Does It Always Have to Come Back to 9/11?

Any week that brings both a new Bradley Denton novel and a new Dar Williams CD is a good week indeed.

Denton's Laughin' Boy, a sharply satiric look at celebrity and its effect on the modern-day media, is the story of Daniel Clayton, a lucky (or unlucky) survivor of a domestic terror attack. His travails are viewed through the lens of the "new" media: talk shows, "Hard-Copy" style expose shows, and the Internet. This novel was written in 2000, and Denton was unable to get it published after 9/11, even though it is just as relevant (if not more so) now than it was then. Fortunately, Subterranean Press has published a limited edition, which can be found at Amazon.com and other on-line booksellers. It's definitely a worthwhile read.

It took a couple of listens, but Dar Williams My Better Self is really growing on me, especially "Empire", a war protest song, and her cover of "Comfortably Numb" with Ani DiFranco. I know that Dar's main following seems to be among angsty young women (and I might never have heard of her if my wife hadn't played "Party Generation" for me, hooking me instantly), but her songs, which are heartfelt and often very funny, deserve a wider audience. For the record, Mortal City is one of my favorite albums, and I played it a lot in the days following 9/11 (I don't know why).

Catch H1-B

The Mercury News reports that a Senate committee has approved increasing the annual number of available H-1B visas from 65000 to 95000. This is at the behest of the tech industry, which claims that it can't fill jobs in the U.S. because of declining numbers of domestic math and science students. (For those unfamiliar with the term, H-1Bs are special visas that allow U.S. companies to indenture, er, employ highly skilled foreign workers without permanent residence -- green card -- status.)

So, let's see - companies lay off a large percentage of tech workers and out-source their jobs to overseas, thereby making math and science less attractive majors to college students, which leads to a shortage of skilled domestic tech workers, thus increasing demand for foreign workers, who can then be laid off and sent home. And the cycle of life continues...

Quoth George Jetson: Jane, get me off this crazy thing!

The Passion of the Code Monkey

A friend was telling me about a job interview she had recently for a software developer position with one of Silicon Valley's leading lights. "Tell me," the hiring manager asked her, "why you're passionate about this position."

Good thing I wasn't the one interviewing for the job, because my reponse might have gone something like this:

Passionate? Isn't it enough to find work that's challenging and interesting and fun, work for which we software engineers have developed highly specialized and technical skill sets, work on which we can put in a good day and feel that we've accomplished a little something, and work that we can put down at day's end in order to go home and have a life? Do we have to be "passionate" about it, too? We're building e-commerce applications, not painting the Sistine Fucking Chapel.

Here's my theory: "passion" has become the latest industry buzz-word. When a company wants you to be "passionate" about your job, it means they want you to work longer hours for lower pay and with less job security. It'll be okay when they take advantage of you, because when you're passionate about something, you do it for love and not for crass remuneration. And after they've spent your passion and downsize your position, leaving you with no severance and no prospects, it'll still be okay because you'll understand that they're also passionate, about serving the bottom line.

Don't fall for it, folks. Don't take the "passion" bait. Tell them why you'll be enthusiastic. Tell them why you'll be good at what you do. But also tell them that you're saving your passion for your personal life and that they'll just have to get by with your competence.