Do they really think they are going to find someone who sat down and coded Javascript for five years straight, never looking at another language? That would be a job that would quickly drive you to despair. Yet, that’s the way hiring managers seem to think.

When I was 12, I lived in Flagstaff, Arizona. It was a college town. We lived first on the west side and I went to Marshall Elementary. That would have been around 1968. One of my classmates was a particularly cerebral young man whose father worked at Lowell Observatory on the hills above the town. […]

As a social worker, I specialize in high-anxiety customers who have learned in their lives to try to get what they want by maladaptive behaviors. I say “to try” because it doesn’t actually work for them. It seems like it works because many people will give in or cater to the behavior, thinking that it is somehow the best way to deal with it.

However, it is only an illusion. It may get a person off of your back momentarily, but you haven’t done anything to help him deal with his anxiety. Sadly, if this person is someone you cannot easily escape, as in a professional or family relationship, you are only creating more anxiety that you will end up dealing with later.

As anyone who knows me well will attest, I like spicy food. I write about it in “Some Like It Hot“. I guess that if variety is the spice of life, then my days and work are also very spicy.

I’ve always had an affinity for people and the things they deal with. My mother thought of me as mature beyond my years, and it’s probably true. I still was a child when I needed to be, but I’ve had a sense of social justice and tolerance that would have made for a good social […]