We got links, oh yeah

Lately I've come upon a few sites or items that are more or less related to the subject matter of this site and that I think are worth sharing here.

The greatest discovery by far is The Daily WTF. Perhaps it's just that misery loves company, but I find it therapeutic to read about other dysfunctional projects and organizations. Morever, from hearing enough of these stories I start to think in terms of antipatterns, and from there to have a clearer idea how to tell what sorts of work environments I'd like to avoid. Familiarity with the antipatterns would also be helpful to managing one's own organization, but I don't expect ever to be in a position to manage anything other than myself. Still, I wish all those "pointy-haired bosses" out there would read sites like the Daily WTF, although almost without fail they lack the humility to do anything other than chuckle that their shop doesn't run like that.

I should warn that some but not all the posts require some technical expertise to get the "WTF". Even without the ones with code examples, hopefully that site keep you amused for hours on end like it does for me.

What led me to the WTF was a mention in the comments on this thread on Skills vs. Aptitude at Kevin Drum's Political Animal. Some of the comments on that thread's pretty interesting; so's the underlying post on Naked Capitalism about downsized financial workers struggling to make ends meet.

And of course this part got my attention:

Bond salesmen and traders are trying everything from bartending to real-estate sales to make insurance and tuition payments for their families, Maloney said.

``I know a few guys that started gambling, playing poker to pay the bills,'' he said. ``Especially ex-traders.''

So that's why the $1-3 no-limit games are tougher these days.

As to the issue of transferable skills, I've always thought that the managers and organizations who value them most are the ones with the self-confidence not to worry that some hire will be unfairly judged "wrong" leading to the manager getting swept out the door too. In other words, it's a lot easier to CYA if you can point to a failed six-month search for an candidate whose resume exactly matches the list of 74 keywords you put in the job description. But good companies know that smart people can learn a variety of subject matter.

Maybe one day I'll work for a good company.

I have some more links about management and hiring that are interesting to me, but I think I'll share them at a later time.