Yesterday’s redux was about the importance of liberal arts in a tech-gone-crazy world.

New studies, with hard salary data, bear out this truth.

Yes, tech starting salaries are higher, but that difference goes away relatively quickly.

Not only that, but the tech skills needed today, especially the “hot” skills, didn’t exist 10 years ago, or even three to five years ago, so a tech career requires a willingness to constantly learn the newest whatever that comes along.

That translates to 40 years of racing to keep up with the newly minted competition.

Even staying current won’t assure a good career path, since if you want to go higher more soft skills, such as written and verbal communications, are required.

And in case you are part of my millennial and under audience, written skills don’t refer to proficient texting, while verbal skills mean competently carrying on face-to-face conversations.

Liberal arts can (should) open your mind to other experiences and viewpoints increasing your EQ and SQ, which is critical to getting ahead (and getting along).

There’s another reason liberal arts is even more important now and in the future — AI.

Techies are so enamored with the technology they haven’t given much thought to the fact that AI is best at repetitive functions — like coding.

AI apps like Bayou, DeepCoder, and Commit Assistant automate some tedious parts of coding. They can produce a few lines of code but they can’t yet write programs on their own, nor can they interpret business value and prioritize features.

The stuff AI can’t do isn’t found in a tech education, but liberal arts provides the foundation to do them.

Sometimes a cliché is useful. The bottom line is an education that combines tech skills for the short-term and liberal arts for both short and long-term is the real career winner.

(Note: Although the image above says liberal arts is for sales and marketing, it’s even more crucial for techies.)

Image credit: Abhijit Bhaduri

Poking through 13+ years of posts I find information that’s as useful now as when it was written.

Golden Oldies is a collection of the most relevant and timeless posts during that time.

I love being vindicated (again). When I wrote this in 2015 I took a lot of ribbing from my young techie friends, who saw tech as the only road to the good life, while liberal arts was the road to oblivion. That was the story being hyped by most media, too. I never bought it, nor did Nick Kristof, who said as much in no uncertain terms in his column The New York Times. Nothing has changed, as you’ll see tomorrow.

Read other Golden Oldies here.

I constantly read/hear that if you want your kids to have a good life focus on a purely STEM curriculum and they’ll be home free.

Moreover, if they are great at coding they don’t even need college.

While it may be true, at least at this point in time, that they can get a good job if they have strong coding skills, what they are unlikely to get is a promotion that takes them beyond coding, whether in a technical or leadership/management role.

Pulitzer Prize winner (twice) Nicholas Kristof, a columnist for The New York Times, with 1.4 million followers on Twitter, 1.3 million followers on Google+ and 600,000 followers on Facebook (click ‘more’ to see his bio) sums up the value of a humanities, AKA, liberal arts, degree 1, 2, 3.

First, liberal arts equip students with communications and interpersonal skills that are valuable and genuinely rewarded in the labor force, especially when accompanied by technical abilities.

My second reason: We need people conversant with the humanities to help reach wise public policy decisions, even about the sciences.

Third, wherever our careers lie, much of our happiness depends upon our interactions with those around us, and there’s some evidence that literature nurtures a richer emotional intelligence.

Even the most rabid coders don’t want to do it for 40 years.

But if your knowledge of society is limited to code and your ability to interact with others is negligible, then you are left with little choice.

Even a degree in STEM or business won’t give you the broad outlook or emotional intelligence it takes to be promoted, let alone start a successful company.

The best way to assure yourself a bright future, whether you decide to code or earn a “useful” degree, is to patronize your library as so many “self-made” folks did/do

Stay away from your area of expertise, instead wander sections of which you have no knowledge, select books randomly and read at every opportunity.

Image credit: Susanne Nilsson

Poking through 11+ years of posts I find information that’s as useful now as when it was written.

Golden Oldies is a collection of the most relevant and timeless posts during that time.

Knowing, understanding and accepting yourself is critical to major decisions, such as choosing a spouse/life partner/job. Ignoring or distorting any of the first three practically guarantees blowing the last three. As does ignoring or distorting the info gathered from your due diligence on the last three.

Read other Golden Oldies here.

There’s a very stupid myth that only the very talented are hired by startups and that the very talented only want to work for startups.

The corollary being that those who work for public companies, let alone large ones, probably aren’t all that talented and certainly not innovative/creative.

What a crock.

Another part of that myth is that working for a startup is the road to riches.

An even bigger crock.

The myth also says that the best place to work is a unicorn, such as or AirBnB, GitHub or Palantir,

And that is the biggest crock of all.

If you are looking for new opportunities and are dazzled by the idea of working at a unicorn I strongly suggest you read Scott Belsky’s post on Medium.

A company’s fate is ultimately determined by its people, so talent is everything. But this old adage bumps up against another one: cash is king (or runway is king, for a fast-growing private company). Without runway, talent takes off. So, it is no surprise that bold moves to extend runway (think late-stage financings at technically large valuations with some tricky liquidation preferences underneath) are done even if they could hurt the company (and its people) in the long run. This is especially true when these financings are ego-driven rather than strategic. The problem is, the employees at these companies don’t understand the implications.

But whether startup or Unicorn, this anonymous post on GitHub is a must read.

This is a short write-up on things that I wish I’d known and considered before joining a private company (aka startup, aka unicorn in some cases). I’m not trying to make the case that you should never join a private company, but the power imbalance between founder and employee is extreme, and that potential candidates would do well to consider alternatives.

The right place for you to work is the one that satisfies what you want — whether that’s the opportunity to work on bleeding edge technology, build a network, upgrade your resume or even plain, old curiosity.

The wrong place is the one you join with an eye to getting rich quick or for bragging rights.

Or because somebody says you “should.”

Image credit: Mike Mozart

Does today matter all that much when there’s a tomorrow in the wings?

Yes, no question about it.

Setting aside the fact that tomorrow doesn’t come with a guarantee, what about a more personal take on the idea.

Eleanor Roosevelt summed up the importance perfectly.

“Today is the oldest you’ve ever been, and the youngest you’ll ever be again.”

Probably one of the most important sentences you’ll ever hear.

Don’t forget it — live by it.

Image credit: Wikipedia Commons

As quoted in yesterday’s Golden Oldie, Columbia law professor Tim Wu said, Convenience and monopoly seem to be natural bedfellows.

His premise is that the more convenient something is, e.g., Amazon, the more likely people will gravitate to it, rather than trying something new.

Think about it.

Amazon. Facebook. Google. Microsoft.

Over the years, many companies, from startups to giants, have challenged them and have either been bought, bankrupted or buried.

Either can be a solution when your resources are almost unlimited, whether the money is spent on acquisition or increasing convenience.

Simple as 1-2-3-4

More convenience = stronger addiction = fewer competitors = greater monopolistic actions.

So the next time you find yourself concerned or complaining about the power of big tech try looking in the mirror for its source.

Image credit: Alena Navarro- Whyte

Poking through 11+ years of posts I find information that’s as useful now as when it was written.

Golden Oldies is a collection of the most relevant and timeless posts during that time.

Good, bad or silly, ideas for products are generated in response to a problem or need. It doesn’t matter if the problem/need only exists in the entrepreneur’s mind (think Jucerio), it’s still the driving force behind creating whatever. So what happens when there are no perceived problems? When the current whatever is treated as THE solution?  Innovation takes a nosedive and monopolies thrive.

Read other Golden Oldies here.

I’m not sure whether to laugh or cry when I see ads for stuff that responds to voice command, especially when it’s for stuff like changing the TV channel. I guess that using the remote takes either too much energy or too much intelligence to work it.

Everything today is about convenience, a trend I’ve been suspicious of, although I wasn’t sure why.

However, after reading an op-ed piece by Tim Wu, a law professor at Columbia and the author of “The Attention Merchants: The Epic Struggle to Get Inside Our Heads,” called The Tyranny of Convenience I’m starting to understand what about it makes me itch.

In the developed nations of the 21st century, convenience — that is, more efficient and easier ways of doing personal tasks — has emerged as perhaps the most powerful force shaping our individual lives and our economies.

Granted I’m known as a digital dinosaur, but there are some conveniences — washing machines, telephones, cars, email, and Skype chat, among them — I’m all for — although I see no reason they need to be smart .

However, I have no cell phone, avoid any app, service, etc., provided by Google, clean my own house, wash my own clothes, shop for my own food, and do my own cooking just as I’ve done since I was 18.

I search using startpage.com, no ads, no tracking and my life functions just fine without always being connected. I’m not on social media and don’t suffer from FOMA; I meet friends for meals and fun and we talk on the phone in-between.

I suppose that all sounds very inconvenient these days, but I’m never bored and enjoy the feelings of accomplishment that come with doing stuff yourself, as well as figuring out better ways to do it — it’s called ingenuity.

I’ve seen many “convenient” items come to market years after I came up with a similar approach to use for myself.

Americans say they prize competition, a proliferation of choices, the little guy. Yet our taste for convenience begets more convenience, through a combination of the economics of scale and the power of habit. The easier it is to use Amazon, the more powerful Amazon becomes — and thus the easier it becomes to use Amazon. Convenience and monopoly seem to be natural bedfellows (emphasis mine).

Professor WU (or someone) needs to do a follow-up article entitled, “How Convenience Killed Creativity and Strangled Entrepreneurship.

Image credit: jim212jim

The last two posts were all about wisdom.

What is ‘wisdom’?

Some people are smart;

quick or prompt in action, as persons

having or showing quick intelligence or ready mental capability

some are considered intelligent

having good understanding or a high mental capacity; quick to comprehend, as persons or animals;

very occasionally someone is described as wise

having the power of discerning and judging properly as to what is true or right; possessing discernment, judgment, or discretion.

Wisdom is described as

knowledge of what is true or right coupled with just judgment as to action; sagacity, discernment, or insight.

If you’re still not sure of the difference, all I can say is that you didn’t read the two previous posts carefully enough.

If you want a deeper, more philosophical look at wisdom, check out this post in Psychology Today.

Image credit: VBC17

I first wrote about Six Words back in 2009 (here and here) and again in 2013 (here).

Six Word was started by Larry Smith after hearing about Earnest Hemingway.

When challenged to tell a story in six words, Ernest Hemingway came up with “For sale. Baby shoes. Never worn.”

I signed up and have since enjoyed all the varied thoughts and ideas offered in just Six Words. More than a million people have contributed their thought6s and ideas..

Last week my email had something special that isn’t online. It came from Larry’s son, Lucas.

From the email.

“I wanted to get involved, so I worked with him to have kids write their best life advice.”

The piece was print only in the special monthly [NYT] kids’ section, but you can read proud dad’s backstory here.

I read The NYT online, but have no access to the print edition.  However, Lukas shared his favorites.

The authors may be young, but you could do a lot worse in life than taking their words to heart.

Both image credits: Six Words

Poking through 11+ years of posts I find information that’s as useful now as when it was written.

Golden Oldies is a collection of the most relevant and timeless posts during that time.

Sheesh. It seems as if most of the articles I link to and the resulting posts are all focused on fixing or avoiding negative stuff. So this week I wanted to focus on positives, whether quotes, like the ones below, or other positive news. Enjoy and, hopefully, smile.

Read other Golden Oldies here.

Together, these five disparate thoughts pack enough wisdom to live from youth to old age and never go wrong.

“Friendship is an undervalued resource. The consistent message of these studies is that friends make your life better.” –Karen A. Roberto, director of the center for gerontology at Virginia Tech (I wonder if all those friends at Facebook and Twitter count?)

“Never let your ego get so close to your positions that when your position goes, your ego goes with it.” –Admiral H. G. Rickover (I call it ego merge and it’s a definite no-no.)

“That’s what keeps life moving forward, focusing on what we can do, rather than getting caught up in what we can’t.” –Trisha Meili, The Central Park Jogger (Words of wisdom from a woman who knows.)

“Small Minds Talk About Others, Mediocre Minds Talk About Themselves, Great Minds Talk About Ideas.” –Eleanor Roosevelt (Which do you have?)

“The mind is its own place, and in itself can make a Heaven of Hell, a Hell of Heaven.” –John Milton, Paradise Lost (True when Milton wrote it and just as true now.)

Image credit: Joe Shlabotnik

Yesterday we took another look at the effects of, and how to deal with, jerks in the workplace. Today’s guest post by Ariel Schur addresses a different problem, i.e., colleagues who don’t pull their weight.

Most of us have dealt with a lazy colleague at some point in our professional career. They do the bare minimum, but just enough to fly under the radar. Coworkers like these unfortunately have the capability of single-handedly undermining group work or projects with looming deadlines. Yet, somehow, they have managed to remain employed – and some even manage to get ahead! Are employees simply supposed to grin and bear it? What can we do when we’re saddled with a lazy coworker?

There are effective ways to combat this issue at work and potentially change that colleague’s behavior moving forward.

Speak to your colleague directly

Approach your colleague with your concerns, relate their performance back to how it affects you. For example, “I’ve been taking on a lot of your work assignments lately and it’s preventing me from getting my own work done”, or “I had to re-do your part of the project because it didn’t follow the requirements”. Making them realize how their shortcomings are affecting the performance of yourself or the group is the first step if you want their behavior to change. From there, talk about ways to hold each other accountable and hold up each end of the bargain for future collaborations.

It is usually best to first try approaching your colleague with your concerns before going to your manager. Not only is this proper workplace etiquette, but why take the problem to someone else if you may be able to solve it on your own?

Document all correspondence

Any e-mail, conversation transcription, group notes, etc. will be helpful. Keeping a paper trail of all written (or verbal) communication is important for two reasons; 1) so you can remind your colleague of all the times you talked to them regarding the issue, and 2) you’ll have examples to bring up to your boss or manager, in the event that you do have to talk to them about the situation. If it does need to be reported, I suggest going directly to whoever is overseeing the project or would hold you responsible if the work is not completed.

Keep a Positive Attitude to Avoid Adopting Their Work Ethic

It’s easy to let a coworker’s laziness affect your attitude at work. You may even feel tempted to think “well, if they’re not going to do it, neither am I” – but that’s a bad idea. Your reputation is directly correlated to your performance and that is not worth risking. If you talked to your colleague and/or supervisor and do not see a change, do not let it influence the work you’ve put in. Always remain professional and continue to be the conscientious worker you are!

Dealing with lazy colleagues is never easy. Talking to them about the issue is often times enough for things to improve, but in some instances you may be required to take extra steps. Try to work with them, keep track of all the problems that arise as a result of their slack, and do not let it affect your own performance. Taking these steps to combat the issue are sure to make your life at your job easier moving forward.

Ariel Schur, LCSW is the CEO and sole founder of ABS Staffing Solutions. Her high-touch, service-oriented approach has been a refreshing change to the industry. Ariel prides herself on developing highly customized relationships with clients so that they can find the right employee matches for any and all employment needs.  Ariel has set a new standard for the “boutique” approach to staffing. Her work model is time-intensive, specifically tailored to her clients’ specific needs, and all-encompassing to provide the highest quality experience.