My post the other day about the Webcomic Achewood (it was actually about newspaper economics, but since most of its traffic seems to have come from a link that Chris Onstad put up on his site, I guess that makes it about Achewood), has been generating a steady stream of mostly fascinating comments. Here are a couple about how media …
Resumes Are So Five Minutes Ago; Check Out the “Digital Portfolio”
We don’t live in a parchment-and-ink world anymore. So why aren’t our résumés as colorful, interactive and technologically bedazzling as our work?
That’s the premise behind a new business called Protuo.com. I was intrigued by a release they sent me titled, “Résumés Dead as a Dodo; Digital Portfolios Rule.” I usually toss such …
Continuing to defend Larry Summers
As promised, I asked Larry Summers what he does for D.E. Shaw. Being the hedge fund guy that he is now, he wouldn’t tell me anything on the record. But I can quote from the D.E. Shaw press release announcing his arrival:
Dr. Summers will be involved on a part-time basis in various strategic initiatives and high-level portfolio management
…
Reinventing Yourself When You’re a) Canned or b) Not Canned
What will I blog about if I’m canned?
I’ve been mulling this over ever since my company announced layoffs last week. I wasn’t terminated in the first sweep, but I could well be if enough people in my category don’t volunteer to vamoose.
Being booted won’t be the end of the world, I think. But I will have to reinvent myself. I’m …
Citi, Maria Bartiromo, and Roger Babson
There’s a great story in today’s Wall Street Journal (you have to pay to read it) about the brouhaha surrounding ousted Citi wealth-management boss Todd Thomson‘s expense accounts. He was taking Maria Bartiromo to dinner at Daniel (danger, cubicle-dwellers! site plays music!), flying her around Asia, and–most impressively, by my …
Defending Larry Summers
A commenter to my post on hedge funds argues that since Larry Summers is an economist, he’s not necessarily just hedge fund window dressing. Larry’s not just an economist, he’s one of the great economists of his generation. But I still don’t believe David Shaw hired him for advice on arbitrage strategies. That said, I’ll send Larry an …
Remember Social Security?
So I didn’t actually watch the State of the Union address, other than the Dikembe Mutombo moment. Veronica Mars had a monkey to find, Alabama was playing Auburn in basketball … Plus, I got out of political reporting a long time ago in part because I really can’t take speeches.
Still, I am capable of doing a text search, and so I did …
Another sign of the impending hedge fund apocalypse
Daniel Gross has a new piece up on Slate about all the former big-name government officials joining or starting hedge funds. He lists a few (Madeleine Albright! Larry Summers! John Snow! Former SEC chairman Richard Breeden!), then writes:
Let’s set aside the question of whether the arrival of politicians is a neon sign to hedge-fund
…
How Achewood is killing the American newspaper
In his paean to Webcomic Achewood the other day, my fellow time.com blogger Lev Grossman mentioned in passing that “I always loved comic strips—that was the sole reason my family ever bought the Boston Globe growing up.”
That got me thinking. There’s been a ton written about how Craigslist is wiping out the newspaper classified …
The social responsibility of Milton Friedman
As of today, I write for Time, and the Curious Capitalist is back. I’m finding it a very strange experience to start work at an actual news organization after being immersed for weeks in the (re)writing of a book. I haven’t been reading newspapers, I’ve barely touched the telephone, and the only places on the Web I’ve been going to …
One in Five American Workers Suffer Mental Illness
“This project is driving me bonkers.”
“My boss is certifiable.”
“If the dude in the next cubicle doesn’t turn down his freaking iPod, I’m going to throw myself a nervous breakdown.”
We all like to goof about how work makes us whacko. But mental illness isn’t a joke for one in five workers. That’s right: 20% of Americans suffer some …
Let’s Not Shrink From Tackling Stress on the Job
A couple of months ago, I saw a shrink.
I was just beginning to recover from a nasty bout of a chronic illness that doctors think might be triggered by stress. Although I’ve lived with the illness for 15 years, the prolonged hospital stay scared me into making a resolution: I would do whatever it takes to avoid ever facing two weeks of …