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My latest roundup of links from around the web. Probably it would be better if these were all from the last week, but I am basically just picking and choosing as I see fit. If you comment on any particularly good reading (even if it’s your own), I’ll move it up to the post if I like it enough.

In Defining Minimum Acceptable Housing at The Simple Dollar, a furious comment thread makes for some pretty good reading. TSD pointed out that decent housing is easy to find in New York, citing a Tarrytown one bedroom. Seconds later New Yorkers started thundering that saying Tarrytown is “in” New York would be like saying Tampa is “in” Miami (yes, I know that’s extreme and much further). TSD is one of the best, most entertaining blogs I read, but this post might have shown that before you get too specific in an area you’re not familiar with, you’d better research it. There is always going to be someone ready to point out your mistakes. But the central point of his post is still valid. No one is forced to live in New York, so if you feel you must live there, accept crummier housing than you would get in the Midwest and quit complaining.

In Frightening Little Question, Scott Adams of Dilbert fame asks the question “why do people like horror movies?” This is a question that has bothered me for a long time. When I was younger, I liked some horror movies like Alien and Jaws, but those are tame compared to the Hostel and Saw (I’m not even linking to them) movies out these days. I’m not even sure it’s really the same genre. This New York Times review of Turistas, Go Home raised some really troubling questions about the link between sex and off-the-charts violence in these movies. I wonder if these movies are serving as a pressure release for some tortured minds, or if we’re creating a whole generation of troubled psychopaths. I am all for free speech but we don’t allow people to yell ‘fire’ in a crowded theater. Should we allow them to yell ‘disembowel and mutilate attractive teenage girls’ in a crowded theater, too?

Amen to Penelope Trunk at the Brazen Careerist. In her article Hold CEOs accountable for their bad parenting she points out the double standard that lauds CEOs who have 100 hour work weeks and never see their children but punishes dads who ‘just’ abandon their kids. Not there is not there. I personally think that anyone who can’t put as much effort into parenting as they possibly can doesn’t really need the responsibility or privilege of having children. I intentionally drew back from my career when my son was born, leaving an intensive, business-travel heavy senior level job for consulting so that I would be there for him. I may someday shift to a more demanding line of work again, but I would never put my job before his best interests.

Steve Pavlina tells us 10 reasons you should never get a job. It’s an old article but I just read it for the first time. I wish I had read this 15 years ago, or read this book. Now that I charge an hourly rate I really appreciate just how much I am paid for physically parking myself in a chair. Often I could get something done in two hours, but there is no incentive for me not to spend eight appearing to get it done (my consulting company requires clients to pay for at least eight hours a day unless I choose to leave early).

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