Very neat variation on the “I’m currently looking for work” post.

If you're not allowed to even publish your resume or have a LinkedIn account, then quitting and writing such a post must be a great relief.

I find this compelling, alongside the fact ChromeBooks are well placed in retail shops and usually the cheapest things you can buy. They are also ubiquitous in elementary schools. This is more about ChromeBooks than linux.

Add the fact that all my kids hate their school chromebooks.... maybe this isn't such great news for Linux afterall.

School Chromebooks are usually locked down (i.e. full of spyware) and poorly maintained. It's no wonder that children dislike them.

For me the beauty of idlewords's own blog (https://idlewords.com/) is that it's so good it makes me want to write.

Similarly, I find Graham's writing so bad that it also makes me want to write.

(note: idlewords, if you see this, your blog is misbehaving at the moment. For example, PHP is complaining bitterly on this page right now: https://idlewords.com/2018/10/ )

My blog is static files. It preserves a moment in time when PHP was complaining, forever.

Damn that’s a fine coinage. According-to-Royle.

Am I wrong to assume police already have access to their area’s database of driver’s license photos?

Never mind mugshots - I think they already have access to most people’s faces, even those that have never been arrested.

I think NSA has hacked the van (without the van operators realizing) and so it’s both a sewer inspection van and an NSA surveillance van at the same time.

There is no hack. The system sends data to NSA by design.

This essay really reminds me of someone I know who's integrity and impulse control has changed dramatically over the last 2 years coinciding with their descent into crushing poverty (e.g., phones and internet and electricity often cut off, forced to use the local food bank, narrowly avoided eviction notices, etc).

Perhaps Elon is experiencing a degree of stress in his life that most people just cannot fathom - I am certain this other person I know is. I can imagine that extreme affluence and fame might also be as stressful as dire poverty. I believe extreme stress negatively affects integrity and impulse control.

I enjoyed the article very very much but I accidentally completed a BFA in creative writing in my youth so my taste in writing might be a bit off.

Knowing nothing about creative writing, I too enjoyed the article very much.

I can’t remember if it’s against HN rules to implore people to read the actual article.

The reason he became good at selling (according to the article) is because he changed his attitude despite reading the sales scripts verbatim both before and after his attitude adjustment.

It’s an interesting and probably helpful lesson for the startup hustlers here on HN if they can make it through this admittedly long essay.

> despite reading the sales scripts verbatim both before and after his attitude adjustment

The article states that he was fired because he did not read the script he was required to read.

The article states that he was fired because the company had financial problems, and not reading the required stuff was used as an excuse

The point is he did not read the scripts verbatim as you claimed.

(Wasn't me claiming that, read usernames)

Yeah, but you are, at least seemingly, missing the point: the scripts he was referring to in context weren't the legal disclosures but the sales tricks that were handed to them to use. He is pointing out that the 'elite' saleswoman wasn't better at strategy or sales tricks, but was effective because she made them feel good.

The article was also written by someone who is not a reliable narrator.

The type of person who would skip the legally required stuff while working as a telemarketer is exactly the kind of person who'd tell you he got fired for a "technicality", while he was actually fired because he was breaking the law and lying to customers.

Especially considering that even the unreliable narrator himself admits he was one of the first ones to be fired - why would you fire the best employee first if it wasn’t for cause?

It is against the rules to imply that the person you are responding to hasn’t read the article, but I don’t think it is against the rules to implore the community to read it, generally.

Also just to be more explicit, people can (should) read the article and decide. It is not super long and it is engagingly written. I think the author is kind mythologizing his job… there’s clearly a fraud component to how he got better, and a skill improvement component. It isn’t obvious which contributed more from his telling, and given that his telling is probably inclined to put him in a good light, I lean toward the fraud.