MUST READ: Facebook and Stock Prices

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Unless you’re an econogeek like me you probably aren’t interested in the intracacies of the stock market, and even then some arcana may make your eyes glaze over.  I reccomend checking out this nice summary of why Facebook’s stock price is problematic.  It’s a grand example of how the price plunge affects the company and the issues it faces – oh and that the price will probably remain low because many activities the company may do BECAUSE of it’s issues can end up driving it down/keeping it low.

At this point we’re probably going to see all sorts of hang-wringing by “experts” who by and large, proved to be idiots, but really when you read the article you can see how counting on a high stock price was bad, and you know that we here have been pretty cynical about it.  So, no none of this should be a surprise.

Personally I hope Facebook and Zynga get people to be a lot more cautious about stock, stock options, and IPOs.  Then again it seems there’s less starry-eyed goodwill than the hideous dot-bomb era, so there is that.

– Steven Savage

Steven Savage is a Geek 2.0 writer, speaker, blogger, and job coach for professional and potentially professional geeks, fans, and otaku. He can be reached at https://www.stevensavage.com/

50 Shades Of Shut The Hell Up

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So, yes, we all know the story.  Woman writes Twilight fanfic.  Twilight fanfic gets repurposed as erotica series known as “50 Shades Of Grey”.  Woman makes money.  People make fun of situation.

Really the only problem as a progeek for me is the latter one – the mockery.

From what I hear about “50 Shades of Grey” is, to put it mildly, is rather purple and the content is may disturb some.  It’s not Shakespeare or Pratchett, and there’s elements that sound rather squicky.  But really the only criticism that seems relevant to me may be some of these quality issues, and even then there’s only so much I can say because I actually watch films like “2 Headed Shark Attack.”*

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How Fandom And Hobbies Return A Sense of Control

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Ever feel like you can’t do anything?  Ever feel disempowered?  I pretty much already know the answer: yes.

Psychologically, a feeling of no control, of helplessness is incredibly damaging.  Anyone that’s taken Psych 101 knows about how it can lead to depression, mental illness, and general dysfunction.  That’s of course on top of what we experience or have seen.

Career-wise (and though it may be insensitive to switch over to careers, that is what this blog is about), a sense of having no control is also destructive.  Beyond the psychological issues people face, there’s the fact that lacking the sense that we can take charge of our lives affects our livelihood.  When we feel out of control, our ambition is checked, opportunities missed, and quite frankly we may come off as helpless or stagnant in the career world.

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