Given that those attributes are some orthogonal to McArdle’s, I can only assume that they’re grooming a replacement a la Breaking Bad.

I once ate a bad burrito and approached some tasks with velocity and high metabolism for days.

reflected in discipline and rigor of thought as manifested, often, in exceptional academic performance.

Is there another definition of “often” that I’m missing?

Text must have been chopped off – I don’t see anything about “legacy hire” or “nihilist contrarian” in there…

Feeling the urge to velocify my metabolisms. My boss will be thrilled. He might get a boner, though.

But, but, “exceptional academic performance” means they’ve been brainwashed by all the libs of academe!!

They want someone skinny.

Doesn’t “I come from a family of academics who are actually intellectually intimidating” count as “exceptional academic performance”?

Because I am sure McAddled thinks it does.

Possibly the job includes the ability to avoid writing lines such as “willing to approach tasks with velocity and high metabolism”, I mean, WTF?

I hate drafting a job description only to see the published version mangled into an H.R. word salad.

Oh, I like that: “manifested, often, in exceptional academic performance.”

The grades/right college barrier to entry again.

The founders of the Atlantic must be, es, spinning in their graves. Another once-proud literary institution.

Of course, they jumped that shark when they hired McMegan. Why James Fallows and Ta-Nehisi Coates remain, I’m not sure. Perhaps they get a bonus for compensating for the presence of McMegan.

Possibly the job includes the ability to avoid writing lines such as “willing to approach tasks with velocity and high metabolism”, I mean, WTF?

Trust me — for much of my life I’ve worked for companies where good writing was valued, but HR departments inevitably exist on its own plane, with their own horrible, jargon-y vocabulary.

I’m pretty sure they meant that they want someone who will approach tasks with velociraptors. And if I mention velociraptors, I’m equally sure that Intertubes law requires me to link to this.

Sounds to me like McMegan is getting a ghost writer.

$6.95/hour
Intern.
Summa, Brown.
Waiting to hear from LSE.
Mummy & Pop letting him live in their summerlet.

I think where you all have gone wrong, is the single most important word in there: “candidates”. There’s a difference, you know, between the “candidates” that you are required by modern liberal political correctness to “consider”, and the person you have decided to hire. The difference mainly involves the right sort of family and social skills.

…is “at least 3 to 7″ more or less than “at least 3″? Or did they mean “at least 3 and at most 7″, and why 3 and 7 (as opposed to, say 2 and 5, or 4 and 6, or 3 and 10 with no more than 3 years off for prison)?

“it’s as if millions of brain cells cried out in terror, and were suddenly snuffed out.”

Hey, don’t let me get in the way of a right rogering of McMegan, BUT, Simon Johnson’s Quiet Coup was about the best thing I ever read in the Atlantic.

http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2009/05/the-quiet-coup/7364/

And hey, at least she’ll always have the Himalayan Pink Salt Mines! Also.

Hey T, let me know if your interested in my old and well worn copy of the Milagro Beanfield War. I’d be honored to pass it along, and can’t think of anyone else I know that I haven’t already forced it upon.
I’d be glad to pop it in the mail!

can’t think of anyone else I know that I haven’t already forced it upon.

laughing, really.

Well, I’m wary of giving my physical address on the internet (googled myself today for job-hunting purposes, and found book listserv comments from 1997!!

But, heck, here’s my email in word form: tejanarusa [drop the final a ] 55 at yahoo dot com.

I’d be honored to receive a gift from one of my fave TBogg commenters. (or do I presume too much…will be happy to return it if you wish. OTOH, I have a copy of The Great Gatsby borrowed from a co-worker in approx. 1974…found it in a box last week)(if that info changes your mind, I’ll understand)

velocity and high metabolism

I think they mean “no fatties need apply.”

Do you suppose they thnk “metabolism” is a synonym for “energy”?

I’m sure some ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT is going to take this job from some hardworking, deserving legacy hire.

Atlantic Media recruits for two personal attributes in its candidates. The first is force of intellect – reflected in discipline and rigor of thought as manifested, often, in exceptional academic performance. The second is a personal spirit of generosity – a natural disposition towards service and selfless conduct

bwahahahahahahaha.

I’m sorry, but what?

Johnson’s piece was obviously a hired gun article. The fact that good people write for the Atlantic doesn’t excuse the fact that they employ one of the single worst excuses for a “business and economics editor” in the history of the universe. No amount of Fallows and Coates will cover that shame.

The second is a personal spirit of generosity – a natural disposition towards service and selfless conduct.

I read that to mean – Happy to work for $.25 more than minimum wage.