Boosts and Job Searches

Hello world!

This week, I’ve been concentrating my efforts more than ever on ye olde job search. My hope is to find well-paying remote work that offers a nice slate of benefits. So, clearly, I’ve gone temporarily insane. Still, this is the dream for a reason.

We know that working remotely increases employee happiness by as much as 20%. Commutes and open office plans make workers unhappy. Go figure.

Meanwhile, shitty employers the country over are forcing their employees back to work in person, even when the majority don’t want to go.

Studies that employers use to justify this behavior are all productivity-based, too. That highlights the real problem: employers don’t give a flying fart about their workers, they just care about their own bottom lines.

They care about justifying their infrastructure, and they care about controlling their workers’ lives. After all, it’s hard to police someone who’s working at home. It’s harder to force remote workers to buy from the company store.

Gosh, remote workers might realize they have better things to do than talk about work: they might actually form stronger friendships, connect more with their families, and center their lives around a local god-damned community.

I don’t know where my search for remote work will end up, but I’m going to stick by it for the time being.

In the meantime, I’ve also been writing more.

Writing

I published a couple more articles this week, one of which was “boosted” by Medium! I’ve had a few boosts in the past, and it’s always amazing how sharply it increases my readership numbers.

This is the article in question:

• Better Than Bing: A Search Engine That Will Change the World

  • Tired of searching for something only to get advertisements and duplicates? Stract is there for you.

The funniest thing for me is that this was just a dinky little tech-news piece I wrote because I find this sort of thing interesting and I like supporting open-source initiatives. I never expected it to bloom into a high-paying article.

Meanwhile, pieces that I really care about like this one don’t get enough love:

• How Capitalism’s Emphasis on Growth Will Destroy the Planet (and How to Stop It)

  • Part One: Introduction to Capitalism and Sustainability

I’ve been wanting to tackle some economics content for a while, and in this series I aim to do just that. Though I’m certain that writing the series will be a slow process.

Thanks for reading Halvorson Times! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

Other writing news

I’m working on chapter 18 of my novel right now. Not feeling the fiction-writer vibes too hard these days. I’ve said it before, but I write fiction when I’m happy, content, and safe. It’s a lot harder for me to write fiction when I’m busy and stressed.

Still, I’m uncovering some cool concepts.

I had a great chat with some friends over at Round Table Writers this last week about “supermotivation” in characters: that motivation which exists behind all aspects of a character’s life, and which rarely (if ever) appears on the page. I’m trying to explore these concepts a little more, even as I continue to struggle with the hard work of plotting stories and maintaining motivation for them through that process.

Thank you for reading Halvorson Times. This post is public, so feel free to share it.

My other writing efforts are all aimed at school. The MLIS degree takes a fair amount of juice, especially in my role as editor-in-chief of the Student Research Journal. I am very excited about the PKM and Zettelkasten work that I’m doing, though. And I’m looking forward to studying and implementing more mnemonic techniques in the near future.

Other projects

I’ve got another video for you in my series that’s based around the work I’m doing for my MLIS classwork this semester. Please consider liking and subscribing to our YouTube channel!

You can also find our account mirrored on PeerTube if you prefer to avoid YouTube’s crummy advertising nonsense.

Alright, well, that’s all for this week, folks! I’ve got to turn in some assignments and plan the next phase of my coursework.

So, until next time… go easy! And, if you can’t go easy, just go as easy as you can. <3