Learnings from my desert island

Sometimes, it feels like I already live on a desert island. I live on one with my little family. I occasionally meet people who are passing by on long cruisings.

It is a very instructive metaphor. I need to remember that the stones I've found on my beach on my island are completely uninteresting to friends traveling the world. A habitant on a desert island it is obvious that for me need to listen. Only to listen.

It becomes ludicrous when written by a person who is blogging, doesn't it?

On a desert island

When I meet someone that I don't get along with, I ask myself "how would it be if we were left alone together on a desert island?" I have got this vision, that any two people who would end up being isolated could work together. Don't know if it's true, of course. Probably many people would just start quarreling, fighting and try to live on separate parts of this piece of land, but I believe most people could work together if they really tried.

Anyway, since this question keep coming back into my mind, I now think I know what types of people I would not enjoy be left alone with on any empty island.

I would definitely hate to be dependent on one of those guys who maybe are a little bit stupid, but who believe they are really smart (and therefor don't think any input from anybody else, in that case me, is needed). At a first thought, it would feel safe to be in the company of a physically strong person, but I believe some brains and a bit of imagination would be more valuable in most situations.

I would appreciate to explore the place, and not find the best tree and then just sit under it all the time. Talking would I prefer before endless silence. Some new jokes would be nice, or at least a person who would enjoy my silly ones. But the most important and valuable gifts are probably kindness and helpfulness when there is some kind of trouble.

What I myself would be like on a deserted island? What do you think, probably hungry and thirsty... let's hope I never end up there in the first place.

Why people split up

By using my and some of my friends experiences of life, I've come up with the following theory why a relation ends. A relation is seriously at risk when one of the parties has met a new possible partner that is perceived as "much better" than the existing. That's it. The possible partner doesn't have to be a real option, but can still kill an ongoing relation provided there is a strong unfulfilled need. We all have needs, but if there is some important need that we don't get fulfilled for a long time in a relation, it is just be a matter of time before the relation is over.

Our needs tend to change somewhat over time as we grow older, which is probably one of the reasons why so many couples break up. Another reason why there are so many singles could be an increased selfishness and an inability to see other peoples' needs.

What do I know? I'm no expert...

Don't ask us to strip! We want to make a good impression when applying for a job!

"Please register at our homepage" they say, "under carrer".
Sure. The first thing I have to fill in is my personal identification number, which means the day I'm born. It feels like being invited to the building of a large company, but in the reception I'm asked to take off my clothes! Would you do that? I wouldn't.

I'm looking for a job where I use my brain, why is the age of my body interesting? The recruiters first impression will be "oh, that woman is 15 years older than me", or "she could be one of my mother's friends". My age is interesting in many situations, but not when I apply for a job.

The first thing to do in order to stop the age discrimination in Sweden, is to stop asking for our exact age. Please don't ask us to strip, that's humiliating!

Would have appreciated a professional analysis of the show

The interviews with the heads of the political parties in the satiric TV-show was obviously directed. Some of them were spontanious and some of them had instructions what to say. All to make some of them look stupid and to let others give a good impression. I would have loved to see the show together with an expert on marketing and human perception, in order to get a professional analysis on how it influences people.

If Swedish TV would have sent the show after the election I would have appreciated it. Some of the actors are very funny (not all of them, though). But not the weeks before the election. Not on public television. Aren't Swedes terrible innocent?

I didn't think I cared much about politics these days. But I became angry when I realized that the purpose of the show was to influence the election. And that people don't see that... and they get away with it. Corruption!

censured

Today I've written a million blogs in my head. None of them were happy.

Most of them were miserable. You should be happy you don't need to read them.

Don't trust the job ads

Don't trust the job ads! It's like asking an eighteen year old guy what girl he wants. He would be dreaming, and then he would probably end up with a completely different girlfriend.

I got some feedback on my job interview the other day. The interview for the job where they actually were asking for someone with my background. It seems they had changed their expectations and were now looking for someone with a completely different profile.

Interesting, isn't it? The conclusion must be that you can send your application to any company for on any job ad. They don't know how they are looking for anyway. Or maybe they know who they are not looking for. I don't know.

Why is my age relevant when I apply for a job?

I was to an interview recently. I got a comment on my papers, since I had included everything but when I'm born. That seemed to be strange or even annoying.

When I got the question, of course I specified my date of birth. Don't know why that was important. It is obvious that I'm not young since I've got teenaged children. It's also obvious for anyone who meets me that I'm not planning to retire for many years. So why is my age important? I find that intrusive.

It is well known that a Swedish employer can ask about health problems, they can ask about private things like hobbies (who cares how I spend my spare time?), how many children I have living at home, they can actually ask about anything about religion and sexual preferences, according to the current law.

My proposal is that it should be forbidden to specify the age of the people you want to hire, it should be forbidden to only hire a certain sex. Politicians should stop talking about making certain rules for "unemployed youth", or "unemployed foreigners", or "unemployed housewifes" or whatever. Start treating everybody the same! Make the hiring process anonymous. Look at other countries such as Britain and the US and their laws.

Stop this Swedish very unprofessional way of interviewing, selecting and hiring people.

The Swedish election is not very exciting this year

It is not going to be very exciting to watch the results of the election this year. I think it is good for a country to have a vital discussion about many important questions and not just a choice between "left or right", as it is this year due to the two big political blocks.

I did watch Mona Sahlin, head of the socialdemocrats, being interviewed on TV the other day.

She stated that this election is between people who wants to have lower taxes, contra people who wants to have welfare. It seems she prefers to keep it very simple. Interesting strategy, and an interesting question to focus on. Everybody who has got a job and an income wants to have lower taxes and "welfare" is very fluffy! Did she expect it to be enough longterm sick, retired, unemployed people to catch a majority of the Swedish people? She must completely lack gut feeling (or strategic advisors)...