From: w2lee@argo.acs.oakland.edu (Walter Lee)
Subject: Re: transform a resume
Reply-To: w2lee@argo.acs.oakland.edu
Organization: Oakland University, Rochester, MI
Distribution: usa
Date: Thu, 31 Dec 1992 04:46:49 GMT

In article <ARA.92Dec30001314@camelot.ai.mit.edu>, ara@zurich.ai.mit.edu (Allan Adler) writes:

>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.

This is good prose.  Have you considered posting to my second favorite
newsgroup, alt.society.anarchy?  You seem to be the sort of free spirit that
would have a lot to contribute our little community.

>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.

People often confuse the ends with the means.

>(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.

The Military Industrial Complex seems to be drawn to you, somehow.  Are you a
United States citizen or something?

>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.

While I can't speak for the majority, I'd wager that most of your sentiments
are felt by a majority of the people.  The difference is 1. The majority of the
people are less articulate than you are.  2. The majority of the people are
probably relatively careless in their thinking about ends and means, so they
think they "want" to make widgets or something.

>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.

There are people you can "hire" to do your pavement pounding and negotiating. 
In my experience, you ALWAYS get exploited.  (I'm open-minded, I'd love to hear
of any exceptions to the rule.)  My experience is with temp agencies, which
isn't exactly the same as headhunters.  Of course headhunters don't (can't,
really) deal with entry-level types such as myself.

One alternative to the conventional methods of trading one's life for one's
livelihood is what's known as "job sharing".  I have no experience with this
(although I'd be interested in trying it), but it has been done.  Don't know if
it would work for you; I would imagine it requires two or more persons who are
somehow "interchangeable" in some professional capacity.

 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Walter Lee                                          w2lee@argo.acs.oakland.edu

Compared to what we ought to be, we are only half awake.  We are making
use of only a small part of our physical and mental resources.
                                -- William James
Newsgroups: misc.jobs.misc