The Limits of Multi-tasking

Okay, y’all, so I’ve realized that attempting to crank out six in-depth pieces a week between Warp and Weft and GenMeh, plus do research for future pieces, hold down a full-time job (while hunting for another one to stave off impending unemployment) and make a gallant effort at pretending to have a buzzing social life might be stretching myself a little thin.

To that end, I’ve decided to occasionally cross-post W&W items to GenMeh as appropriate, primarily via a once-a-week wrap-up of what I’ve been up to over there vs. linking to individual stories as they go up. Of course, you’re invited to read W&W at the source, but you’ll also have the opportunity to check in here on Fridays to get a summary of recent posts.  Other than that, GenMeh’s content will remain as original, scintillating and regular as ever.

This week on Warp and Weft:

Estee Lauder, Meghan McCain And Why Image Is Everything

Starting today (Oct 16), Estee Lauder will be running a promotion offering women free social media makeovers at its cosmetics counters in Bloomingdale’s, Macy’s and Saks. Yes, complimentary make-up and photo sessions (complete with “minor retouching”) to ensure that one’s social networking  profile image is  picture perfect. Really? Seriously? F’reals? Has it come to this? Please do not make me long for the only recently bygone days of media consternation over high schoolerssexting risque snapshots and Captain Obvious career expert articles about the fact that a pictorial Facebook chronicle of your spring break escapades might come back to haunt you on a future job search. Read more…

Social Media Stats Are Sexy, But Lack Substance

It’s always a good day when you can break out a Mark Twain quote. In this case, his words (as borrowed from Benjamin Disraeli or another coiner) about lies, damned lies and statistics came to mind when a tweet from a well-known Gen Y career expert happened to catch my eye yesterday – 39% of people under age 35 check Twitter 10 times a day, it (and the ensuing retweeting frenzy) declared. That’s quite a statement, yes?  I’ve never been one to take grandiose declarations at face value, so I decided to do a little digging (and a little quick and dirty debunking if it came to that). Read more…

Free Career Advice for Katie and Kristy Barry

This weekend, I read a feature in the New York Times about Katie and Kristy Barry, twin sisters from Ohio who had moved to NYC to conquer the journalism world.  A year and half out of college and they’re working odd jobs, living in a two-bedroom apartment with their brother and another roommate and dreaming of scattering their CVs over Manhattan from a plane, inventing a lipstick case microphone and sighing over their need for a “life coach” to help them figure out what they should do with said lives. Their story is painfully typical and I suppose it speaks to a certain pervasive pop cultural ethos that as I was reading it, I was thinking about the potential for a new NBC dramedy. Let’s say an update on The Mary Tyler Moore Show, where there are two Marys, NYC replaces Minneapolis and making it after all isn’t a hat-tossing given but a painful (and often hilarious) weekly work-in-progress. Screenplay to come, of course. Read more…