via Caterina.net: Working hard is overrated.

I previously described on my blog one simple change I made to the hiring process at my last company. I asked all of our recruiters to give me all resumes of prospective employees with their name, gender, place of origin, and age blacked out. This simple change shocked me, because I found myself interviewing different-looking candidates – even though I was 100% convinced that I was not being biased in my resume selection process. If you’re screening resumes, or evaluating applicants to a startup school, I challenge you to adopt this procedure immediately, and report on the results.

Related anecdote: When I set up a blind submissions system for tinywords, the result was an almost immediate diversification in the number of authors. Instead of reading bylines first, we had to concentrate on the poetry itself. It turns out that even people with respected names can write bad poems -- and people with no name could write poems that would blow you away.

Now, many hires are made through recommendations and social networks, so the implicit bias problem won't go away overnight.

But I think I am going to implement something like this the next time I make a public call for job candidates or interns.

via Racism And Meritocracy | TechCrunch.

When you have a bunch of smart people with a broad enough charter, you will always get something good out of it. It's one of the best investments you could possibly make---but only if you chose to value it in terms of successes. If you chose to evaluate it in terms of how many times you failed, or times you could have succeeded and didn't, then you are bound to be unhappy. There will be some ideas that don't get caught in your cup. But that's not what the game is about. The game is what you catch, not what you spill.

Nathan Myhrvold, quoted in "Creation Myth," by Malcolm Gladwell, The New Yorker, May 16, 2011

Guests included Frogpond editor George Swede and economist Stephen Ziliak (the author of an essay called "Haiku Economics" in the most recent issue of Poetry) as well as myself.

I've been an admirer of George's haiku (and essays) for a long time, and I was impressed by the generosity of his approach to the form. It was also a nice chance to explain why it is I see a confluence between Twitter and texting and haiku.

Many listeners called, tweeted or e-mailed their own haiku in to the show, and George and I both read quite a few. It was one of the most enjoyable and pleasant radio experiences I've done yet.

What to make, how to make, what does making mean in our lives? What do we make, why do make, when are we making? How important is making? What is the life of a maker, what is the life of an artist, what’s left when you’re not making anything?

From Bidart's amazing 2006 poetry collection Star Dust, mentioned on Poetry.org and reviewed by Brian Miles on The Rumpus.

This is my living faith, an active faith, a faith of verbs: to question, explore, experiment, experience, walk, run, dance, play, eat, love, learn, dare, taste, touch, smell, listen, argue, speak, write, read, draw, provoke, emote, scream, sin, repent, cry, kneel, pray, bow, rise, stand, look, laugh, cajole, create, confront, confound, walk back, walk forward, circle, hide, and seek. To seek: to embrace the questions, be wary of answers.

Terry Tempest Williams, via A Word a Day

The pens and tongues of contumely were arrested. Mocking mouths were shut. Even righteous protestation hushed its clamor, as when, having striven manfully in single combat, a high-helmed champion is stricken by Jove's bolt and the two snarling armies stand at sudden gaze, astonished and bereft a moment of their rancor.

That was Time, reporting on the start of the Scopes monkey trial.

The New Yorker, where I found this, goes on to add:

This is also a good example of what's called a "blind lead," a sort of swooping down from above, and out of nowhere. It could have been about anything. Time's obituaries often began, "Death, as it must to all men, came last week to ..." They could have been about anyone.

The story, about the rivalry between Henry Luce and Harold Ross, is a great read.

Minscul Mini, originally uploaded by dtweney.

Neatly sidestepping any debates about spelling.

Happiest People Ever!

Google Maps Typography, by Rhett Dashwood.

Former Gawker editor and Awl founder Choire Sicha: "If I were going to be buying things now, I would be buying media properties. You get a lot of bang for your buck. People are making good, stable money, recession or no. Now is the time that people should be trying things and having fun."

Choire Sicha's Plea: Stay Away, Stupid People!: Matt Pressman | Vanity Fair.