"One of the pro forma questions is.... this: 'Are there any concerns about your probity?'

"The first time I was asked, I said that I would reply only on condition that the person who asked would answer two questions. The first was what kind of person would answer such a question. The second was what kind of person would ask it. My appraiser got the point at once and laughed nervously. He told me that it was all nonsense, that nobody took any notice of it anyway. But then I asked him what kind of person took part unprotestingly in processes that were worse than merely a waste of time."

     -- from the article above

There are many questions which condemn anyone who takes them seriously, either by asking them, or by answering them in a spirit of good-hearted earnestnees, rather than to regard those who would take such a question seriously, asked or answered, with the contempt due them. 

One such is an apparent favorite of employers and even of busybody hiring committees, or at least the dumber members of such committees. And that question is this: "What you do see yourself in five years"? 

Those who ask such a question should be shot. Far too many are allowed to escape with their lives.  on

As a youngster with siblings, and as all young everywhere will do, we heathens of Doris and Bud many times wronged the rules or wrecked the rights of heart and hearth. Standing in line facing our punishment he would ask, “Who did it?” Then we, children, with magnified feral fear, broke. The razor strap presented the ultimate instrument of betrayal and empathy failed to save guiltless. Oh, to die, and be free of probity.

Another (yet another!) fascinating essay from a writer whose greatness is surely compelling to thoughtful persons and whom I have come to love (no no no; not THAT way).

How about this for an idiotic question, asked of an applicant, asked of me many times as supplicant to mundane wage-slave employment: "Why do you want to work for the Widget Company?" The tempting response:  "I am curious how a dim bulb like you gets a responsible job here."

I knew the answer, inexorable.

Lighter objects  rise, ineluctable.

Proverbs 26:12

Do you see a man wise in his own eyes? There is more hope for a fool than for him.

Your new article, "Neither Lender Nor Borrower" is somehow not linked so when I try to click on it, it does not come up.

Thank you!