Notes

Chapter 1

1. no idea how to find a job: Most details of Josh Sucher’s journey from Bard to Etsy were reconstructed during an interview on April 5, 2016, as well as via e-mail and phone exchanges in September 2015, January 2015, and December 2016. Additional information comes from various websites Sucher has built to chronicle different stages of his life, including Blockfactory.com and http://interactiondesign.sva.edu/projects/by/josh-sucher.

2. Bard’s graduation speakers: The text of Leon Botstein’s address is archived at www.bard.edu/commencement/2007/botstein.shtml. Michael Bloomberg’s remarks can be found at www.bard.edu/commencement/2007/bloomberg_speech.shtml.

3. the Cave of Altamira: Raphael Minder, “Back to the Cave of Altamira in Spain, Still Controversial,” New York Times, July 30, 2014.

4. Its alumni: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Bard_College_people.

5. a fondness for people with eclectic backgrounds: Chad Dickerson, “Why Liberal Arts Education Matters: The Story of a Drucker (Mis-)Quote,” Chad Dickerson’s blog, September 29, 2013, https://blog.chaddickerson.com/2013/02/03/liberal-arts-matter/; Lillian Cunningham, “How to Craft a Successful Career: An Interview with Etsy CEO Chad Dickerson,” Washington Post, November 20, 2014.

6. published a landmark study: David H. Autor, Lawrence F. Katz, and Melissa S. Kearney, “The Polarization of the U.S. Labor Market,” National Bureau of Economic Research (January 2006), www.nber.org/papers/w11986.

7. at risk of being automated: Michael Chui, James Manyika, and Mehdi Miremadi, “Where Machines Could Replace Humans—and Where They Can’t (Yet),” McKinsey Quarterly (July 2016), www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/digital-mckinsey/our-insights/where-machines-could-replace-humans-and-where-they-cant-yet.

8. “Software is eating the world”: Marc Andreessen, “Why Software Is Eating the World,” Wall Street Journal, August 20, 2011.

9. 8.8 million Americans were thrown out of work: Christopher J. Goodman and Stephen M. Mance, “Employment Loss and the 2007–09 Recession: An Overview,” Monthly Labor Review (April 2011), www.bls.gov/mlr/2011/04/art1full.pdf.

10. Barack Obama repeatedly urged teenagers: https://phys.org/news/2015-03-obama-240m-pledges-stem.html.

11. Of the 10.1 million net new jobs: The Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes annual reports on U.S. employment levels for more than seven hundred occupations, ranging from chief executives to parking lot attendants. The bureau’s tallies from 1989 through 2016 can be found here: www.bls.gov/oes/tables.htm. Industry-specific calculations for this chapter are based on the growth (or shrinkage) in notable occupations from 2012 to 2016.

12. Average salaries range from $43,000 to $90,000: “National Occupational Employment and Wage Estimates,” U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_nat.htm.

13. “In times of drastic change”: Eric Hoffer, Reflections on the Human Condition (Titusville, NJ: Hopewell Publications, 2006).

14. “the habit of attention”: William Johnson Cory, Eton Reform (London: Longman, Green, Longman, and Roberts, 1861).

15. The full linkages: Angela Duckworth, Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance (New York: Scribner, 2016).

16. “openness to new experiences”: See Arthur E. Poropat, “A Meta-Analysis of the Five-Factor Model of Personality and Academic Performance,” Psychological Bulletin 135, no. 2 (2009): 322–38. In this ambitious paper, Australian researcher Arthur Poropat carries out a meta-analysis of nearly two hundred studies looking at possible correlations between five leading personality traits and success in school or later life. He found that conscientiousness correlated most closely with success, but openness to experience ranked second. Other factors such as amiability, neuroses, and introversion or extroversion didn’t have significant correlations.

17. “get a job at Starbucks instead”: Megan McArdle, “Why a BA Is Now a Ticket to a Job in a Coffee Shop,” Daily Beast, March 27, 2013, www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/03/27/why-a-ba-is-now-a-ticket-to-a-job-in-a-coffee-shop.html. In an e-mail exchange in February 2017, McArdle remarked: “I was an English major, and I am not working at Starbucks, so obviously I’m aware that there are career paths beyond the major. However, I came out of college more than 20 years ago (gulp), and things have gotten a lot harder for liberal arts grads since then.”

18. “We need more welders”: Shoshana Weissmann, “Rubio: ‘We Need More Welders and Less Philosophers,’” Weekly Standard, November 10, 2015, www.weeklystandard.com/rubio-we-need-more-welders-and-less-philosophers/article/1062072.

19. “working at Chick-fil-A”: www.youtube.com/watch?v=qtjovE9HjVE.

20. willingness to relocate: “Americans Moving at Historically Low Rates, Census Bureau Reports,” U.S. Census Bureau, November 16, 2016, www.census.gov/newsroom/press-releases/2016/cb16-189.html.

21. novels of Romain Gary: Judge for yourself. Many people admire Gary’s The Roots of Heaven, an interlocking series of tragedies set in French-controlled Africa shortly after World War II; many others can’t abide its tone and technique.

Chapter 2

1. renowned introductory course Antiquity Today: The Dartmouth course-catalog listing for Antiquity Today is here: http://dartmouth.smartcatalogiq.com/en/current/orc/Departments-Programs-Undergraduate/Classics-Classical-Studies-Greek-Latin/CLST-Classical-Studies/CLST-1. A fuller sense of the class can be found in this YouTube video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=A4t6rlWQoHs&feature=youtu.be. Paul Christesen provided further information on enrollment trends in a series of e-mail exchanges with the author in July 2016.

2. the most admired professors: www.ratemyprofessors.com/blog/toplist/the-2015-2016-annual-top-lists-are-here/.

3. biography of Andrew Carnegie: Steven Perlstein, “Meet the Parents Who Won’t Let Their Children Study Literature,” Washington Post, September 2, 2016.

4. sheer cost of college: Because of merit scholarships, need-based scholarships, and tuition discounting, many students aren’t charged the full prices that colleges post. The best gauge of actual charges for tuition, room, and board comes from the College Board, which provides data for four-year public institutions: https://trends.collegeboard.org/college-pricing/figures-tables/average-net-price-over-time-full-time-students-public-four-year-institution, and for four-year private schools: https://trends.collegeboard.org/college-pricing/figures-tables/average-net-price-over-time-full-time-students-private-nonprofit-four-year-institutions.

5. Jill Lepore, chair of Harvard’s history and literature program: Tamar Lewin, “As Interest Fades in the Humanities, Colleges Worry,” New York Times, October 30, 2013.

6. “protean” careers: The argument for protean careers—and it’s a good one!—can be traced back to this 1996 paper: Douglas T. Hall, “Protean Careers of the 21st Century,” Academy of Management Executive 10, no. 4 (1996): 8–16.

7. Paul Christesen plays that role at freshman orientation: www.youtube.com/watch?v=jV4vfGKZW7s&feature=youtu.be.

8. Ally Begly: Ally Begly, phone interview and e-mail exchanges with the author, May 2016.

9. Undergraduate Sarah Murray: Paul Christesen, phone interview and e-mail exchanges with the author, July 2016; Sarah Murray, e-mail exchanges with the author, December 2016 and January 2017.

10. “Manet’s Olympia”: Hui Min Chang, interview with the author, June 6, 2016; phone interview with the author, February 2017.

11. Evan Golden: Evan Golden, phone interview with the author, May 2016; e-mail exchange with the author, February 2017.

12. Arthur Motch: Arthur Motch, phone interview with the author, May 2016; e-mail exchanges with the author, January 2017.

13. Isabelle Abrams: Isabelle Abrams, interview with the author, August 18, 2016; phone interview with the author, January 2017.

14. Amy Pressman: Amy Pressman, interview with the author, September 3, 2016.

15. Helene Meyers: Helene Meyers, “Feeding English Majors in the 21st Century,” Chronicle of Higher Education (January 25, 2016), www.chronicle.com/article/Feeding-English-Majors-in-the/235042.

16. Joe Indvik: Joe Indvik, phone interview with the author, January 2016; e-mail exchange with the author, January 2017.

17. “as if she had seen a devil”: Kari Dallas, phone interview with the author, June 2016; e-mail exchange with the author, January 2017.

18. Susan Farris: Susan Farris, interview with the author, May 19, 2016.

19. “I humanize things”: Bryce Nobles, interview with the author, August 18, 2016.

20. strong speaking skills: www.aacu.org/leap/public-opinion-research/2015-employer-priorities.

21. Alexandra Maceda: Alexandra Maceda, interview with the author, January 20, 2016. Additional details of her Delphi talk come from a Dartmouth-in-Greece blog: https://greecefsp2009.wordpress.com/.

Chapter 3

1. Her grades were ragged: Mai-Ling Garcia, interviews with the author, May 4, 2016, and August 12, 2016.

2. King of the Cage: Timothy Guy, “Soboba: King of the Cage Comes Home to San Jacinto,” Riverside Press Enterprise, March 11, 2015.

3. Popular classes include: Information about Mount San Jacinto’s classes is at www.msjc.edu/ScheduleofClasses/Pages/CurrentSchedule.aspx.

4. “She didn’t sit”: Maria Lopez-Moreno, phone interview with the author, July 2016.

5. Her annual salary, benefits, and bonus: Government employees’ salaries are publicly disclosed in California; information comes from http://transparentcalifornia.com/salaries/search.

6. In 2015, the Bureau of Labor Statistics: www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/nlsoy.pdf.

7. De Anza College: De Anza student Ron Gonzales (who later earned a BA in community studies from the University of California, Santa Cruz) served as mayor of San Jose, California, from 1999 to 2006. De Anza student D. J. Patil (who later earned a BS in math from the University of California, San Diego) became chief data scientist of the United States in 2015.

8. LinkedIn data analyst: www.linkedin.com/pulse/you-dont-need-know-how-code-make-silicon-valley-alice-ma.

9. Richard Detweiler set out to study: George Anders, “To Earn $100,000 or More, Roam Outside Your College Major,” Forbes, June 21, 2016.

10. “My long and winding journey”: Jennifer Kohn, interview with the author, April 4, 2016.

11. Chris LaRoche: Chris LaRoche, phone interviews with the author, September 2015 and January 2017.

12. Brian Anderson: Phone interview with the author.

13. a “brain hub”: Enrico Moretti, The New Geography of Jobs (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2012).

14. typical graduates earn: Data on median college-graduate earnings sorted by individual institution can be found on the U.S. Department of Education’s website in its College Scorecard section: https://collegescorecard.ed.gov/.

15. LeAnne Gault: LeAnne Gault, interviews with the author, May 18 and May 19, 2016.

16. She won a Shorty Award: Gault was honored in the Social Commerce category. Details are here: http://shortyawards.com/4th/leanne-gault.

17. Oakland’s Digital Front Door: Mai-Ling Garcia described her role in our interviews. Additional information comes from Howard Dyckoff, “Oakland’s Code for America Summit Emphasizes Diversity and Inclusiveness,” East Bay Times, November 17, 2016, as well as this 2014 SlideShare presentation by Code for America: www.slideshare.net/codeforamerica/2014-code-for-america-summit-designing-with-people-digital-front-door.

Chapter 4

1. coast of Hawaii’s Big Island: On the Big Island of Hawaii from 1986 to 2009, the Kilauea lava flow created 475 acres of fresh land, and it continues to add more. Some fascinating photos are here: “Kilauea Lava Enters the Ocean, Expanding Coastline,” CoastalCare.org, http://coastalcare.org/2010/11/kilauea-lava-enters-the-ocean/. Other parts of the Hawaiian coast are eroding, making the jobs/coastline metaphor applicable in both directions.

2. the Notorious B.I.G.: Bridget Connolly, interview with the author, March 29, 2016.

3. 42 percent of all hires: Steven J. Davis et al., “Adjusted Estimates of Worker Flows and Job Openings in JOLTS,” National Bureau of Economic Research, www.nber.org/papers/w14137.

4. 166,000 new jobs in market research and marketing: This figure reflects a giant surge in category 13-1160, “Market research and marketing specialists,” as reported by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. In 2010, the BLS counted 261,780 people in the United States working in this category. That number soared to 506,420 in 2015. Full data can be found here: www.bls.gov/oes/tables.htm.

5. surveys happen weekly: Rachel Emma Silverman, “Are You Happy at Work? Bosses Push Weekly Polls,” Wall Street Journal, December 2, 2014.

6. “If it’s predictable”: Cliff Latham, interview with the author, August 18, 2016.

7. Caroline Poole: Caroline Poole, interview with the author, August 18, 2016.

8. more than four hundred thousand openings a year: “The Art of Employment: How Liberal Arts Graduates Can Improve Their Labor Market Prospects,” Burning Glass Technologies, 2013, http://burning-glass.com/wp-content/uploads/BGTReportLiberalArts.pdf.

9. Max Menke: Max Menke, phone interview with the author, February 2017.

10. 73,000 new jobs: This figure reflects a brisk pickup in category 13-1071, “Human resources specialists,” as reported by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. In 2010, the BLS counted 417,880 people in the United States working in this category. That number rose to 491,090 in 2015. Full data can be found here: www.bls.gov/oes/tables.htm.

11. Mike Junge: Mike Junge, interview with the author, August 29, 2016, and phone interview with the author, February 2017.

12. Brie Lowry: Brie Lowry, phone interview with the author, August 2016.

13. “a deep conversation”: Jennifer McCrea and Jeffrey C. Walker, The Generosity Network: New Transformational Tools for Successful Fund-Raising (New York: Random House, 2013).

14. Soleio Cuervo: Geoffrey Fowler, “The Man Who Got Us to ‘Like’ Everything,” Wall Street Journal, August 13, 2011; Ralph Gardner Jr., “At 34, a Facebook Elder Statesman,” Wall Street Journal, April 24, 2016.

15. Amazon hires lots of project managers: Job-ad search on Indeed.com conducted in September 2016.

16. Just ask Bridget Connolly: This account is based on Bridget Connolly’s interviews with the author on March 29, April 13, and August 30, 2016, as well as on the author’s phone interviews with multiple wikiHow colleagues and his personal interview with wikiHow chief executive Jack Herrick on March 17, 2016. Postings on wikihow.com corroborated many details; so did documents that Connolly and her colleagues shared with me.

17. “I know we’ve been talking”: Elizabeth Douglas, phone interview with the author, April 2016.

18. “Try using an IF command”: Chris Hadley, phone interview with the author, April 2016.

Chapter 5

1. Frontiers Conference: Tim O’Reilly’s prepared remarks and a video of his talk are here: https://medium.com/the-wtf-economy/wtf-whats-the-future-e52ab9515573#.qkaz85dwy. Details on the overall conference are here: www.frontiersconference.org/.

2. Wired magazine profile: Steven Levy, “The Trend Spotter,” Wired, October 2005.

3. split into two camps: C. P. Snow, “The Two Cultures” (repr., New York: Cambridge University Press, 1998).

4. hybrid job openings: http://burning-glass.com/research/hybrid-jobs/.

5. Phunware: E-mail exchange with the author, April 2017.

6. Skycatch: Mimi Connery, presentation at a Williams College event in San Francisco, February 20, 2016.

7. “You’re really differentiated”: Bracken Darrell, “Debating the English Major: ‘Have a Back-Up Plan,’” Wall Street Journal, June 10, 2013.

8. blockchain: IBM’s strategy will doubtless keep evolving, but this article from the company’s own website describes the state of play in 2016: www.ibm.com/blockchain/what-is-blockchain.html.

9. Oliver Meeker: Oliver Meeker, phone interview with the author, September 2016, and e-mail exchanges, February 2017.

10. “Statistics is not math”: William M. Briggs, “Statistics Is Not Math,” January 27, 2013, http://wmbriggs.com/post/3169/.

11. close look at OpenTable: OpenTable explains the basic elements of its business on its website: http://press.opentable.com/. Additional details come from the author’s phone interviews with OpenTable executives in December 2014 and February 2015.

12. hop in a car: Firsthand observation of Shawna Ramona’s visits by the author, February 9 and February 10, 2015.

13. Danielle Sheer: Elizabeth Segran, “Why Top Tech CEOs Want Employees with Liberal Arts Degrees,” Fast Company, August 29, 2014, www.fastcompany.com/3034947/the-future-of-work/why-top-tech-ceos-want-employees-with-liberal-arts-degrees.

14. NeKelia Henderson: NeKelia Henderson, phone interview with the author, August 2016.

15. Tim O’Reilly’s story: Tim O’Reilly, interview with the author, April 12, 2016; Linda Walsh, phone interviews with the author, April 2016; Tim O’Reilly, Frank Herbert (New York: Ungar, 1981); Levy, “The Trend Spotter.”

Chapter 6

1. Bess Yount is about to tell: Firsthand observation by the author during a visit to Facebook headquarters, April 6, 2015.

2. Facebook’s fast-growing advertising ecosystem: Facebook’s quarterly financial statements are archived here: https://investor.fb.com/financials/?section=secfilings.

3. Douglas Adams famously observed: Douglas Adams, “How to Stop Worrying and Learn to Love the Internet,” Sunday Times, August 29, 1999, www.douglasadams.com/dna/19990901-00-a.html.

4. fifty minutes a day on Facebook: https://techcrunch.com/2016/04/27/facediction/.

5. median age of an American: www.statista.com/statistics/241494/median-age-of-the-us-population/.

6. “It can’t be B-to-C”: Stephanie Meyer, e-mail exchange with the author, January 2017.

7. “exactly the people I’m looking for”: Michael S. Malone, “How to Avoid a Bonfire of the Humanities,” Wall Street Journal, October 24, 2012.

8. seventy-four gigabytes of data a day: “How Much Media?,” Institute for Communication Technology Management, University of Southern California, https://news.usc.edu/56894/americans-consume-media-in-a-major-way-study-finds/.

9. Andy Anderegg: Andy Anderegg, phone interviews with the author, June and November 2016.

10. affluent Americans tend to be more narcissistic: P. K. Piff et al., “Higher Social Class Predicts Increased Unethical Behavior,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 109, no. 11 (2012): 4086–91.

11. “through many lenses”: Eric Fridman, “Empathy and the Liberal Arts,” Executive Coaching (blog), July 15, 2016, https://fridmancoaching.com/2016/07/15/empathy-and-the-liberal-arts/.

12. givers, takers, or a bit of both: Adam M. Grant, Give and Take: A Revolutionary Approach to Success (New York: Viking, 2013).

13. Mary Helen Smith: Firsthand observation by the author, August 17, 2015; Mary Helen Smith, phone interview with the author, August 2016.

14. Robert Cialdini: Robert B. Cialdini, Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion (New York: Collins Business, 2007).

15. Solomon Asch’s pioneering research: Solomon E. Asch, “Studies of Independence and Conformity: A Minority of One Against a Unanimous Majority,” Psychological Monographs: General and Applied 70, no. 9 (1956): 1–70.

16. Litterati, a socially minded enterprise: Jeff Kirschner, phone interviews with the author, September 2015 and January 2017.

Chapter 7

1. Stewart Butterfield: The counterculture adventures of the Butterfield family are richly described in the following articles: Mat Honan, “The Most Fascinating Profile You’ll Ever Read About a Guy and His Boring Startup,” Wired, August 2014; Alec Scott, “How Stewart Butterfield Built a Billion-Dollar Company in 8 Months,” Canadian Business, January 5, 2015. The Lord’s Prayer anecdote is from the author’s interview with Stewart Butterfield, July 17, 2015.

2. he started talking about eudaemonia: Butterfield interview.

3. Typical Starting Earnings: PayScale’s 2016–2017 report on college graduates’ earnings by majors can be found here: www.payscale.com/college-salary-report/degrees-and-majors-lifetime-earnings. The full report covers more than three hundred majors with lots of drop-down menus and adjustable sliders that make it easy to carry out customized comparisons.

4. High Achievers’ Lifetime Earnings: Full information on the Hamilton Project’s methodology and results can be found here: www.hamiltonproject.org/charts/career_earnings_by_college_major/. The findings are presented in a highly interactive way, making it easy to search for specific majors and income trends at different stages of life.

5. Herb Allison: Laurence Arnold, “Herbert Allison, Ex-Merrill President Who Ran TARP, Dies at 69,” Bloomberg.com, July 15, 2013, www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2013-07-15/herbert-allison-jr-former-merrill-lynch-president-dies-at-69.

6. Roger Ferguson: Ferguson’s life story is well summarized here: Adam Bryant, “Roger Ferguson of TIAA-CREF: Always Act as if You’re an Owner,” New York Times, November 29, 2014. The 2008 news release announcing his appointment is archived here: “TIAA-CREF Names Roger W. Ferguson, Jr., President and Chief Executive Officer, Succeeding Herbert M. Allison, Jr.,” TIAA-CREF website, www1.tiaa-cref.org/public/about/press/pressrelease236.html.

7. The most reliable route: Christian Stadler, “How to Become a CEO: These Are the Steps You Should Take,” Forbes.com, June 14, 2015, www.forbes.com/sites/christianstadler/2015/03/12/how-to-become-a-ceo-these-are-the-steps-you-should-take; Christian Stadler, Enduring Success: What We Can Learn from the History of Outstanding Corporations (Stanford, CA: Stanford Business Books, 2011).

8. Spencer Stuart analyzed: The firm’s 2005 findings on CEO education can be found here: www.cluteinstitute.com/ojs/index.php/JBER/article/download/694/680. Other data and context come from Spencer Stuart executive Bennett R. Machtiger, phone interviews and e-mail exchanges with the author, September 2016.

9. Maine senator Susan Collins: Colin Woodard, “Collins, Fiancé ‘Bring Out Best in Each Other,’” Portland Press Herald, July 28, 2012.

10. “the abstract came first”: George Soros, The Alchemy of Finance (Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley and Sons, 2003), 1.

11. “you have to think beyond that”: Moira Forbes, “7 Career Lessons from Billionaire Abigail Johnson,” Forbes.com, October 13, 2014, www.forbes.com/sites/moiraforbes/2013/11/01/seven-career-lessons-from-billionaire-abigail-johnson.

12. Carl Icahn: Carl C. Icahn, “The Problem of Formulating an Adequate Explication of the Empiricist Criterion of Meaning” (undergraduate thesis, Princeton, 1957).

13. Reid Hoffman: “‘Fail Fast’ Advises LinkedIn Founder and Tech Investor Reid Hoffman,” BBC News, January 11, 2011, www.bbc.com/news/business-12151752.

14. “driven by ideas”: As quoted in John D. Spooner, No One Ever Told Us That: Money and Life Lessons for Young Adults (Hoboken, NJ: Wiley, 2015), 65. Sprung’s own career embodies his message: he studied classics at Harvard in the 1980s and then went on to create a highly successful translation company.

15. Nicole Sahin: Nicole Sahin, phone interview and e-mail exchanges with the author, December 2016, and Alix Stuart, “How This Founder Grew Her Company to $17 Million in 4 Years,” Inc.com, August 17, 2016.

16. “know how to sell”: Patrick Chung, interview with the author, September 24, 2015.

17. Paint Nite’s edge: Paul Keegan, “How Paint Nite Started a Party-Planning Revolution,” Inc., January 15, 2015, www.inc.com/magazine/201502/paul-keegan/art-stars.html.

18. John Mackey: John Mackey and Rajendra Sisodia, Conscious Capitalism: Liberating the Heroic Spirit of Business (Boston: Harvard Business Review Press, 2013).

19. “always experimenting”: Alyson Shontell, “The CEO of $11 Billion Pinterest Reveals His Thoughts on Going Public, Crazy Private Markets, and Advice for Founders Who Don’t Want to Fail,” Business Insider, April 21, 2016, www.businessinsider.com/ben-silbermann-interview-pinterest-ceo-on-ipo-startups-2016-4.

20. Stewart Butterfield’s career: Daniel Terdiman, “Watching the Birth of Flickr Co-Founder’s Gaming Start-Up,” CNET.com, February 9, 2010, www.cnet.com/news/watching-the-birth-of-flickr-co-founders-gaming-start-up/; Honan, “The Most Fascinating Profile.”

21. “tin is in my blood”: Stewart Butterfield’s Yahoo resignation letter can be found across the Internet; one notable home is here: Jemima Kiss, “The Alpaca Resignation Letter—Can You Do Better?” Guardian, June 20, 2008, www.theguardian.com/media/pda/2008/jun/20/thealpacaresignationletter.

22. named Slack in 2013: Carmel DeAmicis, “Third Life: Flickr Co-Founder Pulls Unlikely Success from Gaming Failure. Again,” Pando.com, April 5, 2014, https://pando.com/2014/04/05/third-life-flickr-co-founder-pulls-unlikely-success-out-of-gaming-failure-again/; Jeff Bercovici, “Slack Is Our Company of the Year. Here’s Why Everybody’s Talking About It,” Inc., December 2015.

23. Slack as dominant in communication: Omar El Akkad, “From Flickr to Slack: B.C.’s Silicon Valley Golden Boy Finds Success in Failure,” Globe and Mail, December 5, 2014.

24. “It’s just terrible”: Rachel Metz, “Three Questions with Slack’s CEO,” MIT Technology Review, February 18, 2015, www.technologyreview.com/s/532606/three-questions-with-slacks-ceo/.

25. “the ability to interpret people”: George Anders, “Your HR Team Needs to See Slack’s Defiant Take on ‘Values,’” Forbes, July 29, 2015, www.forbes.com/sites/georgeanders/2015/07/29/your-hr-team-needs-to-see-slacks-defiant-take-on-values.

Chapter 8

1. Sonia Vora: Sonia Vora, interview with the author, June 6, 2016, and phone interview with the author, February 2017.

2. Morningstar, a Chicago investment firm: John Cook, “The Quiet Billionaire: Morningstar CEO Joe Mansueto,” Chicago, June 2006; Neil Munshi, “The Monday Interview: Joe Mansueto, Morningstar CEO,” Financial Times, October 20, 2013.

3. Jim Murphy: Jim Murphy, interview with the author, June 6, 2016.

4. Emory Zink: Emory Zink, interview with the author, June 6, 2016.

5. an hour with John Rekenthaler: John Rekenthaler, interview with the author, June 6, 2016.

6. Deloitte prefers STEAM: Larry Quinlan, phone interview with the author, March 2015.

7. says Brian DeChesare: Brian DeChesare, “From Liberal Arts to Finance: Shakespeare with Swag or Mission Impossible?,” Mergers and Inquisitions (blog), www.mergersandinquisitions.com/liberal-arts-to-finance/.

8. Nordstrom needs to save money: “Nordstrom Cut Costs in Cleaning Services Division,” Management Consulting Case Interviews, www.consultingcase101.com/nordstrom-cut-costs-in-cleaning-services-division/.

9. ReD Associates: Christian Madsbjerg, phone interview with the author, July 2016; Drake Bennett, “Heidegger’s Marketing Secrets: What German Philosophers Know About Selling TVs,” Bloomberg.com, February 21, 2014, www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2014-02-20/innovation-firm-red-shows-clients-how-to-use-philosophy-to-sell-stuff.

10. Stanford’s Jennifer Aaker: Professor Aaker’s comments were made in a 2013 Stanford lecture, viewable in its entirety on YouTube: www.youtube.com/watch?v=CdO9a41WUss.

11. economist Milton Friedman: Friedman’s quote, and some fiery debate about its applicability, can be found in this Harvard Business Review article: https://hbr.org/2012/04/you-might-disagree-with-milton.

12. Etsy, the online crafts marketplace: Tom Foster, “The Story of Etsy’s Distinctly 21st-Century Management Challenge,” Inc., December 2013.

13. Willa Cather or F. Scott Fitzgerald: This example is culled from the State Department’s practice exam for the Foreign Service test as posted online in December 2016: https://careers.state.gov/fsopracticetest/.

14. Suggested Reading List: https://careers.state.gov/uploads/ff/03/ff03e644688fe25f74ff3b0641c59e9d/Updated_FSOT_Reading_List_Aug2013.pdf.

15. McMaster-Carr: Sarah Williams, “From English Major to Software Developer: Up Close with McMaster-Carr,” Wildcat Career News, November 10, 2016, http://wildcat-career-news.davidson.edu/alumni-and-networking/from-english-major-to-software-developer-up-close-with-mcmaster-carr/.

16. “We focus more on the soft skills”: Melissa Suzuno, “How Enterprise Recruits and Develops Diverse New Grad Talent,” Employer.AfterCollege.com, October 15, 2014, http://employer.aftercollege.com/enterprise-recruits-develops-diverse-new-grad-talent/.

Chapter 9

1. “You’re too impulsive”: Most of the opening section’s details come from the author’s phone interviews with Kaori Freda in November and December 2016 as well as from her travel blog, https://rainagainblog.wordpress.com/category/japan/. Additional information about the islands comes from the Japan National Tourism Organization website: www.jnto.go.jp/eng/regional/tokyo/ogasawarashotou.html.

2. “The longer wanderers drift”: Jeffrey Selingo, There Is Life After College (New York: HarperCollins, 2016).

3. tips began streaming in: An archived record of Kaori Freda’s exchanges exists at www.reed.switchboardhq.com.

4. college graduates do the most job-hopping: www.bls.gov/news.release/nlsyth.t02.htm.

5. “I started out as a bookworm”: Polly Washburn, phone interviews with the author, November 2016 and January 2017.

6. Oberlin, for example, has drawn more than eighteen hundred: Ma’ayan Plaut, manager of social strategy and projects in Oberlin’s Office of Communications, phone interview with the author, November 2016.

7. Mara Zepeda: Mara Zepeda, interview with the author, June 9, 2016, plus phone interviews in November 2016. Zepeda’s list of two hundred allies is here: www.marazepeda.com/about/.

8. Kevin Greer dreamed: Kevin Greer, phone interview with the author, November 2016.

9. Kelli Smith: Direct quote is from Eric Coker, “New Fleishman Center Director Stresses Collaboration,” Inside Binghamton University, September 11, 2014, www.binghamton.edu/inside/index.php/inside/story/9213/new-fleishman-center-director-stresses-collaboration/. Additional information is from the author’s phone interviews and e-mail exchanges with Kelli Smith in November 2016.

10. “If the Metropolitan Opera”: Michelle Bata, phone interview with the author, April 2016.

11. Evelyn Perez-Landron: Evelyn Perez-Landron, phone interview with the author, December 2016, and e-mail exchange with the author, January 2017; Evelyn Perez-Landron, “A Woman of the World,” Gates (blog), May 4, 2016, https://blog.mtholyoke.edu/thegates/a-woman-of-the-world; Mount Holyoke College, “LEAP Pathway: Evelyn Perez-Landron,” YouTube, April 29, 2016, www.youtube.com/watch?v=LWPdaYstJfo.

12. April Dennis: April Dennis, phone interview with the author, November 2016.

13. Amherst’s online alumni portal: George Anders, “Can’t Donate a Building? Alumni with Job Tips Win New Respect,” Forbes, June 9, 2016, www.forbes.com/sites/georgeanders/2016/06/09/cant-donate-a-building-just-help-eager-grads-find-jobs.

14. National Association of Colleges and Employers: Louisa Eisman, “First Generation Students and Job Success,” NACE Journal (November 2016): 16.

Chapter 10

1. Gallup-Purdue survey: www.gallup.com/poll/199307/one-six-grads-say-career-services-helpful.aspx.

2. Wake Forest president Nathan Hatch: Nathan Hatch, “State of the University, 2011,” WFU.edu, November 7, 2011, http://president.wfu.edu/speeches/2011-state-of-the-university/.

3. looked like a winner: Susan Dominus, “How to Get a Job with a Philosophy Degree,” New York Times, September 15, 2013.

4. initiatives that have sprung up at Wake Forest: Andy Chan, phone interview with the author, January 2017.

5. surveys of graduates’ first destinations: http://opcd.wfu.edu/first-destination-data/.

6. Brigham Young University: John Rosenberg and Danny Damron, interviews with the author, March 3, 2017.

7. Eilis Wasserman: Eilis Wasserman, phone interview and follow-up e-mails with the author, August 2015.

8. “I want to produce graduates”: Adam Falk, interview with the author, February 19, 2016.

9. she asks students to use Pinterest: Alicia Ellis, interview with the author, April 7, 2016.

10. Dyllan Brown-Bramble: Dyllan Brown-Bramble, phone interview and multiple e-mail exchanges with the author, January 2017.

11. “Keep it real”: Josmar Tejeda, phone interview with the author, January 2017.

12. Each major is its own story: Joe Pinsker, “Rich Kids Study English,” Atlantic, July 6, 2015. Pinsker’s article is based on federal data analyzed by Kim Weeden, a sociology professor at Cornell University.

13. “Then they discover anthropology”: Daniel Porterfield, interview with the author, October 13, 2016.

14. “The power of the cohort”: Shirley Collado, phone interview with the author, January 2017. In February 2017, Collado took up a new post as president of Ithaca College.

15. She set up Braven: Aimée Eubanks Davis, interview with the author, February 15, 2017; phone interviews and e-mail exchanges with the author, December 2016 to February 2017.

Chapter 11

1. his yearbook epigram: Danielle Newnham, “David Risher: The Quiet Revolutionary,” Medium.com, August 27, 2016, https://medium.com/swlh/david-risher-the-quiet-revolutionary-1e6d1512eadb.

2. when Cicero positioned: Bruce A. Kimball, The Liberal Arts Tradition: A Documentary History (Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 2010).

3. the Latin term humanitas: Michael Lind, “Why the Liberal Arts Still Matter,” Wilson Quarterly (Autumn 2006), http://archive.wilsonquarterly.com/essays/why-liberal-arts-still-matter.

4. “a lifetime of genuine success”: George Forsythe, “The Global Citizen: Finding Practicality in a Liberal Arts Education,” Huffington Post, www.huffingtonpost.com/george-forsythe/liberal-arts-education-careers_b_1755679.html.

5. “a more fulfilling life”: Marvin Krislov, “The Enduring Relevance of a Liberal-Arts Education,” Hechinger Report, February 12, 2015, http://hechingerreport.org/the-enduring-relevance-of-a-liberal-arts-education/.

6. joint polling initiative by the Gallup Organization and Purdue University: “Engagement in College, Engagement in the Workplace: Findings from the Gallup-Purdue Index,” Association of American Colleges and Universities, June 13, 2014, www.aacu.org/aacu-news/newsletter/engagement-college-engagement-workplace-findings-gallup-purdue-index.

7. autonomy, mastery, and purpose: Daniel H. Pink, Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us (New York: Riverhead Books, 2009).

8. Tizra, a software company: Abe Dane, interview with the author, October 15, 2016; David Durand, phone interview with the author, December 2016; Wade Roush, “Tizra Puts Publishers Back in Control of Their E-Books,” Xconomy, February 24, 2009, www.xconomy.com/boston/2009/02/24/tizra-puts-publishers-back-in-control-of-their-e-books; Rhonda J. Miller, “Tizra Software Bringing Einstein Papers Online,” Providence Business News, December 2, 2013.

9. Gregg Newby: Gregg Newby, interview with the author, May 19, 2016, plus phone follow-up in January 2017.

10. “like being on an ice floe”: Jessica Benjamin, phone interview with the author, February 2016.

11. “I knew two things”: David Satterwhite, interview with the author, March 9, 2016.

12. To pay off his student loans: David Risher, interview with the author, January 5, 2017.

Chapter 12

1. Julia Hartz: George Anders, “Before We Hire You, Step into Our Founder’s Office for a Chat,” Forbes.com, May 22, 2014, www.forbes.com/sites/georgeanders/2014/05/16/before-we-hire-you-step-into-our-founders-office-for-a-chat.

2. the importance of tenacity: Angela Duckworth, Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance (New York: Scribner, 2016).

3. Tess Amodeo-Vickery: Tess Amodeo-Vickery, “Dear Ezra: Wall Street Was No Match for a Liberal Arts Degree,” Good, February 22, 2012, www.good.is/articles/dear-ezra-wall-street-was-no-match-for-a-liberal-arts-degree.

4. Rachel Allen: Rachel Allen, interview with the author, August 18, 2016.

5. Patrick Tyler Haas: Patrick Tyler Haas, interview with the author, October 18, 2016.

6. a verbal bridge: Occidental College provides some excellent advice on how to draw these connections via a “problems-actions-results” format: www.oxy.edu/sites/default/files/assets/job-interviews.pdf. Amherst offers a four-step version of the same concept, recast as “situation-task-action-result”: www.amherst.edu/system/files/media/Interviewing%2520Redesign%25202015.pdf.

7. Noah Samel: The meeting took place September 13, 2016, on the Reed campus at the Center for Life Beyond Reed.

Chapter 13

1. blood-spatter calculations: Chris Chrysostom, phone interview with the author, December 2016.

2. QUni: Mike Maughan and Dave Gilbert, interviews with the author, August 18, 2016.

3. reverse-authentication tool: Caroline Poole, interview with the author, August 18, 2016.

4. boost her pay 42 percent: Andy Anderegg, phone interview with the author, August 2016.

5. PayScale data: Jen Hubley Luckwaldt, “You Won’t Get What You Don’t Ask For,” PayScale.com, www.payscale.com/salary-negotiation-guide/whats-holding-you-back-people-who-ask-for-raises-earn-more.

6. offers a five-step approach: Sheryl Sandberg, Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2013).

7. male/female disparities: John Bussey, “Gender Wage Gap Reflects the ‘Ask’ Gap,” Wall Street Journal, October 10, 2014.

8. 2014 survey by Hay Group: www.haygroup.com/en/press/pay-gap-between-senior-managers-and-lower-level-workers-surges-worldwide/.

9. K. Anders Ericsson: His landmark publication is the 901-page Cambridge Handbook of Expertise and Expert Performance (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006), edited by K. Anders Ericsson et al.

10. the 10,000-hour rule: Malcolm Gladwell, “The 10,000 Hour Rule,” Gladwell.com, http://gladwell.com/outliers/the-10000-hour-rule/.