Headhunters

Today I got called by a headhunter.

I have to say that this is really cool. It has actually been on my list of things to do in life (and I had no idea how I was going to pull it off (start up a company, hire a headhunter and have them call me?)

Do headhunters read blogs? Or maybe better stated, do they do web searches (including blog searches) before calling someone?

Would someone really hire me after reading my blog? (Does my boss read my blog? I expect I will find out after this post.) I have not always been so nice to my company in my blog, but I feel that I have always tried to be honest, and reflect my opinions.

I would hire me (OK maybe not for the position they are currently looking to fill, I am not sure I am qualified for it) Heck if I had the right job for Scoble or Mini-Microsoft (and had the money) I would try to hire them. Heck Scoble went ahead and listed faults with his new company before his official first day. That takes guts.

-- Andy

Rid-X (What is X?)

On TV lately there have been a number of ads for Rid-X (I have no idea what X stands for in this case), a product for septic tanks.

Why are we seeing ads like this? How many people are using septic tanks?

Now, I don't have any facts to back me up -- this is really just a guess.

Maybe the distant suburbs and exurbs don't use sewer systems. Since the design and layout of these places is so poor and inefficient (density is bad in their crazy mindset), running pipes for a sewer system wouldn't make sense. So now each person has to be involved in maintaining their own system (which would mean vast increases in non-point source pollution, but that is a subject for another day)

Of course maybe in the long run this is a good thing. Once all the developments in the exurbs and far out suburbs become uninhabitable (they are designed on the premise of cheap gas, which will not be around much longer), we will realize that it would have been a waste of money to build out a sewer system, for them.

Of course the government still wasted money on roads and other projects to support these soon to be wastelands. (And it is largely the government footing the bill, as a recent Washington Post article points out that developers skip out (default) on their obligations -- hopefully more on this soon)

Do We Really Want Gas Prices to go Down?

In my opinion -- No.

We need gas prices to continue to go up, so that people can make good decisions in relation to fuel efficiency.

If the prices of fuel were to start falling, people would go back to their old bad habits of buying fuel inefficient cars. This has happened multiple times. Each time gas goes up, fuel efficiency becomes more important: the gas shortages in the early 70s, the early 80s, and once again right now. When prices stabilize or go down, the interest goes down. In recent years the average fuel economy of cars in the US has gone down. Forget that technology has done great things to improve the efficiency of a car, people went for bigger (even though there is usually only one person in the car), faster (even though there is a speed limit, and even the most efficient of cars can travel that fast), and more powerful (even though all those SUVs I see in DC are never hauling tons of stuff like you see in commercials).

Keep prices going up and people will come around to making the right choices.

-- Andy

Want to Bring Gas Prices Down?

Get out of Iraq.

If gas prices are determined by supply and demand, and we no there is little we can do for supply -- the gross amount decreases every day. The difference would have to be made in demand.

While there are all sorts of ways to cut demand, one potential is in Iraq. The amount of fuel the military uses every day in Iraq (by the US military) is outrageous. OK. I admit I can't find the details online, but from a conversation I had with someone who would know, it seemed outrageous to me.

Of course how do you operate a military when fuel supply really becomes tight? I have no idea, but I hope someone is thinking about it.