Just got back from the centrist rally. Amazing turnout. Thousands of people holding hands and chanting “Better things aren’t possible”

— Hippo (@InternetHippo) July 1, 2017

Yes, this works best in my field I’ve noticed.

Sometimes I painstakingly craft out a cover letter and tailor my CV, but that seems to actually have a negative impact. My success rate is best when I don’t write a cover letter at all; just attach your SO’s CV to a blank email.

My guess is that it shows you don’t really need their job, which makes you a more attractive candidate.

I also used to follow the advice of crafting a careful and thoughtful cover letter and putting a great deal of time into customizing my resume for submission.

This seems to result in a lower response rate, and a worse offer. I’m speculating this is only true of fields that have a real shortage of good candidates.

These days I include no or very minimal (obviously canned) cover letter and nothing else.

Response rate is much higher. Much, much higher using this “don’t care” approach.

As in the also rather-ridiculous dating market, showing that you have no great need for the job and couldn’t care less if they respond or not actually increases your response rate and your compensation. It demonstrates that you don’t need them — they need you.

So if your field is one where the demand for good candidates exceeds supply (and this is only a guess), then the playing it cool approach might serve you better.

It certainly does me.

The politics of math: Is algebra necessary to obtain a college degree?

Well, it shouldn’t be.

I could not solve the problem below the first paragraph in a million years of attempts.

I know, I know — it’s easy.

For you.

If I did manage to solve it, the next one with different numbers and/or variables would look completely different to me, and I’d be unable to solve that one. Repeat ad infinitum.

Hey ya’ll, Friday I became a Cisco Certified Design Professional.

Strangely, the lower-level test — what Cisco calls “associate” — was much more difficult than the professional-level test. This associate-level test is not actually a prerequisite, though, in the traditional sense because Cisco allows you to take the exams out of order.

Which is exactly what I did, because taking the 300-320 ARCH exam was required for renewing my CCNP and I was not about to let that expire. Thus, I took the higher-level exam first and then to earn the actual CCDP as a bit of difficultly-obtained icing on the cake, I sat for the 200-310 exam.

Considering that I design things for a living these days, this was a very useful certification to acquire.

Ah, shit, I meant to click on Sarah Jones’ Twitter feed and accidentally clicked on Sarah Kendzior’s. Got to get that out of my bookmarks.

Yes:

Also, how it used to be really, really weird to meet your partner on the internet.

Now it’s becoming slightly odd especially in the younger set and will become ever-odder to meet your SO in meatspace.

Part of that is the liberal-originated sexual paranoia and general prudishness developing in society, but part of that is just norms and mores changing.

Prediction: in 20 years, it will be deemed exceedingly strange and bad to date someone that you work with, or meet in a library, or in a bar, or on a bus.

The most unrealistic portion of The Mist is how many people were in the mall.

Been in one lately? They are ghost towns with tumbleweeds blowing through.