From: ara@zurich.ai.mit.edu (Allan Adler)
Subject: Re: transform a resume
Organization: M.I.T. Artificial Intelligence Lab.
Distribution: usa
Date: Wed, 30 Dec 1992 05:13:14 GMT

In article <C01wxv.9Gr@world.std.com> ttraub@world.std.com (Terry Traub) writes:
   Since my mail bounced back I thought I'd public post a response.  I
   had originally suggested that you look into teaching, either at the
   junior college level or perhaps as a substitute teacher or tutor.
   Colleges and secondary schools offer an extended summer vacation, a
   fairly long winter break, and fairly relaxed schedule.  As a tutor, of
   course, you'd pretty much set your own hours.

I did specify in my earlier posting that I wanted it all to be over in
one month and that is really how I feel about it unless some remarkable
breakthroughs are achieved in the realm of working conditions. I also
explained that I am quite alienated from the traditional methods by
which mathematicians earn a living, so it is not appropriate to suggest
teaching. I could become less alienated if some university were prepared
to sit down with me and negotiate substantive issues of working conditions.

I did try tutoring in the past and it does satisfy the condition of
being over in a month, since students apparently have no interest in
tutoring except during exams. However, I never earned more than a few
hundred dollars per annum from tutoring and it is therefore not a solution.
I might add that since I typically get only one student for tutoring
at one time, I usually wind up traveling an hour to get to the appointment,
which more than half the time the student doesn't show up for, and an
hour traveling home, which considerably dilutes both my enjoyment of the
activity and my net hourly wage.

   Of course, if you'd rather work for capitalists, you'll have to offer
   a product that is in demand.  

The word "want" has no place in this discussion. Employers use it carelessly
in sentences such as, "So you want to make widgets..." Since we live in a
society  in which it is considered perfectly all right for a person to go 
without food and shelter and since the alternative to doing without them
is to have the means to pay for them, most people have to work. It is 
irrelevant whether they want to work or not. To speak of them wanting to
do it is like torturing someone and then describing their confession
as voluntary.

The word "want" does belong in a sentence such as, "I want to be able
to cover the cost of my food and shelter" but it does not follow that I
specifically want to pursue any of the available methods for achieving that 
goal.

   You said you're a PhD in math; so
   perhaps you can offer consulting services to a developer of number crunching
   software or CAD products.

I don't believe that my skills and employment history are widely
marketable, especially since I am entirely lacking in experience in the
so-called real world. I will, however, mention two exceptions:
(1) I was offered a job with the Institute for Defense Analysis without
    ever applying for it. In fact, this happened twice. Both times I
    turned them down because I don't want to be bothered with distractions
    such as security clearances and secrecy.
(2) I had a similar experience with a start up company that was using 
    the proximity chip to identify radar patterns and to decide whether
    we are under nuclear attack and launch an automatic counterstrike
    or whether it is just a flock of geese. Much as I was impressed by
    their conservationist stand in wanting to make sure that no one fired
    nuclear weapons at the geese, I was not interested in this job because:
     (a) I did not want to be bothered with a security clearance
     (b) I knew I would never be able to sleep nights worrying about whether
         there was a bug in the program.

I think these examples tend to support the hypothesis that any place that
would be interested in my abilities would be quite unusual and that the
traditional wisdom about job hunting would not apply to such a place.
By way of contrast, a place that normally reads resumes for applicants the
same way an electrical engineer reads the specs of a chip would probably
not appreciate me. It also supports the hypothesis that I would, for reasons
of conscience and preference, be inclined to avoid the kind of places that
would tend to be interested. That doesn't leave much. On the other hand,
in order to be a research mathematician for so many years and a professor
of mathematics, I have had to develop a number of correlated skills and
I will, I think, be able to endure one month a year of employment in which
I use them in inoffensive ways.

   The first thing you'll have to do, though, is lose the weird attitude
   toward employment, 

I reject the hypothesis that there is anything weird about my attitude
towards employment. I will accept that my opinions are perhaps different
from those of the majority.

It is not my purpose to debate with Terry about this. Actually, I am trying
to separate the wheat from the chaff in his/her posting. In fact, he/she has 
made a very sensible suggestion:

   or maybe get someone who spends more time in the
   working world to represent you.  A craven lackey, you might say.

What is the underlying principle here? Lots of people have one or more
skills and operate in a free lance manner more or less. There are also
some things that these people have to do that either they cannot do or would 
prefer not to do. They deal with that by hiring someone to do those things for
them. For example, they might hire an accountant or a lawyer or a headhunter.
Me, I don't like to deal with the people or the practices I am most 
likely to have to deal with when looking for jobs and I don't like the
working conditions that everyone has been horsewhipped into thinking are
normal. So maybe there is someone I can hire to put up with all that and
to bring me the essential work to do in peace...for one month.

Allan Adler
ara@altdorf.ai.mit.edu