The Curse of the Competent

Cursing the Competent

As long as the Internet economy was happily bubbling ahead, the Peter Principle reigned supreme: Peter joined a startup and got promoted quickly. Invariably, he would land in a position where he not only started failing, but dragged the entire startup down with his incompetence. Which of course didn't quite matter, since the Peter Principle was (and is) democratic and made everybody else look just as stupid as Peter himself.

The economy turned sour, Peter's startup died as everybody else's, and he scrambles to find a new job. Of course, he will want a stable company, with lots of cash reserves, good management and excellent products. Since he is good, he lands The Job, invariably at three hierarchy levels below where he was, with maybe half the salary. But who complains?

Around Peter all the people that have been there before him. They are a little afraid, since they know they kept their position because their company did well, not because they were better than poor Peter. Russian roulette of startups. The manager might not even have been able to get hired in Peter's old company. But that really doesn't matter.

Peter works hard, as he's used. He solves any problem in half the time that anyone else takes. Which doesn't make him a popular guy on the block. In particular, his manager knows how she will be followed in her every action with the critical eye of someone that used to supervise her likes. And that's when Peter is hit by the Curse of the Competent.

The 10 Most Common Mistakes by Tech Job Interviewees (and How to Work Around Them)

The job market is very tight and even if you are the smartest guy around, with tons of experience, and no salary requirements to speak of, you might find it a tad difficult to find a new position. That's particularly true for those that are just starting out, or who have been out of the game for a while. Unless someone is actively pushing your name somewhere, you'll see it's harder and harder to get that job landed.

Having witnessed literally hundreds of interviews, I can speak with some authority on what works and what doesn't from an interviewer's perspective. There is outstanding advice out there for general interviewing ("Check your resume for spelling mistakes!", "Nobody has ever been refused a job for wearing nice clothes!", "Do not become confrontational!") the advice is scant for the technical portion of your interview. Here my Top 10 mistakes made, and how to avoid them.

Femininity - the Missing Half of Science and Technology?

I am a man, in the most stereotypical way imaginable. I suffer from all the symptoms of the condition - the hair slowly starting to grow where it shouldn't, the quick temper ready to flare up for virtually no reason, but most of all for the way I think.

You could possibly try to call me sexist because of saying this, but there seem to be marked differences in the way the male and the female brains work. These differences seem to relate to evolutionary advantages, and they seem to confirm a stereotypical notion of gender roles in the incipient human community. I am at the butt end of the evolution, but I can see how we got to me.

Let's start with the unproven assumption that men were the hunters and foragers, while women were the nurturers. Let's add the assumption that humans, like many primates, were naturally inclined to form societies. What does that yield?