Although we get a lot them, they mostly follow a tediously boring and predictable, template-like pattern. Sometimes people will get creative and add creative touches but for the most part they all follow a predictable, template-like pattern.
All of that changed for us last week when we got this from E—-:
Please choose from the following responses as I’m trying to plan my future. Feel free to use the attached documents to assist you in the decision making process. Thank you for your time.
E—-
E—-, we love your work. You start Monday, please bring your own pencil.
E—-, although we enjoyed reviewing your materials, we don’t have anything available at this time, we’ll be in touch as soon as something opens up.
E—-, thank you for your interest in our company, we’ll get back to you if we get desperate.
I promised a prize, so here you go. I am not an artist. While that fact has been made painfully obvious to you don’t let it cloud your judgment of my creativity. In the drawing you might notice that I’m not wearing clothes. If you decide to bring me in for an interview I can assure you I will be dressed appropriately.
The drawing was ugly enough to make us smile and if I am one to judge (I am), this resume stands out on so many levels. Unfortunately for us, we had to choose the 2nd option so you’re welcome to make our misfortune work for you, although I can’t promise we won’t try to win him back later.
Your mileage may vary but some of the themes in this slideshow “happiness as your business model” resonate so deeply with me it literally brought tears to my eyes.
In my book, anything strong enough to provoke such a reaction should not be brushed off quickly. Read it and weep.
The cell is the basic unit of the human body. Each cell is made up of unique little parts that make it run do and do what it needs to do. Cells then group together to form organs, which in turn group together to form organ systems. This is what makes up the human being and everything else that goes along with being one: going to work, paying taxes, not slamming the jerk that just cut you off (also known as living everyday as a human being).
We all in turn exist in a world with other humans and as the relationship between cells progresses to the level of human interaction, an even more complex and varied group of connections begin to unfold (and if you want to get some really interesting perspectives, you could try to include our relationship with the rest of the galaxy, universe, etc.. No word yet on how far out you can go though).
Still, at it’s most basic form, everything is good for something. A wiser man than I currently am put it like this: “There’s an opportune time to do things, a right time for everything on the earth.”
That is what being useful is all about: doing the right thing at the right time. For example, it’s not cool if my kidneys decide to take a short break from filtering liquids because everything else is working just fine. Just like it’s not cool if I don’t come through and we’re not able to meet the deadline or see the whole show. When that happens, it means something, somewhere is not working as it should and needs to be fixed. The human body has all sorts of fascinating mechanisms built in to anticipate and correct almost anything that comes it’s way. The human mind on the other hand has a much more complicated system of handling these situations and the results are sometimes entertaining when the wrong solution is implemented because the right problem wasn’t correctly identified in the first place (other times, it’s just plain disaster).
Tradition* has figured out a lot of that stuff for us, but thankfully, there’s still some excitement considering how we can’t seem to get it right a lot of the time. To be fair, to those working with tech (especially the Internet), a serious obstacle to getting it right is the advances and improvements that we can’t stop ourselves from producing on an alarmingly regular basis. A decade ago, modems that are now a part of distant memories were a very real part of the Internet experience. And even with much faster connections today, I don’t think you could crawl the Internet for a week and come close to scraping the bottom (and that’s assuming you’re looking through just the good stuff. But I digress**).
It’s not all about gloriously solving world problems, building castles in the sky, or taking over the world, although the principles of being useful still apply there. Being useful is about being a funny video if you’re supposed to be a funny video, making kick-ass apps if that’s what you do or enjoying the privilege of playing catch with your son.
That is how to take over the world.
Any thoughts? Is this a useful/good idea at all or is it more romantic and hairy-eyed? Tell me what you think in the comments section.
* This is the definition of tradition I like best: customs, beliefs and practices, accumulated through the history of their development, which form the views and ways of a society (link here)
** To digress even further, see the section on creativity in Only Good News from the Dilbert Blog
