Hiring on Bulrush Labs — Richard Tibbetts

Passive Personal Networking: How to Let Others Network for You

Sun, 11 Jul 2010 18:46:00 +0000

Talking to some friends recently, I’ve realized that many people don’t think of themselves as networkers. They are reluctant to get started playing that “game”. Even when they are highly capable engineers looking for a new position at a startup, they don’t want to “ask their friends to find them a job.”

Everyone knows that networking is the best way to get a job. Not everyone is prepared to attend “networking events”, hand out business cards to people they meet, or spend all their time maintaining professional relationships. If you are one of these people, I have good news. You can still benefit from networking to find jobs and other opportunities. Merely by being non-hostile, open to the possibility of networking, you can benefit from the networks of people you already know, your friends and coworkers.

The Lemons Meme in Software

Wed, 06 Jun 2007 07:52:00 +0000

A few weeks ago Bruce Schneier discovered a classic economics paper, “The Market for Lemons”. The paper describes the behavior of markets where sellers have detailed information about the products, particularly the quality of the products, that buyers do not have. It uses the example of used cars.

In these markets, the price buyers are willing to pay is defined by average quality of good. Buyers lack information, so can only assume they are going to get a product of average value. Unfortunately, this lower price drives the best products out of the market, because sellers (who know they have the best goods) won’t accept that price. When the best goods are removed from the market, the average quality drops, the price drops, and the next best goods are removed from the market. The conclusion is that in these markets quality falls until it matches the amount of information that buyers have.