Phil’s posterous

Mar 8

Accomplished older workers have fresh skills

I disagree with statements by Marilyn Geewax, NPR’s senior business editor, in Raising The Retirement Age: Can It Balance Budgets?, heard in the March 6, 2010, edition of Weekend Edition Sunday. I sent NPR these comments:

In last Sunday’s report, Marilyn Geewax noted that the unemployment rate for people over 55 is the highest it’s been in 60 years. She said that’s because jobs aren’t available to older workers. Later in the report, Ms. Geewax says corporations don’t need workers who were in school 40 or 50 years ago and younger workers have “fresher job skills.”

Ms. Geewax makes a common error. Consider, for example, technology jobs. Technology changes so quickly that there’s no way a worker will learn all they need in school. In fact, the most productive workers are those who can learn new skills on the job. Accomplished older workers excel at this — they’ve done it for many years.

It is ageist to stereotype workers by asserting that younger workers’ skills are fresher. Unfortunately, many hiring managers share Ms. Geewax’s misapprehension — and that’s part of why it’s so hard for older workers to get new jobs.

Filed under // ADEA ageism

Sep 13

These are not security questions

September 13, 2010

Online customers of the former Chevy Chase Bank are being redirected to the Capital One website this morning. But before they can access their bank information, Capital One is asking them to create new userids and passwords and to supply answers to what Capital One calls “security questions.”

Capital One explains the questions this way:

“Protecting your personal and account information is our highest priority. That's why we use multi-factor authentication - a security feature within Online Banking. You select three questions and then supply us with answers that only you know…”

But these are not answers that only you know. Capital One’s site requires the user to select from predefined questions such as the name of the best man at your wedding, the street you lived on in third grade, or the year your father was born. These are questions a user’s acquaintances might easily answer. Strangers could find many of these answers by searching newspaper archives or other public records.

Capital One should know better. There are many reports of well-known people (Sarah Palin is one) whose accounts were hacked by someone who knew or found the answers to supposed security questions.

Google also uses security questions, but they let you write your own.

In contrast, the old Chevy Chase authentication system was simple and very secure — by selecting letters which correspond to digits, the user would enter his or her PIN to login. Many computers are infected with malware such as keystoke logging software — Chevy Chase protected against keyloggers by presenting a different set of letters each time. While this sounds complicated, connecting to the old Chevy Chase website was quick and easy.

Capital One is asking their users to supply answers that are not secure — needlessly exposing their customers to greater risk of identity theft. This is not a good way to welcome Chevy Chase customers.

Filed under // authentication security

Feb 3

Hard to find good technology workers?

February 3, 2010

I am stunned on reading How Tech Became Cool Again in The New York Observer today. The “cross section of New York’s tech clique” whose discussion is the subject of this article apparently agree that there aren’t enough good technology workers in New York.

Jon Oringer said, “It’s hard to find programmers here.” Ben Lerer added, “I think it’s hard to find good people particularly, as the economy has gotten better and things have picked up. There’s so much competition for the best guys.”

Seriously?!? In a metropolitan area of nearly twenty million people and more than 400 colleges and universities? How are Jon, Ben, and the others looking? How do they define “best”?

In my experience, an outstanding technology worker is one who:

works hard and takes pride in his or her work
masters new technologies quickly
is a creative problem solver who will persist until a practical solution is implemented
is easy to work with.

A degree from an elite university is impressive, but actual accomplishments impress me more. Motivation is often more important than smarts.

The best performer is not necessarily someone with experience in a particular industry nor on a particular platform. We’re human — we learn and we adapt.

Can’t find enough good people? Call me — I’ll find as many as you want.

Oct 3

Leaves

October 3, 2009

They fall on the new driveway and become wet from rain;
Leaving their images after they dry and blow away.

(download)

Sep 18

Wide tweets or local?

September 18, 2009

I first wrote this in a September 10 email to the founder of Philtro. He said I had some good insights and encouraged me to add it to a blog or to start my own. Here it is:

I am sitting on my friend’s new patio. It’s of surprisingly beautiful concrete, poured just last week, colored and stamped to resemble paving stones. My friend is restoring an old house she bought in a “distressed sale” and she’s justifiably proud of how the work has progressed.

Shortly I will tweet, “I am sitting on the patio.”

To people who don’t know me, this will seem like pointless babble, perhaps mocking the current Verizon commercial. I will be poking fun at the ad, but I also will be making an inside joke and both complimenting and congratulating my friend on the success of her project. Those who know us will see the tweet and understand the joke and the congratulations. That’s why I will put my message on twitter instead of in an IM.

My point is to question the assumption in the Pear Analytics study that it is useful to attempt to categorize tweets as babble, conversation, news, and so on. My patio tweet will look like babble but will have value for me and my friends.

So I am suggesting a different categorization I hope will be more helpful — that is to note whether tweets are of interest to everyone (wide) or just to the tweeter’s friends and acquaintances (local). Unless you know a person, you generally won’t want to follow them if most of their tweets are local.

I see that Pear Analytics intends to invite users to categorize tweets in their next study. Involving users is a good idea and a great promotion! I’m guessing users will be much better (almost by definition) at judging whether a tweet has wide or local appeal than at whether it’s babble or something else.

The wide/local category wouldn’t have to replace the Pear Analytics classes — it could be defined in addition to them.