I’m Amanda. I’ve got wide eyes, a smart mouth, and a MetroCard. And I’m not afraid to use them.
I spend a significant part of my week playing with numbers, looking at Hunch data, and saying the word “algorithm.”
Yep. Algorithm.
Today the latest Hunch infographic came out. It’s all about interesting correlations based on how thousands of people answer Teach Hunch About You (THAY) questions. If you’re into fun stuff, go ahead and check out the rest of it.
Oh, and here’s another look at some fun Hunch correlations. Fast Company’s design blog liked it.
At some point we’ve all joked, “Who do I have to blow to…?”
The good news is that we were only kidding. Right? The bad news it that the only time I’ve ever said this (totally joking – I swear), I was thinking about my career. Because I think joking about sexual favors should only apply to personal growth and self-actualization. And that is not a penis joke.
I get a lot of questions - on this blog and elsewhere - about working in NYC. And working as a writer is a whole other ball of wax. Or beast. Or you know, difficult thing to write about and even more difficult thing to do.
I’m learning as I go. But it’s been easier than it could have been, because I’ve been lucky to get good advice from different people. And Pay It Forward was not just Haley Joel Osment in his heyday, so…
I’m now writing about work for a new career blog for women called The Grindstone. (Yes, as in “nose to the…” That grindstone.)
I pitched three regular columns: Working It, about the ballsy things people have done to get ahead; The Job Slut, a look at my career-hopping freelance life; and Career Crib Sheet, a summary of career advice from popular memoirs.
Please support my efforts by checking out my posts and liking, leaving comments, etc., if you are so moved. This helps me help others. It also helps me pay my bills. Two very worthy causes, methinks.
And if you have anything you think I should write about, let me know. Here’s what I’ve covered so far:
Working It: How I Got Into Marketing
Career Crib Sheet: Tina Fey’s Bossypants
Sometimes You Feel Like A Job Slut
Working It: There’s A Fine Line Between Charming And Desperate
Gretchen Rubin, author of The Happiness Project, recently interviewed Mindy Kaling of The Office. I’m a huge Mindy Kaling/Kelly Kapoor fan and am hoping to ingratiate myself to her via Twitter someday. (Start small!)
Kaling had some great advice on keeping things in perspective:
Around Thanksgiving, I wrote about how the smell of pumpkin is surprisingly arousing to men. Because nothing says “Let’s get it on!” like overeating with your family.
A few weeks ago, YourTango asked if I’d like to review Eau Flirt, a pumpkin-scented perfume designed to make men go crazy. Note: Most of the men I come into contact with on a daily basis are halfway there already. It has nothing to do with me.
Despite my not being a girly girl or single - not to mention that I’m dating someone who dislikes perfume - I gave it a shot.
If you read the whole thing and leave a comment on the article, you may win a bottle of Eau Flirt of your own. Here’s an excerpt:
Harvey Prince put research into practice with Eau Flirt, a perfume with pumpkin and lavender notes (both proven olfactory aphrodisiacs) that “men subconsciously associate with happy, positive and stimulating memories.”
Since 2007, the company has created fragrances that tap into the psychology of scent. One perfume called Ageless Fantasy is supposed to make women who wear it smell younger via a combination of fruity scents people associate with childhood memories. Another called Chutzpah promises to imbue women with confidence—and presumably, keep them from being a putz—via whiffs of citrus and precious woods.
Well, bottle me up and call it Skeptic. I wasn’t convinced, but I couldn’t resist the chance to let my perfume do the flirting for me.
Read the rest here.
I work at the relationships site YourTango a few days a week. One of my duties is to go through all the unreleased books publishers send in hopes of a review or coverage.
Free books! Before anyone else can read them! It’s one of the perks of working in media.
Today I went through publishing house catalogs to choose new titles that are coming out in the next six months. I noted which ones I want. Did you know Joan Didion has a new book coming out, and Diane Keaton just wrote a memoir? And I can’t wait to get my itchy little hands on the Tina Fey and Mindy Kaling books.
But a lot of crappy books get sent to YourTango, too. Even when we don’t want them. I read so many press releases for formulaic chick-lit today that I’m pretty sure I could write my own terrible bestseller.
Me: I think I’ve got my bestseller right here. Here’s my book blurb:
Today on The Gloss, I wrote about my biggest regret - being a teacher.
I don’t lose sleep over the fact that I spent two years doing something I didn’t like. In the grand scheme of things, it’s a very short amount of time.
Teaching also taught me a lot about who I am and helped me honestly assess how privileged I’ve been. It gave me a taste of just how mismanaged a bureaucracy can be. It made be stronger and gave me a reason to move to NYC.
And if I ever have a kid someday, his or her teachers can rest assured that there will be none of that desk-throwing, classmate-beating, homework-neglecting nonsense. I’ve already had my fill.
Ten years ago, I was a college freshman, obsessed with the plan I’d made for my life. I wanted to work in an inner-city school, then go to law school, and then figure everything else out. For some reason, I believed the first two goals were stepping stones to a promised land of self-knowledge.
Actually, I know why I made this plan: because programs like Teach For America and graduate school are a great way to spend years of your early adulthood not doing something else. I really wanted to be a writer — original, I know — and I didn’t know how.
Read the rest here.
The awkward thing about drifting and swimming back and drifting and swimming back is explaining what exactly you were doing while you were gone. You don’t want whoever you’re revisiting to think that the other activity “won” your attention, because it’s better.
It’s not.
It’s probably more urgent. It likely involves money and stress and “I was going to tell you one of these days…” Probably most of those distractions, while important then, are forgotten now.
Someone I know has started checking my blog when we hang out and saying, “Aww. My favorite blogger hasn’t updated.” And then I look at the screen and see that’s it the Noisiest Passenger homepage with a 15-day-old post about blogging more regularly.
So here’s what I’ve been up to. Or rather, 12 things:
I’ve been blogging over at Blisstree.com for the past few days. This isn’t replacing any of the other writing gigs I have. It’s just another chance to make more money writing about new topics.
One tab on my browser stays on Twitter throughout the day, because that’s the main way I keep up with the world. (And the only reason I remembered once seeing Tiki Barber on Project Runway.) Yesterday, someone I follow linked an article titled, “How Do You Know When to Stop Writing?”
Immediately, I thought, “When you make enough money! But you won’t! Ever!” I was in an afternoon slump, followed by my evening slump.
Because I refuse to condemn this blog to creaky, ill-mechanized Tumblr, I couldn’t just hit reblog to share this commentary from Doree Shafrir today.
I’m skimping on context, but this says it all:
One of the most irritating things in the world is meeting a dude who’s like, a lawyer or a banker, and when he finds out you’re a writer he’s all, “Oh I’ve thought about being a writer” or some variation thereof, as though “being a writer” is just something you one day decide to “do” as a “hobby”; I know I have ranted about this before but it is so, so, so condescending and ultimately devalues what we do, because you know, it is actually WORK, and I wouldn’t dream of going up to someone with another job and being all nonchalant like, “Oh yeah I was thinking if this whole writing thing doesn’t work out neurosurgery might be cool.”
Don’t condescend the writers, guys and girls. The hardest writing looks - and reads - the easiest.
Okay. Back to work.
Who was the comedian who had the bit about hating a job so much that he or she would hide in the bathroom, pretending to have diarrhea?
Because that’s a pretty low point - shirking work duties in favor of hanging out with the office toilet. Especially if it’s a single unisex bathroom. I’ve been in an office like that, and it didn’t take long for me to become familiar with the unique poopsonalities of each of my co-workers.
My latest Hunch blog post isn’t about poop. Sorry. But it’s about work, which can be shitty indeed.
Most Hunch users like their job sometimes. Definitely on weekends and national holidays.
I looked at the data and tried to figure out what really determines if someone enjoys their job or not. It’s not just about money, benefits, or office environment.
Check the post out here or by clicking on the chart above. Please leave comments and share it with your friends.
Thanks for helping me work it!
