Mid-Week Reads: Google Plus, Goldman Sachs, Abortion

Career Stuff

Feel good that your boss hasn't directed you to stop saying "how are you?" Also, it's allowed to ask your boss for details.

Where's the CEO? And what counts as work? 

How to explain why you want a minimum-wage job (or any job). 

I liked this piece about the Goldman Sachs debacle.

"The days of old Google hiring smart people and empowering them to invent the future was gone. The new Google knew beyond doubt what the future should look like."

I couldn’t even get my own teenage daughter to look at Google+ twice, “social isn’t a product,” she told me after I gave her a demo, “social is people and the people are on Facebook.” Google was the rich kid who, after having discovered he wasn’t invited to the party, built his own party in retaliation. The fact that no one came to Google’s party became the elephant in the room.

Google+ and me, we were simply never meant to be. Truth is I’ve never been much on advertising. I don’t click on ads. When Gmail displays ads based on things I type into my email message it creeps me out. I don’t want my search results to contain the rants of Google+ posters (or Facebook’s or Twitter’s for that matter). When I search for “London pub walks” I want better than the sponsored suggestion to “Buy a London pub walk at Wal-Mart.”

Perhaps Google is right. Perhaps the future lies in learning as much about people’s personal lives as possible. Perhaps Google is a better judge of when I should call my mom and that my life would be better if I shopped that Nordstrom sale. Perhaps if they nag me enough about all that open time on my calendar I’ll work out more often. Perhaps if they offer an ad for a divorce lawyer because I am writing an email about my 14 year old son breaking up with his girlfriend I’ll appreciate that ad enough to end my own marriage. Or perhaps I’ll figure all this stuff out on my own.

Everything Else

How to talk to little girls.

I loved this article on Lolita. For me, I found the book so disturbing it was difficult to read. What were even more disturbing were the blurbs proclaiming it "the greatest love story of our time", which completely soured my experience of the book.

I love the Hunger Games books, and I really liked this article where the author shares his reservations about the soon-to-be-released movie.

From simplypallu, another mother's view on the R word.

It's a sad subject, but I loved these cartoons mocking the recent anti-abortion laws in the U.S.A.