4 ms·

Worse is the evolution of job requirements. I believe them to be the driving force behind this madness. No good can come of it, only lies and deceit. While I'm

Worse is the evolution of job requirements. I believe them to be the driving force behind this madness. No good can come of it, only lies and deceit. While I'm sure there are many true over-achievers at Harvard, I wonder how much of all this is polish rather than true greatness. Remember that Nietzsche's Uebermench has no scruples.

jey 15y ago
What's wrong with job requirements? Also, often "requirements" aren't truly "required". They're just trying to give a sketch of the person they're looking for. So if an ad requires "7 years of Javascript experience" but you have less, you aren't necessarily excluded from applying, as long as you have a comparable level of expertise.
- DanBC 15y ago
  It's a problem when the ad requires three years of Javascript, two years of embedded C, two years of C++, two years of Python, two years of Ruby, and five years of HTML and CSS, and yet is only offering college-leaver pay.
  - knieveltech 15y ago
    I remember during the dot com implosion, for six months straight section 115 was entirely absent from the local classifieds. The numbers jumped from 110 (clerical) to 120 (accounting). As you might guess, 115 was the catch-all for anything computer related. During the same time frame I saw a job post looking for all of the following: 8 years of unix systems administration experience, 5 years of MS Server, Exchange, 6 years of network administration, 5 years of perl, 6 of VB, bash scripting, and 8 years of experience as a DBA. The advertised wage for the titan that qualified for the position? $10.50 an hour.
- bermanoid 15y ago
  Well, you aren't excluded from applying as far as the people actually hiring for the job are concerned. But sometimes you've gotta be prepared to BS the HR creature in order to make it past them and actually talk to someone human - it's not too uncommon for these folks to view listed job requirements as a hard filter that all applicants need to pass in order to be considered, especially when dealing with bigger companies. And the fact that perfectly qualified applicants are often forced to embellish experience to make it past these initial screens is a very bad thing, it means that a certain level of dishonesty is almost required as part of a standard job hunt (i.e. one that doesn't lean on connections or direct relationships with people at companies, which is always a better way to go). This is part of why it ends up being so hard to distinguish legit programmers from terrible ones by their CVs: the crappy ones know they have to make up a ton of crap to get any interviews at all, whereas the legit ones know that if they can just get through the door and interview they'll get an offer, so they don't bother embellishing, and all the CVs end up looking about the same.
grot 15y ago
This is a gross misreading of Nietzsche's conception of the ubermensch. The ubermensch is someone who doesn't _need_ scruples. He operates beyond conventional morality because the sharpness of his judgement and the greatness of his philosophical insights far exceeds the value of the slave morality embodied by everyday law, and morals.
- forensic 15y ago
  But from the perspective of normal people, or "slaves" as Nietzsche would call us, he's just an overachieving asshole with no moral scruples. Going to Harvard doesn't make you uber anyway, it just makes you "best slave". A real ubermensch would likely see that it's not in her interest to spend 100% of her time pleasing others.
  - VladRussian 15y ago
    >he's just an overachieving asshole with no moral scruples. real unbermensch would have so little interests to and so little in common with the normal people what you'd be happy if s/he would spent a second of his time on the interacting with normal people (even being asshole toward them) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludens_%28Noon_Universe%29 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludens_%28Noon_Universe%29 The speciation inside the human species continues. We've had several successive species of humans so far and there is no reason for the process to stop. Human evolution has been speeding up, and i hope to see signs of new humans in my lifetime (statistically i have about 40 years left). Ivy Leaguers mating to Ivy Leaguers only is a one way to go, though i'd bet more on the changes coming from human-machine integration and biomedical advancements as brain related changes seems to be the primary driver of human evolution.
    - forensic 15y ago
      Eugenicists are out of date. The reason successful people have successful kids is due to enriched environments and increased opportunity. The field of psychology can't even agree on a definition of intelligence anymore, and certainly IQ is not genetically determined. The environment is the biggest influence on IQ. Harvard kids fucking Harvard kids doesn't create genetic supermen. It just creates an inbred aristocracy like has always been the case. Hemophilia is the true achievement of eugenics. The wise know, and always have known, that it is education and drive that makes a person. Genes play little role in success.

jey 15y ago

What's wrong with job requirements? Also, often "requirements" aren't truly "required". They're just trying to give a sketch of the person they're looking for. So if an ad requires "7 years of Javascript experience" but you have less, you aren't necessarily excluded from applying, as long as you have a comparable level of expertise.

DanBC 15y ago
It's a problem when the ad requires three years of Javascript, two years of embedded C, two years of C++, two years of Python, two years of Ruby, and five years of HTML and CSS, and yet is only offering college-leaver pay.
- knieveltech 15y ago
  I remember during the dot com implosion, for six months straight section 115 was entirely absent from the local classifieds. The numbers jumped from 110 (clerical) to 120 (accounting). As you might guess, 115 was the catch-all for anything computer related. During the same time frame I saw a job post looking for all of the following: 8 years of unix systems administration experience, 5 years of MS Server, Exchange, 6 years of network administration, 5 years of perl, 6 of VB, bash scripting, and 8 years of experience as a DBA. The advertised wage for the titan that qualified for the position? $10.50 an hour.
bermanoid 15y ago
Well, you aren't excluded from applying as far as the people actually hiring for the job are concerned. But sometimes you've gotta be prepared to BS the HR creature in order to make it past them and actually talk to someone human - it's not too uncommon for these folks to view listed job requirements as a hard filter that all applicants need to pass in order to be considered, especially when dealing with bigger companies. And the fact that perfectly qualified applicants are often forced to embellish experience to make it past these initial screens is a very bad thing, it means that a certain level of dishonesty is almost required as part of a standard job hunt (i.e. one that doesn't lean on connections or direct relationships with people at companies, which is always a better way to go). This is part of why it ends up being so hard to distinguish legit programmers from terrible ones by their CVs: the crappy ones know they have to make up a ton of crap to get any interviews at all, whereas the legit ones know that if they can just get through the door and interview they'll get an offer, so they don't bother embellishing, and all the CVs end up looking about the same.

grot 15y ago

This is a gross misreading of Nietzsche's conception of the ubermensch. The ubermensch is someone who doesn't _need_ scruples. He operates beyond conventional morality because the sharpness of his judgement and the greatness of his philosophical insights far exceeds the value of the slave morality embodied by everyday law, and morals.

forensic 15y ago
But from the perspective of normal people, or "slaves" as Nietzsche would call us, he's just an overachieving asshole with no moral scruples. Going to Harvard doesn't make you uber anyway, it just makes you "best slave". A real ubermensch would likely see that it's not in her interest to spend 100% of her time pleasing others.
- VladRussian 15y ago
  >he's just an overachieving asshole with no moral scruples. real unbermensch would have so little interests to and so little in common with the normal people what you'd be happy if s/he would spent a second of his time on the interacting with normal people (even being asshole toward them) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludens_%28Noon_Universe%29 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludens_%28Noon_Universe%29 The speciation inside the human species continues. We've had several successive species of humans so far and there is no reason for the process to stop. Human evolution has been speeding up, and i hope to see signs of new humans in my lifetime (statistically i have about 40 years left). Ivy Leaguers mating to Ivy Leaguers only is a one way to go, though i'd bet more on the changes coming from human-machine integration and biomedical advancements as brain related changes seems to be the primary driver of human evolution.
  - forensic 15y ago
    Eugenicists are out of date. The reason successful people have successful kids is due to enriched environments and increased opportunity. The field of psychology can't even agree on a definition of intelligence anymore, and certainly IQ is not genetically determined. The environment is the biggest influence on IQ. Harvard kids fucking Harvard kids doesn't create genetic supermen. It just creates an inbred aristocracy like has always been the case. Hemophilia is the true achievement of eugenics. The wise know, and always have known, that it is education and drive that makes a person. Genes play little role in success.