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Hunter S. Thompson's brutally honest Canadian job request

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21–30 of 52 posts

Re: Hunter S. Thompson's brutally honest Canadian job request

#21
post #19

I don't know anything about Thompson as a person, so I'll refrain from judging. I'm only glad that I'm finally able to put a term to what I despise most about journalism in our country (U.S.), evidently the term is "Gonzo journalism." "Gonzo journalism tends to favor style over accuracy and often uses personal experiences and emotions to provide context for the topic or event being covered." --Wikipedia I don't care…

You're misunderstanding what gonzo journalism is. I encourage you to read some of Thompson's work.

Re: Hunter S. Thompson's brutally honest Canadian job request

#22
post #19

I don't know anything about Thompson as a person, so I'll refrain from judging. I'm only glad that I'm finally able to put a term to what I despise most about journalism in our country (U.S.), evidently the term is "Gonzo journalism." "Gonzo journalism tends to favor style over accuracy and often uses personal experiences and emotions to provide context for the topic or event being covered." --Wikipedia I don't care…

I've always been a big admirer of Hunter S. Thompson's style. His point was that there is no way you can separate the author from the story so you might as well go in whole-hog.

No author can give all the facts and "just the facts". They can't help but shape and spin a story by selecting what they deem important, leaving out the rest. Their choice of words determines how the reader views the subject.

I'd rather know what the person that wrote an article thought and felt - it's another important fact.

Re: Hunter S. Thompson's brutally honest Canadian job request

#23
post #19

I don't know anything about Thompson as a person, so I'll refrain from judging. I'm only glad that I'm finally able to put a term to what I despise most about journalism in our country (U.S.), evidently the term is "Gonzo journalism." "Gonzo journalism tends to favor style over accuracy and often uses personal experiences and emotions to provide context for the topic or event being covered." --Wikipedia I don't care…

If you're going to blame something for lots of problems, kindly learn what it is first.

You are king among the problems in the United States today. You hold opinions on things where you are grossly ignorant.

Re: Hunter S. Thompson's brutally honest Canadian job request

#24
post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

sarcasm? you really think the majority of HN users are startup founders?

No - but many of them have dreamed about getting jobs in vancouver

Sarcasm can be hard to interpret on the interwebs from strangers with no context. Clever response though!

Re: Hunter S. Thompson's brutally honest Canadian job request

#25
post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No - but many of them have dreamed about getting jobs in vancouver

One thing I've learned from my brief time on HN is that HNers don't like humor. I couldn't read your original comment, but I voted this up because this was a funny response.

On the contrary, I love a good joke! I think the problem is sometimes its difficult to differentiate sarcasm, trolling, and idiocy without knowing the person or vocal cues.

The OP wrote the comment on a new account with absolutely no history to guide me. What should be my default take?

Re: Hunter S. Thompson's brutally honest Canadian job request

#26
post #19

I don't know anything about Thompson as a person, so I'll refrain from judging. I'm only glad that I'm finally able to put a term to what I despise most about journalism in our country (U.S.), evidently the term is "Gonzo journalism." "Gonzo journalism tends to favor style over accuracy and often uses personal experiences and emotions to provide context for the topic or event being covered." --Wikipedia I don't care…

You're misunderstanding what gonzo journalism is. I encourage you to read some of Thompson's work.

If you're intending to follow this advice, don't start with Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. It's a great story, but doesn't really capture gonzo journalism. Gonzo, perhaps, but not journalism. Hell's Angels or Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail (1972) are much better starting points.

Re: Hunter S. Thompson's brutally honest Canadian job request

#27
post #25
post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One thing I've learned from my brief time on HN is that HNers don't like humor. I couldn't read your original comment, but I voted this up because this was a funny response.

On the contrary, I love a good joke! I think the problem is sometimes its difficult to differentiate sarcasm, trolling, and idiocy without knowing the person or vocal cues. The OP wrote the comment on a new account with absolutely no history to guide me. What should be my default take?

sorry - I create a new account each day. Too much traceable info online for the industry I work in.

Re: Hunter S. Thompson's brutally honest Canadian job request

#28
post #19

I don't know anything about Thompson as a person, so I'll refrain from judging. I'm only glad that I'm finally able to put a term to what I despise most about journalism in our country (U.S.), evidently the term is "Gonzo journalism." "Gonzo journalism tends to favor style over accuracy and often uses personal experiences and emotions to provide context for the topic or event being covered." --Wikipedia I don't care…

All news is biased and newspapers aren't only about news, so learning about the author that wrote that article or clearly seeing the bias (unmasked) gives you much more context than the simple facts.

Plus, gonzo journalism gives birth to some pretty entertaining articles.

Re: Hunter S. Thompson's brutally honest Canadian job request

#29
post #5

I think the letter is a great example of how I would like to see resume submissions / job requests written. It gets to the point pretty directly in "this is how I think I can help" and "here is the type of environment I am/am not interested in". Instead, a lot of time these days is wasted in "here is my resume", phone back and forth with some HR person, phone with the hiring person, if in person, then you may or may…

Of course it's possible -- people just don't do it, and I don't know why. I recently needed to bring someone on to take over the basics on a bunch of my web projects, because I'm overcommitted, as usual, and trying not to be. I tried a local resource first, and then I went to Craigslist, which has worked out well for me in the past. My ad was simple and direct; it spelled out what we were about, what we were looking…

Did you get many applications from people who hadn't read your instructions?

Re: Hunter S. Thompson's brutally honest Canadian job request

#30

I have always hated writing bullshit cover letters. Now I just write short, honest introductions. As an aside, should I make a plain text version of my resume and put it in the body of the email itself? Or is a pdf attachment enough? I figure the overhead of having to download and open the pdf could be overcome by putting the resume in the body itself. Thoughts?

Last resume I wrote was in html (not on a site, I'd just attach a html file). It served two purposes; gave people a chance to see what my html crafting was like, and allowed me to include a number of links to previous sites, projects etc

I've always included a pdf version, and I don't think I've ever submitted a resume in .doc format

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