Thursday, March 19, 2020

9 jobs for people who don’t like people

9 jobs for people who don’t like people Some people thrive on human interaction, but this certainly isn’t true of everyone. Perhaps you’re an introvert. Maybe being around people actually makes your skin crawl. Of course, even people who do not like being around other people still need to work. The good news is that not every job requires an excess of human contact. Here are a few potential careers that won’t disrupt your peaceful isolation too much. 1. AuditorPerhaps you don’t mind dealing with people but don’t particularly like them. Well, if you want to be feared- maybe even hated- conducting audits could be a breezy way to spend your workday. Being an auditor is a tough, unglamorous job, but someone has to do it. It’s also ideal for anyone with a careful attention to detail who enjoys working with numbers.2. StatisticianHere’s another one for number crunchers. If you don’t like interacting with people but don’t mind considering them as statistical data th en you might decide to become a statistician. That’s no easy task, since it requires a great deal of education. However, once you earn your degrees, you’ll work alone most of the time. It’ll just be you and the numbers- and they won’t even necessarily involve people. Plus, the pay is great.3. Online Support PersonComputer lovers who not only feel okay about communicating online but actually thrive on it are ideal online support representatives. They help customers and clients troubleshoot via email or online chat systems. Online support reps spend the entire day helping people without ever having to speak out loud to a soul.4. Software DeveloperHere’s another one for people who feel more comfortable communicating via computer than in person. If you love computer work, then you might be cut out for developing software. Many software developers even get to work from home. In fact, a recent survey referenced by CIO.com found that the option to work fr om home was a motivation for 40% of software developers.5. ZoologistIf you don’t have the social skills to deal with people but don’t mind interacting with quieter living beings, you might consider becoming a zoologist. You get to hang with animals for most of your day, and they just want a little love- not necessarily conversation. Plus, they don’t talk back.6. ActuarySpending long hours crunching numbers and assessing risks and benefits in almost perfect solitude is the life of the actuary. Chances are you won’t run into many colleagues when you’re burning that midnight oil at your desk.7. Postal DeliverypersonPostal deliverers may have to visit every house in a community, but they don’t really have to spend much time interacting with the people in that community. It’s you, all by your lonesome, walking or driving all day. And for those of you who are merely shy, you’ll have the gratification of delivering packages to eagerly expectant citizens who can’t wait to see you.8. Data Entry SpecialistIf you can stand the tedium of plugging numbers into spreadsheets all day long, this job might be for you. There won’t be much collaboration or a crazy number of brainstorming meetings or team building sessions. Data entry mostly leaves you with your computer terminal all day.9. SurveyorSo you don’t want to sit in an office all day long, but you really don’t want to talk to anybody? Try being a surveyor. They’re the people on the side of the road in neon outfits surveying terrain. Surveyors spend their days doing precision work in the great outdoors, and they hardly have to say a word.

Tuesday, March 3, 2020

Inevitable Globalization

Inevitable Globalization Globalization, according to the basic dictionary definition, is the expansion of activities or ideas to a worldwide scope. The Economist once called globalization â€Å"the most abused word of the 21st century,† and in many respects the way the term is treated in the popular and academic press makes the concept seem a great deal more complicated and murky than it really is. GLOBAL WARMING ESSAY Globalization is nothing new; according to Yale University’s Nayan Chanda, the term first appeared in about 1962 but is actually a normal process of human civilization that has been going on for thousands of years. Historical Perspective on Globalization Globalization, according to the basic dictionary definition, is the expansion of activities or ideas to a worldwide scope. In Nayan Chanda’s view, the process of globalization actually began when the first humans started to spread from the species’ point of origin in Africa to other parts of the world, beginning about 50,000 years ago. Globalization in the form we would recognize it probably started with Alexander the Great; his short-lived empire in the 4th century B.C. was the first in which we can clearly identify the permanent changes in disparate cultures because of their interaction. We, humans, are naturally expansion-minded, and the process of globalization can be attributed to three essential motivations. The first is economic; we are driven to increase our prosperity. The second is political; we seek to expand our range for the sake of security, to increase our power, and to spread our ideas about how we think humans should organize themselves, through concepts of government and religion. The third is our natural curiosity; we are a restless and adventurous species, and can’t help wondering what lies beyond our horizons. Malaysia today is an amalgam of native Malay, Chinese, and Indian cultures, with a government system that is a hybrid of the British Parliamentary system and a centuries-old confederation of Muslim Sultanates and is one of the world’s biggest sources of a strategic crop – rubber – that is native to South America. And most of the â€Å"fusion of influences† that created a national culture that is still somehow uniquely identifiable happened a century or more before the word â€Å"globalization† was even invented.  Our world is what it is because of globalization, and it is not at all a recent development. Globalization in the Pax Americana There have been four great periods of globalization in history (see History Essay). These paxes, for lack of a more imaginative word, were all characterized by the presence of a superpower, long periods of relative peace in which armed conflict was at least limited or localized, a significant and rapid improvement in general standards of living, and enormous advances in travel and communications technology. PERIOD I The first was the Pax Romana, which began with the accession of Caesar Augustus in 27 B.C. and ended with the death of the Emperor Marcus Aurelius (who was not, despite what the otherwise-entertaining movie Gladiator depicted, smothered with a pillow by Joaquin Phoenix) in 180 A.D. PERIOD II The second was the Pax Mongolica in the 13th and 14th centuries, during which Genghis Khan and his immediate descendants imposed a sophisticated and orderly administration stretching from the Pacific Ocean to the Black Sea, securely connecting Europe and Asia. PERIOD III The third was the Pax Brittanica, the century between the end of the Napoleonic Wars and the start of World War I when Great Britain was at the height of its imperial power. We live in the fourth, the Pax Americana, which began at the end of World War II. PERIOD IV In our time, globalization has been characterized most by rapid and accelerating advances in communication. Air travel replaced sea travel as the main means of reaching other continents in the early 1960’s, and barely a decade later had also replaced trains as the preferred means of long-distance land travel. The explosive growth of television after World War II initiated the first real global communication system; for the first time in history, events could be witnessed simultaneously by people all over the planet. The Internet, which we sometimes forget has only existed in a commonly useful form for only about 20 years, changed that global ability to receive information as-it-happens into the ability to create and participate, and in the past few years, to do so with fewer and fewer physical barriers – portable computers and smartphones now make up the majority of Internet-connected devices in the world, by a considerable margin. GLOBALIZATION  ESSAY In every one of Mankind’s â€Å"pax† ages, the movement of people and goods follows the movement of ideas, and vice versa. In our age, this is reflected in the growing influence of supranational governance over national sovereignty when it comes to economic matters. Institutions such as the World Trade Organization, the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, and multi-state organizations like the EU, the GCC, and the ASEAN have more to do with determining the economic courses of individual countries than do their own citizens – a supreme irony in an age which is also characterized by growing democratization and civic participation. Is Globalization Really a â€Å"Natural† Process? Just because globalization is inevitable doesn’t mean it’s beneficial to everyone. Every great period of globalization in history has been marred by inequity, oppression, and general misery for some people. Entire cultures were wiped out in the Roman and Mongol expansions, and the colonial experience of many cultures under British rule was painful in a lot of ways. The United States did not grow to the political, economic, and cultural power that created the Pax Americana without ruining a lot of lives as well, virtually destroying a continent’s worth of diverse, sophisticated Native American cultures as it expanded. In our age, we have seen brutal conflicts in Southeast Asia, in the Middle East, in Central and South America, and in large parts of Africa. Despite living in a relatively peaceful and prosperous world, we also live with the threats of terrorism from various forms of extremism, new diseases, and risks to health and safety created by our own technological prowess, and far too many people still live with the ancient threats of famine, abject poverty, and hopelessness. The difference between our age and the ones that preceded it is that not only are we aware of the imbalances between groups and classes of people and how what we do creates those imbalances, the advances in communications mean that the disadvantaged have a better chance of being aware of it, too – and more to the point, have a better chance of calling attention to their plight. Being â€Å"against globalization† is a futile point of view; it is a basic human aspiration. But knowing what globalization really means, and pursuing it in a manner that causes the most benefit and the least harm, are goals we as a species can and should pursue.