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Writings from a theologian I love with a profound understanding of the human heart/condition:

“Man is the creature with a mystery in his heart that is bigger than himself. He is built like a tabernacle around a most sacred mystery…this sanctuary is neglected and forgotten, like an overgrown tomb or an attic choked with rubbish, and it needs an effort – the effort of contemplative prayer – to clean it up and make it habitable for the divine Guest. But the room itself does not need to be built; it is already there and always has been, at the very center of man.”
-Von Balthasar

Lest you think this is all just religious nonsensical musing – others recognize it too…

“I was raised as a type-A person that won love and approval from my family by my accomplishments and achievements at school and professionally. It’s how I thought the whole world worked.

But when my autistic son was born, I had someone that wanted to know if I could love them for simply who they are, not what they could accomplish or do (or not do). This was the first glimpse I had into what unconditional love must be like.

You have to set aside all those expectations and learn to live and love with whatever you are dealt. You first feel like your life has gone into freefall. But you must remind yourself again and again that freefall is where a bird first learns to fly.”

“It is more important that innocence should be protected, than it is that guilt be punished; for guilt and crimes are so frequent in this world that all of them cannot be punished…. But when innocence itself is brought to the bar and condemned, especially to die, the subject will exclaim, ‘It is immaterial to me whether I behave well or ill, for virtue itself is no security.’ And if such a sentiment as this were to take hold in the mind of the subject that would be the end of all security whatsoever…”

-John Adams

Looked through the African Air photography book by George Steinmetz.  One of the best parts was the introduction. It had one of the most powerful quotes I saw.

In Steinmetz’s intros, he describes how he exited college and hitchhiked across Africa for over two years.  Most of the time completely alone, no knowledge of the language or customs, battling illnesses and unrest, and often found himself sleeping on police station porches or living off the generosity of locals who he couldn’t even talk with.  It was there, with almost no knowledge of how to even use a camera, he started shooting photos.  Those early pictures are an fascinating catalog of visceral encounters.

On returning to the states, he managed to get a meeting with Bob Gilka of National Geographic’s photo department and get some kind of job with National Geographic.  Gilka is apparently famous for his harsh, critical style and a sign outside his office door that said “Wipe knees before entering”

So Steinmetz, after hard years in Africa, he put his photos on the slide carousel. Gilka held the advance button without stopping. This then happened:

He stopped once when he saw a photo he didn’t like.  “Doesn’t work” he said curtly.  I tried to explain some of the difficulties of the situation but he cut me off.

“Is that an excuse?” he asked.
“Uh, I guess so,” I said.
“Well, we publish photographs here, not excuses.”

Ouch.

Wow.  What an introduction to the professional world; however, it really helped Steinmetz in the end.  Gilka admired Steinmetz’s tenacity and determination; but told him to come back when he’d learned more photographic techniques, how to use artificial lighting, and could handle a wider variety of situations.

I guess it’s always a good reminder to me that to be good in your business/field – you should look at it that way.  Don’t make excuses, make improvements.

Went back to Purdue for the School of Science annual alumni advisory board again.  More interesting insights.

While the tide seems to be changing, we have all heard (or lived) the woe’s of recent college graduates.  Students graduating with many hopes/promises of employment that never panned out.  Compounding matters, we see that in some fields a masters or PhD is the minimum entry bar.  Some have even asked if a BA college degree has been reduced to the new high school diploma.  The school you go to also seems to matter as we see huge unemployment rates coming from some degree-mill colleges.

So what is a potential student to do?  The good news seems to be that for half the equation you should do what you should have been doing all along, and the other half is new but may well make your time at college better.

Stuff you should do when looking at a future college (or your own if you’re already there):

1. Am I going to college/university to simply learn as my goal, or am I expecting a job out of this?
   First questions first – what you want to do in life?  Not what major you want – but what you want to DO for a living.  Where you want to be 5 years after school is over – envision a whole day from getting up to bedtime. Are you working with people?  What things are you working on?  Academia or in industry?  Writing as much of this down can help you clarify.  This, after all, is the whole point of school anyway.  If you don’t know where you’re going, you’ll never know if the steps you’re taking will get you where you’ll be happy.  While going to college to ‘find yourself’ or solely for personal growth can be noble and good – it may also be a bit dangerous if you’re racking up a huge bill while doing it.  Getting as much clarity of where you want to go (or if not that – at least what you DON’T want to be doing) goes a long way to preventing being tens of thousands in debt in a field you just learned you hate or isn’t what you want to do.
2. What does your chosen field require to be considered employable and ‘successful’?
   With step 1 done, now you need to find out what you need to know/skills needed to do that work you described in #1.  Talk to a good counselor from your perspective school, look at job postings for your desired position(s) on Monster and other job sites, look at resumes of those in the field on Linked-in, and talk with people in that industry or job.   What skills and education do they require?  Do you even need a college degree to get into your field at the level you want?  You’d be surprised which fields don’t need a college degree or that sometimes a degree actually forces you down a different part of the field than you want.  If a degree is required, what major and what level/specialization would get me into the field I most want?  In some fields, a masters is the minimum bar of entry for getting hired.  In others, getting a PhD actually closes doors to industry but opens academic work open to you.
   I’ve seen many a folk get badly burned by mismatching their desired area of work and their degree.  One fellow desired to do social work ran off and got $100k in debt to get a PhD when all they needed was a 4 year degree.  I’ve seen folks get a degree in a major to find out what they wanted to do could have been done with a simple certification.  Yes, there is always the pursuit of learning for its own sake – which is always good.  But don’t confuse just getting more education with desired outcomes.
3. Is your school known for good work in that major/field?
   Not to give offense to the professors at these schools – but if you’re going to Julliard to learn engineering, or going to MIT for inter-racial studies – you’re probably not making the best choice for your buck.  Like it or not, I have seen the name of a school open doors.  While they do not get you a job, but they very well will open you to an interview you might not have gotten before.  You should pick the school on your list that has the best reputation for the field you’re hoping to get into (and that you can afford).
4. Is the school you’re considering likely to get you the job you want?
   This is the pragmatic side.  You should be able to ask and see the placement rates (and hopefully) the average salary ranges of those getting hired.  If they have a career center, you should be able to get a list (or at least a good idea) of what companies come to hire from the school.  If there is nobody on the list you want to work for, or the placement rates are bad (under 50%), you better consider looking elsewhere.  It will also tell you what you should expect to earn your first few years out of college and be a good basis on how much debt you should/shouldn’t be getting into.
5. Debt
   A good rule of thumb is that you should only take on the amount of debt that you would hope to earn in a year’s average salary for your major (disregarding taxes/etc).   A doctor?  $100,000 in debt might be totally acceptable.  An engineer?  Depending on the type – maybe $30k-60k.  If you start going over this amount – things start getting more difficult.  I recently saw a guy well over $100,000 in debt getting a PhD in social work who will be making $25k-35k/yr.  He will barely be able to pay off the interest each month and his hopes of starting a family are pretty much nil unless he marries someone who can help with that debt.  Don’t get yourself in over your head – you can end up paying for it the rest of your life.

So what more is someone to do to really seal the deal?  Last year, Purdue hired a social networking expert who was working on Purdue’s Linked-in and various other social networking sites.  She came and talked to us – and she touted an idea that adds a new arrow to your quiver of employability.

It starts with a realization of the world you are now in.  There are quite literally 1000’s of people around the country walking across graduation stages at the same time as you with the same degrees.  You’re no longer unique just because you got a degree or even if you got a near perfect GPA. Instead, you need to now stand out from that crowd – just as you did when in high school.  How does one do that?

You could get on the deans list and get a perfect GPA.  Those do help – but in reality those kudos are not quite as important as you think they are to employers.  Instead, we can take cues from very highly competitive fields: movies, design, and art.  In those industries, a portfolio of great work and a name are keys to success.  Sure, they need to have done well in their studies, but now employers are also going to want to see what you can do.  They have less time/money to train, there are more people out there applying, and they want to know more than ever that a hire will pay off.  Despite what you think, your college education just lays the groundwork for success – your employer still needs to get you up to industry-grade snuff.

New tips:

1. A portfolio works wonders
   If possible, build a portfolio of your work you can show off.  This is essential in any art field – and becoming more so for other fields.  If you’re a programmer: got any apps you wrote that you can throw on a laptop or mobile device and show?  A demo reel?  Do you have any news articles/clippings of work you’ve done or been part of?  Pictures of things you’ve done you can show on an iPad?  Websites of open-source projects you’ve worked on?  Being able to physically hand something to an interviewer/prospective hiring manager is HUGE.  It’s tangible proof you can and have done things.  This one alone has sold us on a candidate at my place of work.  Here’s a link that might help you know what to put and not put into a portfolio.
2. Find what you are passionate about and do some work in that outside of school work.
   This is already happening in Computer Science.  Graduates distinguish themselves by finding and contributing to an open-source project they like, leading a group in their field, presenting at conferences, writing web articles on specific topics, having a body of programming work and applications they can show off.  Hopefully (if you’ve found a field you actually like to study), this shouldn’t be a terrible burden – even if you only do this stuff in the summers/breaks.  You are trying to build and do things that can build up #1, and #3
3. Brand yourself for today’s social media world
   Like it or not, social networking is here to stay.  The first thing that many, many employers do is Google you – so you need a robust and professional ‘brand’ for your name.  You absolutely should have a Linked-in account that is professional looking, filled out, and used regularly to make connections with people in your field  At networking events when exchanging business cards, ask if you can connect with relevant people via linked-in.  A blog, a personal website, Facebook and Twitter are also good.  Spend some time on them an update them with relevant content.  Your portfolio, interesting links and discussions on your field, etc.  Make a habit of this – it’s real obvious when someone just starts updating those sites when they’re looking for a job (i.e. no posts for 3 years then a flurry every day).  You want what they find to be professional and appropriate.  A history of entries relating to your field shows you’re actually interested in it. This work, unfortunately, starts well before you are job hunting.  Actually, it started from the day you opened an account on the site.
   I don’t want to give a lecture, but drunken pictures of parties and your stance on controversial/illegal activities isn’t what should be showing up.  Let’s just be clear: Nothing you posted on Facebook or other social media site is private.  Nothing you put on Facebook or other site can be completely deleted.  People can copy pictures, link against your content, take screen-caps of your IM’s, and quote you on other sites – and you have no way to stop them.  Just don’t post anything you don’t want employers to read or see.
4. Selling yourself
   All the above do this, but we haven’t talked about one final thing.  This particular tip hasn’t changed; but it’s not the indie 90’s anymore.  Don’t be fooled into thinking your personal appearance is an individuality thing – it’s a reflection of your knowledge of the field.
   Dress: Dress nicely, yet appropriately casual/professional.  It shows they know about the field enough to know what is considered the ‘norm’ and shows respect for it and the employer.  You’d also be surprised how even a good photo of yourself on your profile can change things when someone is determining whether to email you based on your profile.  Again – appropriate is the key word.  Too fancy makes you look like a tool, too casual makes you come off as sloppy and unprofessional.
   Appearance: I hate to have to say this, but take a shower, get a haircut, trim unsightly hairs, clean your nails, etc.  Make sure your nice clothes fit you and you look natural/comfortable in them.  Wear them out for a day a couple of times before going to the interview so you can find any trouble spots and learn how to eat without spilling things on them. Even in the frumpy fashion world of computer science, being at least able to wear a button-up shirt with non-tennis shoes can give you a leg up.
   Speech: Practice your answers – in front of a mirror or camera if you need.  You must spend a good bit of time going over and being able to talk well about every single thing on your resume.  Expect to be quizzed on it all.  Keep your speech light, be clear and concise, and show excitement.

 

You hear it in the news – the US has a shortage of people going into engineering, science, and high-end technical degrees.  We’re being trounced by the extrodinary graduation rates in developing contries and China/India.  Even Obama introduced his STEM education support program to encourage students into Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (which he touted on his trip to our Intel site a few months back).

I was recently elected to Purdue’s Alumni Board for the school of Sciences.   During the last bi-annual meeting, we have a dean of one of the science schools come in.  This time it was the dean of the Geology dept.  He gave a great presentation on the interesting things they’re doing, but one of the most interesting points about his presentation was this: he gets calls all day long from companies and government agencies looking for geologists, but he has none to give them.  Currently the enrollment in geology at Purdue is around 150 students.  For ALL undergraduate levels.  Purdue has just under 30,000 total students, and only 150 are enrolled in undergrad geology.  He says he has jobs to give away, but nobody to fill them.  And they’re not all just for oil companies – government needs lots of surveyors, building ground inspections, erosion and terrain evaluation/etc.  Companies have all kinds of jobs too.

Surprised by this information, I went over afterwards to my haunt – the Computer Science department.  In talking to one of my old professor acquaintances over there,  I was surprised to find they were *just* reaching 200 undergraduates.  When I was in computer science in the last 90’s, there were 250 students and rising every year.  it turns out that enrollment plummeted right after the dot-com bust and has only recently started recovering.   Both of Dean of Geology and the CS professor independently cited 2 major reasons:  high-school curriculum focus and perception of job market.

First they both talked about the need for outreach programs.  The dean of Geology and the CS department appear to desperately want to get kids in High School interested in CS or Geology (I’d say most of the schools of sciences would also agree).  We all know that high school programs across most states have been getting chopped for years.  Their evaluation is that the constant budget chopping has seriously cut back on all their curriculum; but in science/math it’s had a particularly chilling effect.  Why?  Because schools under budget constraints tend to focus only on core-courses that are required for state accreditation, and cut everything else.  Computer programs are nice, but are expensive investments from a per-student basis.  My own high school only had a programming course because one math teacher wanted to teach it pretty much pro-bono and the machines were the ones use to teach typing/word processing classes.   Many science programs have cut back to just basic chemistry and biology.  So it’s no wonder that students that have had lack-luster, or simply no, high school experiences with sciences like geology or computer science.  Even fewer are inspired to look into or consider them as possible career choices.  In recounting my own experience of being a rural Indiana student of a high school with only 500 students; my professor friend said I was most certainly a huge exception.  Most rural students never see the insides of a Purdue science lecture hall, let alone even apply.

If anecdotal evidence isn’t enough, the Dean of Geology said that many states and oil/geology companies are becoming so desperate for geologists that they are starting to create their own high-school curricula for geology programs and giving them to high-schools for free; if only they agree to teach it.  Some of these companies have even considered also sending along someone to teach it – for free.

Secondly, there is a perception that the job market isn’t good for sciences.  For CS, there is apparently still a lot of stigma from the dot-com explosion.  During a lot of the later 2000’s there were tons of out of work programmers, and even though the tide is completely turned around, the perception is that there is still a glut of programmers and/or that it’s a difficult job market.  In Geology, there is a perception that one will have to work for an ‘evil’ oil company; not knowing there are tons of fascinating other job opportunities doing surveying, soil research, water erosion, earthquake prediction/prevention, etc, etc, etc.

These two points were big factors in their take on the situation.   So as a member of this board, what should one advise?  I did some of my own research, and will write about THAT next time. 🙂

I haven’t written on this much, but felt that I’m in a good place to share my thoughts now that it’s been 2 years.

My dad had a stroke about 5am the day after Christmas in 2008.  When it happened, I fell back on a lot of the things I learned in CPE (Clinical Pastoral Education).  CPE is something almost all ministers of most every denomination are required to take during their training.  It wasn’t a bunch of classes; instead, it is primarily experience driven.   I think this quote about CPE from Wikipedia sums it up nicely:
“Learning in CPE is largely focused on the students’ development of the self. The students are introduced into encounter with persons in crisis. Out of an intense involvement with persons in need, and the feedback from peers and supervisors, students develop new awareness of themselves as persons and of the needs of those to whom they minister.”

So why is it they take this approach?  Because everyone experiences crisis differently.  The reality is that there really is no way to teach what you or others will actually feel or experience when another person dies, is informed of a terminal illness, is involved in an accident that will permanently affect you or a loved one, etc.  Yes, there is some minimal educational ground work that can be done to set expectations and understanding basic processes of how people deal with acute stress. (i.e. the 12 stages of grief)  But after that, it is a process of experiencing and participating – then taking time to reflect, connect what you learned, and process what happened based on your own beliefs and faith.  If one does this over time and with enough people, (hopefully) you learn enough about yourself, your faith, and how to be present to others so that one can actually be of service to others in those moments.  That’s what CPE (hopefully) does.

Unfortunately, this also means it’s limited by the individual student’s ability to cope with and process the experiences they have.  People must be in a healthy place themselves before they start.  Much of the screening (6+ months of screening to get into a 4 month program) is to judge some of that.  But the reality is that even when ‘ready’ you walk into CPE, it will expose all of your own unresolved emotional, family, political, relationship, faith and other issues.  This is ok so long as you are willing to properly deal with those emotional hits and not take them out or project them on others.  Your job is to listen to the person in crisis’ beliefs/needs/feelings/confusion and guide them to understanding of what it is they are experiencing and what their own lives are telling them.  It’s not about telling them what they should do/feel.  Some programs go so far as to even require their students simply reflect what the person is saying/feeling and do not allow them to even ask questions. (try THAT as a listening exercise with someone at some point).

So to that end, here are some things I learned (or re-learned) and probably are good to keep in mind if you or a loved one gets seriously or fatally injured.  This is mostly true for the first few hours of the event:

1. You will (all) be in a surreal state – You and everyone involved (save the hospital staff) will experience everything in a surreal state of adrenaline, grogginess (if at a weird time of day), and emotions that can be anything from fear/terror, anger, shock, disbelief, or even ambivalence. Your internal state will be in such a state that you’ve likely never felt it before both physically and mentally. But what will you feel exactly?  There are no rules and no two people will be the same – in fact, in different crises, the same person will likely experience it differently each time.  THIS IS ALL NORMAL.  Outside of obvious self-/other-/ or property destructive behavior – simply let everyone react as they are doing and tell yourself that’s ok.

In these moments, folks will react in the way their psyche and bodies need or dictate.  It will likely be strange and you’ll see sides of folks you likely never have – but again that’s ok and to be expected.  The only key is that you don’t try to force yourself or others into a particular response.  Don’t tell yourself or others that their crying needs to stop, or others must do a particular thing or act a certain way, etc.  As long as the behavior isn’t causing harm or getting in the way of decisions that need to be made in those moments – it is probably better to let it run its course.  It is the time to respect and let those things happen for everyone there.  If one person starts monopolizing interaction, or breaking into behavior that is utterly disruptive or combative, then you *might* calmly ask them what they need next (ex: asking if they’d like to go somewhere quiet, or just sit down, or hold the loved ones hand, etc).

Severe grief, destructive behavior, or completely disruptive/domineering behavior that is trying to force others into courses of action/disparaging/etc should not be allowed if it’s severely impacting others. The best answer for that behavior is to gently remove them from the immediate vicinity and have them speak their mind to good listener.  Most of the time this behavior comes from trying to take control of a situation that hurts that they cannot be in control of.

Here’s some common things people might experience/fall into.  But expect people to vacillate between several of them:

• Shock – babbling nonsensical things, fixation on details that aren’t important.  Some will just sit and cry, or waver between crying, disbelief, and back to crying.
• Emotional shutdown – the person just shuts down and may sit with a blank stare or walk out of the room, sometimes right in the middle when something huge is happening.
• Attempting to take control of the situation or become screaming angry – some people will react by trying to take control of what’s going on.  They’ll ask all sorts of questions of the staff/doctors or even get combative.  However, as long as they aren’t getting in the way of the doctor’s work – then this is ok.  The doctors are usually good about telling someone they need to shut up or leave if its interfering with their work.

2. Time no longer exists – You’re likely in the states mentioned above – and the normal way we experience time will be gone. Minutes might pass like hours, or if there is a lot of activity, you might experience 2 hours in the blink of an eye.  When you’re all said and done, you’ll be completely outside your normal perception of time.  Many people walk outside and realize half a day has passed.  Or that it’s now morning, or night.  This is why it’s ok to let people do much of what they do – because they don’t realize they’re in these strange states for as long/short as they are.  Again, all perfectly normal.
In that situation, if it’s clear that the situation will go on over hours, it’s time to be attentive to yourselves/each other.  Give each other permission as the situation allows to go rest in shifts, to eat, to get a shower, etc.  Nobody will want to leave at first, but it is absolutely essential. You can’t be there for the other person and process things in a healthy way yourself if you’re constantly in alert mode.  Severely exhausted people make worse decisions and are less emotionally capable of dealing with crises.  Offer to take turns sitting watch for each other. Sometimes the best thing to do is give others permission by example, “Bob, I really need to eat.  Please could you stay here and watch until X o’clock and I’ll do so for you after.”

3.You’ll shut out what most other people are saying – especially your family/siblings/close ones –  Even if you are really trying to listen to others, in the heights of crisis – you simply are in an altered state and will unlikely be able to process meaning/intent from words properly.  This is a good way to see where people are – because in these moments, all shields are down and people are responding with the raw guts of what they are feeling – not with their rationality intact.  Don’t get upset if someone screams at you, or breaks down in response to a simple question.

4.  You won’t know what to do – both during, and right after, you might feel like you want to run away.  You’ll feel like no matter what, you have to stay even though you can’t do anything.  You’ll feel helpless.  You’ll want everything back to normal.  You’ll just want the person back the way things were. You’ll be scared of what’s supposed to happen next.  You’ll be angry at doctors, the person in crisis, a sibling.  These are all normal things to happen; so don’t take them personally (or try to take them out on each other if you’re the one experiencing them).  Do, however, take note of them for later processing.  These feelings will all have to get sorted out in good time.  That is exactly what 1/2 of grieving loss is.  Don’t expect to be able to deal with it all right then; but don’t bury it all either.  Healing is the process of going through all those issues that came up – and it takes far longer to talk them out than it does to have them come up.

5. You are in trauma yourself! – When a loved one has an accident, or is rushed to the hospital, or is going through emergency surgery/etc, recognize that you will be kind of in a state of ongoing trauma yourself too.  Just like hard exercise creates tiny tears in your muscles, you are experiencing the ripping of your emotions and mental reality as the event is happening.  Sometimes it feels like waves of strange new reality or change just flowing over you, or perhaps the crumbling of things you held as true and dear.  This will go on until the situation stabilizes enough (person is stabilized physically, surgery is over, etc) that the outcome is known (they’ll live/die/etc).
While it’s going on, you’ll likely be left with tons of questions: what does this mean?  what will happen now?  what if they don’t get better?  what can I do? etc.  Sometimes it might be regrets.  These thoughts/questions very likely will unseat you – because they’re likely challenging the things you’ve known/loved a long time (my father’s always been there since the day I was born, what will life be like without him?).  Recognize this is normal and don’t try too much to bottle them up, or go crazy trying to answer them or acting out.  Just know these things WILL all get sorted out in time, and that there is no problem that cannot be overcome or dealt with given enough time and the help of others.  However, in the moment, you are experiencing trauma yourself – so be gentle with yourself and don’t try to force things.

6.  Fatigue will set in.  You’re in a massively heightened state of internal stress/activity that will feel like running a marathon; and you’ll get very tired without knowing why.  Be sure to be attentive to yourself and your own needs as time allows or you are setting yourself up for a physical collapse/emotional breakdown in which you’ll be no good to others or yourself.

7. These all apply to the person experiencing the trauma as well!  Don’t forget to realize/address these same things with the person undergoing the event.  They’re in a brand new situation in their life and perhaps experiencing their own mortality.  Maybe for the first time in their lives.  They might even know this is their last moments of life.  Talk to the person as if they are a real person – not some kind of little kid.  You might have to speak loudly and clearly, but address them as you would anyone else.

Probably the best lesson I’ve learned out of this was:
Dealing with loved ones and family is messy.  It isn’t efficient or the ‘best’ way to deal with things.  It is also essentially the lesson of what love is.

More in another post about steps we can take before the inevitable crises of life happen.

Despite all the predictions it was going to be a slam-dunk, California didn’t get the legalization of marijuana passed on their last ballot – and by a good margin.  Someone asked for the reason I wouldn’t vote for it if a similar bill if it came up here in Oregon and I decided to respond.  Personally, I could care less about the legalization/non-legalization of weed for the most part.  I find dedicating yourself to it’s cause seems kinda juvenile to me – but hey – to each their own.  But on to the arguments I hear most often:

Argument #1. “Everyone is smoking it – marijuana should just be legalized already”
Well, I don’t smoke marijuana. I thought it was a stupid way to blow $60+.  I got a lot more fun out of other things for the same price such as going to a concert or a great dinner out with friends. And just because everyone is smoking marijuana doesn’t mean that the practice should be legalized. Making that argument is like telling your mom that everyone else is jumping off a bridge so you’ll be joining them. This argument feels more like a peer-pressure play than making a fact based, logical decision based on empirical data.

Argument #2. “Marijuana has all kinds of medicinal uses”
To this argument, I would say you should petition to get it legally approved and regulated by the FDA as a helpful drug. I’d probably support that position. By claiming that it is a powerfully helpful drug AND safe for lifelong recreational use doesn’t seem to hold in common experience. No other substance has the precedent of being a powerful medicinal agent AND being totally safe for daily recreational use.  You could make the same arguments about alcohol; but it is also frequently cited by the legalization crowd as worse than marijuana (see next item). I find the argument that smoking marijuana is safe for lifelong recreational use and at the same time be a powerfully helpful drug to be hard to swallow without more evidence. I’d like the FDA to decide which category it should fall in.

Argument #3: “Alcohol is worse, and it’s legal!”
This bill for the legalization of marijuana doesn’t have anything to do with the legal/moral/ethical standing of alcohol (which has it’s own problems). Legalization of marijuana would not change anything about alcohol use, so the argument is kind of invalid.  Go pass a law to outlaw alcohol if you feel that strongly.  There’s nothing in this argument that shows how marijuana smoking is a benefit to our society other than kind of pointing at the neighbors (alcohol) and saying “Well, THEY’RE doing it”.
Now that I’m in my late 30’s I’ve personally seen too many of my own friend’s lives apparently affected negatively by long-term smoking. I had the experience at the place of my work that several coworkers ask what was wrong with the two guys who are regular smokers during/after meetings because they are pretty slow on the uptake and becoming more so each year. This slowness is becoming an issue for their employment. These effects might just be a correlation but behavioral and addiction medicine psychologist do see higher correlations of marital and personal problems from regular users. Just check out any of Dr. Drew’s comments about this from Loveline on the matter.
Rarely is it a good idea to escape into a substance to deal with stress or issues in your life.  It often leads to you not actually learning how to deal with them in a constructive, adult way.  The result is that years down the road you may find yourself less developed/mature than others in your age group.

Argument #4: “Isn’t it a terrible/social justice problem that so many (African-American) people are in jail because of casual use? It should not be a crime to casually smoke.”
Yes, the problem of jails full of people who have not committed any crime other than smoking joints is problematic; but it doesn’t logically follow that we should legalize something. What about speeding? Lots of people get those tickets – but we don’t legalize that. I’d support minimally criminalizing it like making it a misdemeanor with a hefty fine/ticket – but the argument of legalization is still falling short. Tickets/fines would raise money – which brings us to:

Argument #5: “Legalization and taxation will raise much needed money for California”
Almost every major study of the financial effects of proposed legalization/taxation plans show that the amounts raised would be far too small to make any significant difference to the California budget. California’s budget is in the top 10 LARGEST budget in the WORLD. Its budget is bigger than most countries. I think it’s safe to say that California’s budget problems are not caused by the non-legalization of marijuana.
I actually believe that it would end up COSTING more money to legalize (at least initially) because you’ll likely have all kinds of new legal problems. Is marijuana a drug that needs FDA testing/regulation?  If it’s a drug, then can it be grown and sold by anyone for recreational use?  Do medical plans need to cover it? What are the covered conditions? Are there new government agencies that need to be staffed to regulate growth/distribution/safety? I’ll argue there will be lawsuits from these issues that might take years and tons of money to work out.

Argument #6. “We’d all be better if we could just smoke up baby. Peace and love will surely follow for everyone!”
Reduced capacity does not solve problems. Lighting up a dried weed and inhaling chemicals into your body has not scientifically been proven as a good way to deal with problems. That argument makes as much sense as drinking fermented corn squeezings to deal with marital problems.

I could honestly care less about marijuana legalization but I find almost all the arguments in favor to be logically flawed or do not make a good case for why it SHOULD be legalized. I just don’t see how legalization really adds something valuable, beautiful, and noble to our society.

I found this article (20 Reasons Why Musicians Get Stuck at the Local or Regional Level) to be an interesting analysis of band careers in the music industry.  But I also find that some of the advice is very good for any career.

1. Poorly-defined goals – It’s a good idea to sit down and state where you want to be in 5 years about every 6 months or so.  It doesn’t have to be earth-shattering (or it could!); but if you aren’t headed towards something – then you’re being driven by whatever current is coming your way.  Often those currents lead to stagnation, growing irrelevance – then unemployment with a huge hill of getting back on track to climb while you’re unemployed.  You should regularly be preparing yourself for the next trends/market needs and you do that in the job you have today.  Just sitting around waiting for something to happen is a recipe for nothing to happen.

2. Band members with different goals – If you’re married, it’s a *really* good idea to talk out your life and career goals with each other.  This could be touchy, but if you’re not both on the same page/understand each other – then they can’t help you and vice versa.  It’s also good to talk about where career begins/ends and the relationship takes precedence.  If you’re on very different pages (i.e. my career is my life and you’re along for the ride); then you’re likely headed for a world of pain.  Hopefully you did this before getting married – right?

3. Lack of musical focus – I started work as a generalist and thought that as long as I’m good at a number of programming technologies/languages then I’ll do well.  While somewhat true, I found the opposite is more true in reality.  People make far more money, want to be hired by more people, and are generally make a much larger impact when they have specialized in a particular technology.  Unfortunately, if you’re a generalist, you can be replaced by just about anyone.  Even if you are a great performer – there is less to recommend you when the ax must fall.  Now don’t confuse this with being inflexible – this is not that.  Instead, this means becoming an expert at a particular focus while the iron is hot; and constantly learning new things to position yourself for those hot-spots.  But get crazy good at them – if you’re just so-so, there’s a lot of other folks in that boat too.  Experts are hard to find and command great salaries and working conditions.  If you’re regularly paying attention to new hot-spots and re-adjusting your path to follow trends – then you won’t have to worry much about stagnating in a technology that’s going away.  In short, being “A jack of all trades and master of none” will get you nowhere but the bottom-feeding of your profession.

4. Ineffective artist management, or not listening to good management – strive to find people that have succeeded in your field; or managers that are known for growing their employees.  Then listen to them.  Try to model these people’s attitudes and work ethic and you’ll also do well.

5.  Poor networking skills -Are you regularly reaching out to people in your industry?  Even occasionally?  Having lunches with people from different departments or companies?  Making friends around your industry?  Going to conferences related to your field?  You don’t have to be a schmoozer or used car salesman, but you should regularly be growing your contacts or keeping up with the new things your friends/acquaintances are working on.  This is a great way to become more effective in your current job – or have links to another job if yours fails.  You can’t wait till your unemployed to do this – by then it’s too late.  You get to meet and befriend far more people while employed than when unemployed.  Trying to build a network from scratch while unemployed is a huge disadvantage – because they sort of know you’re talking to them to land a job. If you have work; then it’s all about the tech/person/connection.

6. Working with people who don’t have contacts in the industry at the next level – if you’re topped out where you’re at or with the people you work with – you are going to remain where you are.  If you want to do certain things with your career, you need to align yourself with those folks that are the gateways to those paths.  This is just good career management.  Early on, I joined groups that had many senior people that I could learn from and grow by watching – this helped me tremendously.  I got access to working on parts of major projects.  Being the biggest fish in the pond is not really a good place to be long-term; because others will come along and unseat you while you’re getting stagnant.

7. Signing with a label with inadequate funding or poor distribution – don’t join companies that are underfunded, are forcing extra hours, or have folks going without pay.  The dot-com days are OVER.  Almost nobody makes millions overnight anymore.  Yes, it can be done – but the techniques of starting a startup have changed dramatically.  They should have a working demo and customers lined up before they even secure funding and start.  If they are in money problems – the are signs that they are in real trouble. Probably 10-20% of companies in this situation will actually turn it around – most will not.  I know of one guy that’s been at 80% salary and 6 day a week situation for 2 years now; and no end in sight.  You want a company that will grow you; not one that will suck your will to live and leave you a husk with nothing left to give to a new job when they go belly-up or you quit.

8. Lack of a live following – Have you been recognized by those in your field for some contribution?  Awards and recommendations are important things to collect.  Don’t be an attention/award whore – you’ll come off like a used car salesman and everyone will see through it.  But honest awards for excellent deliveries are very important.  Yeah, you’ll need to put in 20-50% more effort; but you should be getting 1-2 of these every couple of years.  If you’re not – then you won’t have as good of resume as the next guy.

9. Dated musical style – You are keeping up with the trends in your field right?  Reading magazines, reading websites/forums on your field, etc.  If you’re a coder, you learn new languages every now and again in your spare time – or code things up in your free time as well.  Keeping up with the trends is how you stay relevant and employable.  In almost no field can you just sit around and expect to stay employed with a skill set you last developed 10 or even 5 years ago.  I make a habit of regularly looking at the jobs pages for companies in my field.  What technologies/skill sets are they looking for?  Does my resume have those?  If not, how do I get the skills those people need?  This helps you do #1 and #3 better – by spotting trends and figuring out which ones you like/want to go for.

10. Bowing to peer or family pressure not to change – Not as relevant for careers; but is a good point.   You should be growing in your field – which means change.  Don’t think that you’re ever ‘done’ at some point and can just relax and do nothing from here on out. That works for 6mo to 2 years in software, then you’re in real trouble that takes 2x the effort to get out of.  And while you’re trying to regain relevance, you’ll be at the top of the chopping list if the economy goes south.

11. Drug or alcohol issues – yep – same is bad for your career too.  It’s hard enough to keep employeed without an extra monkey on your back.  I got my first internship as a sophomore in college (this was pretty unheard of usually) because their first pick failed a drug test.  This started my career a year earlier than everyone else and I thank that guy to this day.

12.  Spouse / child obligations – you need to get it clear in your head what comes first for you – family, spouse, or career.  You WILL have to choose – and you should be upfront an honest not only with yourself – but with those in your life too.

13. Impossible to work with – This applies to both mean and nice people.  Obviously, if you’re the type of person that doesn’t mind stomping on others to get to your goals – you’re likely a person that others find hard to work with.  This is not good for a long-term career path.  Like it or not, it’s NOT just about the results.  Long-term career success is EQUALLY about helping and growing those around you.  If you’re in the habit of irking off, destroying, alienating, back-stabing, bad-mouthing, or injuring in any way the folks that helped you get to your goal, coworkers, boss, or even those that stood in your way – attitudes towards you will shift and people will not want to work with you.  In fact, folks will start subtly putting roadblocks in your path.  If you’re the kind of person that desires everyone to be successful, gives good feedback, shares success, then others will enjoy working with you and you’ll attract success.
Being impossible to work can also apply to nice people too.  If you bend over backwards so much you don’t get your own work done,  having a personal/philosophical/religious/gender, race, ecological, or other bias or agenda that is an absolute/used to beat others with, if you can’t make decisions on your own and take responsibility for them, if you demand that things be your way in order to proceed and gripe, sabotage, and stonewall if it doesn’t go your way, or a host of other ‘in-flexibilities’.  While this doesn’t mean you don’t have principles; it should mean you can negotiate with tact, style, and genuine listening and consideration for the facts.  Intel has a value called “Disagree and commit” – you state why you disagree with the direction, but you publicly commit yourself to proceeding with the majority wish without backstabbing or sabotaging.  In extreme cases if you can’t compromise your principles (such as a moral/ethical problems), you should be able to state yourself clearly, calmly, and directly to the situation and say why you can’t agree – accepting you may need to leave such an organization.
Another trap is if you’re constantly switching jobs every 6 months or you don’t stick around until projects are completed – this also starts counting against you.  Employers know it takes an investment of time and money to train someone – they expect that investment in you to pay off for them.  If they see you have a history of not sticking around – they will be unlikely to make that investment to hire you.  We’ve all had terrible jobs, but you need to at least produce some positive output from the position before you leave.  If you leave in a huff and don’t accomplish anything in the position – you’ll risk come off sounding like you might be a prima-donna when you interview for the next job.

14.  Not understanding how the industry works – You have to know how the game is played in order to move the right pieces.  This is also true of knowing how a company works.  Learn what a successful employee looks like to the company you’re working for/want to work for, when are the right times to move and not burn bridges, what the promotion criteria is, etc.  This is not being a brown-noser or sell-out – they are essential skills if you want to remain employed at a company.  It’s no different than a relationship with a significant other – you both have expectations – it’s good to make sure they match up for both you and them.  Go a step further and also learn how to spot the bad: learn to spot the little signs that projects are about to get canceled, spot ahead of time that people are about to be laid off, what happens when groups get re-orged, etc so you are out of the way if the train is about to crash.  There are almost always signs – having a good network of older workers at your company helps you spot the signs.