Until someone figures out how to convince a person who claims the earth is 4000 years old that we need to do something about our carbon footprint, we're screwed.

They don't respond to _rational_ argumentation, so they are sure as hell not going to listen to a smart ass in a Prius claiming we're all DOOOOOOOOOOMED.

I sure don't know what the common ground is. Anyone?

Yeah, that was very anonymous.. Well done :p

I work for a hosting company that does a fair amount of in house development, and we never care (even a little) about education in the hiring process. We care a lot about if you're any good of course, but mainly we care if you're an enthusiast.

We've learned over the years that education and current skill set counts for pretty much nothing at all in the long run if you're not INTO your line of work. We had far too many seemingly skilled and highly educated new employees that just seem to stand still. Their idea of further education is that we should pay for courses, when we'd rather spend our money of sending our people to things like Google IO, OSCON, RailsConf and the like. It motivates the hell out of them instead of cramming knowledge down their throats.

I know of several other companies that do the exact opposite, and they claim it works.

Point is, YMMW. Go apply to a few jobs, and stress the fact that you LIKE what you do. It counts for a lot in some places, and even though I can only speak for myself, those places are way more fun and stimulating to work at.

I have to post anonymously and can't name my employer, and you posted anonymously too, so that's a bummer :(

Don't worry, there's a layer of bedrock at the bottom.

I agree with that there's probably a reason to be a little paranoid about what they're doing, but I think you've got it absolutely backwards. They're leveraging G+ to improve their search engine. They earn their money from advertising, and the biggest driver for that is search. It's free labor, and it can greatly improve the quality of search results. That's pretty close to free money.

Think about it, they have had the browsing profiles of most people for a long time already, and they could (and most likely already do) link your profile with those of your contacts. It's not exactly a stretch to imagine ways they can link people together. They might email eachother regularily on Gmail, chat on Google Talk, comment on eachother's Blogger blogs, share access to a site on Google Analytics, participate in the same threads on Google Groups, the list just goes on..

Don't let the urge to fall for conspiracy theories cloud your judgement. I don't consider the scenario above any less scary than what you're suggesting, just a lot more plausible.

Thank you for providing us all with such a great source of news, enjoyment and discussion. You made the Internet a better place.