Linkfest 2021-10-30: The Great Filter

The thread that accompanies this joke resume that got interviews does an excellent job of explaining how really popular companies screen their resumes. This does have a number of undesirable effects, but it would be worth reflecting on what other filtering mechanics might actually work in this situation. It isn’t as if this resume would get past a technical interview, unless your real accomplishments were so astonishing that you wouldn’t need to trick the filter.


The kind of “fair play” and “honor code” assumptions Patrick is suggesting you jettison here were in play for a long time, but arguably are no longer.


Razib Khan: Horses were domesticated before mammoths went extinct

https://www.gnxp.com/WordPress/2021/10/22/horses-were-domesticated-before-mammoth-went-extinct/


Razib Khan: Hungarians as the ghost of the Magyar

As I’m reading Bram Stoker’s Dracula [Amazon link] for Halloween, this genetic summary of Hungary was entirely topical.


Davis Kedrosky: The First Population Bomb

The course of the last two hundred years doesn’t make much sense until you grapple with differential demographics.


Polygon: The Dice can kill you: why 1st edition AD&D is king

An appreciation of the real power of the 1st edition rules. There is even more than this if you embrace the #BROSR way.


Catholic Herald: The Secret Army of Catholics in Hollywood

Catholics make great characters.


BBC: La Palma: 'Lava bomb' speeds down Cumbre Vieja volcano

Volcanoes are fascinating and terrifying.


With Both Hands: Hide me Among the Graves

Tim Powers’ Hide me Among the Graves is probably one of my least favorite works, as it is more in the Anne Rice vampires are sexy mold, but Powers still manages to put his unique kind of spin on that idea.


The Long View: Anno Dracula

Unlike Bram Stoker’s work, Kim Newman’s Anno Dracula [Amazon link] is not a classic that launched a thousand imitations. It is however, an example of the kind of fun you can have putting a bunch of contemporaneous but otherwise unrelated characters into the same story.