in Life and Writing
. Closed

I saw him again this morning, dressed all in black, walking along the roadside with a clarinet (of all things!) slung ’round his neck. 

And at his side came his companion, charging through dew laden grass in endless exploration.  His companion, this animal, must have been tethered to him by invisible bonds of fealty, because it never strayed far.  All the world to see and smell, and this dog was content with a man, whose appearance and bearing were inglorious as any.

There’s a myth, thought to have originated in Romania. 

It seems that Saint Peter was taking a stroll in heaven with God when a dog came up. “What’s that?” said Saint Peter. God told him it was a dog, adding, “Do you want to know why I made him?” Naturally Peter was interested. “Well, you know how much trouble my brother, the Devil, has caused me . . . how he made me drive Adam and Eve out of Paradise. The poor things nearly starved, so I gave them sheep for meat and warm wool to clothe them. And now that fellow is making a wolf to harass and destroy the sheep! So I have made a dog. He knows how to drive the wolf away. He will guard the flocks. He will guard the possessions of man.”

It’s a great story, but I would suggest a better creation myth for dogs, based on what I know of their nature, and what I saw this morning, on the roadside.  God created Eve to complete Adam, and in her God nurtured all of the attributes that, in Adam, were weakest.  In this way, the characteristics which Adam lacked were gifted to him.  Eve was a help, that which Adam was not, she was. 

After she was created, Adam rejoiced.  But, in that dawn of the earths creation, when the world was still fresh, all things were new and alive with the power that had formed them, I think Adam came back to God.  I imagine he said, blundering as he was, that Eve was wonderful and all, but Lord, she is so strong willed, and I can hardly get a word in.  In the strengths that a woman has, innate and opposite, a man may feel diminished.  And, the Lord saw this, and knowing that it would cause strife, He sought a way to perfect the opposite strengths in Adam.  Not to counteract, but to balance those which Eve possessed.

With this goal, He created the dog, which may be loved by a woman, but which can only belong to the heart of a man.  And the next morning, when he rose, Eve asked him where they would go, and what they would eat, and how he felt about an orange orchard…and Dog followed him, spoke little, and trusted much.  In the evenings, I imagine that they walked together, this first man and dog, creating a relationship that all of their descendants would, ever after, long for.  Walked, and said naught.  In the wilderness, this first dog died, defending the man Adam, and as it did, its heart broke that it wouldn’t be beside the man anymore.  That it couldn’t teach him to lead fearlessly by showing him reckless trust, that it wouldn’t sit by his side in the murky dusk and keep watch, that it couldn’t, just once more, sacrifice itself to protect him. 

And we have inherited this relationship.  Men mostly have, and are hardly embarassed to admit having, a deep and abiding affection for dogs.  There is a kind of familiarity in a mans relationship with a dog.  It needs no explanation, it is a thing understood.  Instinctual.  As welcome and comfortable as an old pair of shoes, or a favorite seat (here, C.S. Lewis would say, “at the pub”, and I will say…) at that coffee shop, just down the street. 

My inglorious traveler on the roadside, who may go home to a life of little wonderment, is invested in a relationship as old as time.  What use can there be for a leash, when a man and a dog have found their places in eachothers lives? 

My body is calling my clock a liar

Published
by
cdeagle
on March 12, 2008
in Life
. 0 Comments

Though it alledges to be 6:25am, I know the truth.  I’ve been awake for almost an hour, working.  I am still awake, and still working.  Once I’ve finished this bout of working, I will take a shower, and go to work.

You know that feeling that you get when you’ve hardly slept at all, you open your eyes, and they’re on fire?  I hope that’s not just me, it’s too good a sensation to not share.  Working with any light emitting surface (like, the screen of ye olde trustee laptop) is brutal, in this condition.

It’s times like these that I think about sales people, and contractors, and teachers, and mechanics, and librarians.  Mostly librarians.  There is no context in which it is a reasonable expectation of their employement that a librarian should wake up at 5:20 in the morning.  They don’t have to plan for that…not that you can plan for it, anyway.  And I know, right now, somewhere in this county, there are a few librarians, tucked under their sheets, dreaming of newer and better decimal classifications, pencil sharpeners, and those library carts full of books that someone just loved so much, and didn’t want to return.  They can’t imagine a universe so unjust that it expects people to wake up in the middle of the night to do their jobs.  How foreign it must be to them, how strange.  If there were any hate in my heart, right now, it would be for librarians.  Down to their very bones.

Lyrics about Love, for the day after Valentines Day

Published
by
cdeagle
on February 15, 2008
in Life
. 0 Comments

Pete Yorn, Lose You:

“I don’t need a better thing
I’d settle for less
It’s another thing for me
I just have to wander through this world
Alone” (this lyric wouldn’t be sentimental if not for irony)

 

John Mayer Trio, Different Kind of Green:

“I don’t need,
another kind of green, to know 
I’m on the right side, with you”

 

Coldplay, Green Eyes:

“Green eyes, yeah the spotlight, shines upon you
And how could, anybody, deny you

I came here with a load
And it feels so much lighter, now I’ve met you
And honey you should know, that I could never go on without you ”

 

Corinne Bailey Rae, I’d Like To:

“I…I’d…like to put my fingers on you
I…I’d…Like to paint a picture for you”

 

Barry Louis Polisar, All I Want Is You:

“If I was a flower growin’ wild and free,
All I’d want is you to be my sweet honey-bee

And if I was a tree growin’ tall and green
all I’d want is you to shade me and be my leaves

All I want is you, will you be my bride?
Take me by the hand and stand by my side?

All I want is you, will you stay with me?
Hold me in your arms and sway me like a sea”

 

John Mayer, Come Back To Bed:

“Your tears on the sheets,
And your footsteps, are down the hall

You can be mad in the morning,
I’ll take back what I said
Just don’t leave me, alone here, it’s cold baby
Come back to bed…Come back to bed.

What will this fix?
You know you’re not, a quick forgive.
And I won’t sleep through this,
I survive on the breath you are finished with

You can be mad in the morning,
Or the afternoon instead,
But don’t leave me….98 and 6 degrees of seperation from you baby
Come back to bed”

So they say, and so the story goes

Published
by
cdeagle
on January 20, 2008
in Life
. 0 Comments

I don’t know if there’s an original source, so I’ll attribute it to Juno.  The phrase goes that a woman becomes a mother when she gets pregnant, and a man becomes a father when the child is born.  To say that I feel less connected to our pregnancy would be redundant.  I’m not exactly carrying the child in my womb.  I think I’ve got the better end of the deal, but there are a lot of things that Kim gets to experience, and I sort of miss out on, or experience later. 

In any event, the baby is becoming more and more active as she grows.  It is now the middle of the 23rd week of the pregnancy, and Kim regularly comments on babies movement, in utero.  When the baby is kicking, she says “She’s movin’!” and I run over and put my hand on her stomach, trying to see if I can feel her.  It’s become a frustrating ritual.  I stop what I’m doing, rush over and put my hand on Kim’s stomach.  Then, she repeatedly asks “did you feel that?!” and I repeatedly say “no…”

Tonight, she was sitting on the couch and asked me to come over.  I put my hand on her stomach in the spot that she indicated, and closed my eyes.  After a few false negatives, I felt a slight tremor under my hand.  Immediately, Kim asked if I’d felt it, and I was able to say “Yes”. 

It’s the first time I’ve felt the baby move, and I was very excited.  It’s not quite as emotional as the first Heartbeat, or the first Ultrasound, but it’s very cool, nonetheless.  I know by her 8th month I’ll look back on this tiny little milestone with less enthusiasm, but it certainly made my night.