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[Geoffrey S. Mendelson]

On Mon, Mar 24, 2008 at 07:20:16AM -0500, Lionel Peterson wrote:

> I'm sure he felt that including his "failure" would be a strike
> against him in the eyes of most HR screeners. Personally I would find it
> interesting, but politics is a very touchy subject... If he's not
> careful, such a claim could make him look like a political "wacko" and
> put off potential employers...


No, IMHO it's the run, not the failure that would have doomed him.
For some reason I have never understood, companies want you forever.
Even if you are taking a two week contract to come in fix something
they will use once and discard and never want again. 

They would simply be afraid that sometime in the future, he would quit
his job and run for congress again. 

Companies here go even further, the rich ones require you to take
psychometric tests. Besides the usual IQ tests, etc, the tests are
designed to weed out people who do not follow the norms. If you are
extremely creative, or independent, you are give a low score and not
hired. The cheaper companies use graphologists. 

Thanks to someone who commented upon a posting in my blog, I have been
watching Eureka. In the pilot, the explanation of the town is that Einstein
recognized that science would be the best defense (my paraphrasing), so
Eureka was founded as a haven for scientists. 

As you watch the show you realize two things. The first is that in every
episode, the sheriff, who has a normal IQ (111), is the only really 
independent thinker and problem solver. The second is that all of the
scientists in Eureka are all very much the same. 

IMHO Einstein, or someone like him would not fit in. In one episode,
a scientist is called "the Einstein of Eureka", and the sheriff says,
"I would have thought that Einstein was the Einstein of Eureka".

That's why there are so many start-ups here. The only way people
who are talented, independent thinkers can get jobs is to start
a start-up. 

When I left Philly in 1996, it was a good time. It was the
first "high-tech" cluster in the U.S. (founded by Ben Franklin)
and IMHO was starting dissipate. 

Geoff.



-- 
Geoffrey S. Mendelson, Jerusalem, Israel gsm at mendelson.com  N3OWJ/4X1GM