Penelope Trunk

My theory is this post, along with this woman's online identity, is an elaborate troll on feminism. Let's explore.

"Here is a Blueprint for a Woman’s Life which I published. It is full of recommendations for how to make choices based on what we know women really want for themselves. It does not involve getting VC funding."

Hmm. It's kind of weird for anybody to pretend they can tell anyone else how to live their life, since figuring out how to life your life in your own way is what makes it your life and not someone else's. But whatever. Let's read a bit into this thing and see what she talks about...

She posted a list of things all women should be doing with their life. Here's the list verbatim (from http://blog.penelopetrunk.com/2011/08/16/blueprint-for-a-womans-life/):

1. Do less homework.
2. Get plastic surgery.
3. Go to business school right out of the gate.
4. Start early looking for a husband seriously.
5. Milk maternity leave for all it's worth.
6. Guard your marriage obsessively.
7. Practice austerity.
8. Do a startup with a guy.
9. If you can't get men to do a startup with you, do a lifestyle business.
10. Homeschool. Your kids will be screwed if you don't.
11. Spend money on household help and Botox to keep more doors open longer.
12. Break the mold in your 40s.

All of that sounds like wonderful advice. It's a really thought-provoking and insightful read. Her only problem is she doesn't go far enough. First of all, you want to marry…

Besides the excellent advice, I enjoy this article quite a bit:

http://blog.penelopetrunk.com/2006/08/20/9-tips-for-quitting-a-job-gracefully/

Truncated:
__
"1. Go before things get bad.
.."I realized I was hitting a point where I was going to start acting out." Like Lynn, you need to know yourself and be honest about how you're feeling on the job so you don't let your emotions get out of hand.

2. Make a good first step.
"The very first person that you should tell you're leaving is your boss,"..

3. Leave the door open a crack.
If you've done good work, there is no reason you couldn't come back later..

6. Trust that the company can continue without you.
"People think the world is going to end if they quit their job," says Lynn. "In my last job, everyone who quit thought everything would go wrong, but it's easily fixed and everyone's replaceable."

7. Set yourself up for a good reference.
.."You want to be sure the trail you leave is a positive one,".."I have never, in my 20 years of recruiting, had someone not answer questions about references."
[I can attest to this..regardless of legality]

8. Manage the in-between time carefully.
"Burn no bridges," warns Brendon Connelly, author of the popular blog Slacker Manager. Sometimes quitting a job is as loaded as dumping a lover.
..

This is one of those times we tend not to see ourselves clearly, writes Daniel Ames, professor at Columbia Business School. Hitting the right note of assertiveness — not too much and not too…

The author of the piece, Penelope Trunk, has a well-established pattern: write a highly flammable headline followed by a long, off-the-cuff piece intended to grab attention and generate page views via controversy de jour.

The article does not even broach any of the important issues being discussed around telecommuting: trust, productivity, team gelling, etc. But instead takes advantage of a recent controversy and adds a little spin from Trunk's tired routine in order to generate page views and comments.

She once wrote that travelling is a waste of time (for her, but she projects it to everyone). After reading this a few years ago, I actively started to dislike this person immediately.

http://blog.penelopetrunk.com/2009/08/17/4-reasons-travel-for-fun-is-a-waste-of-time/

Let's discuss the actual message of the post. Two paragraphs in I'm already in full rage mode. Giving up your life for a company is ok? I understand dedication, even the occasional extra few hours, but what Mrs. Trunk is proposing is literally living at work, which we all know is unmaintainable and unhealthy for most of us. Research has shown that there is a tiny portion of the population that can get 4 hours a sleep and maintain 16 hour days, but that's only about 1% of us. The rest of us have bodies and lives to maintain.

> Or does a family spending most of their $75K income renting a 500 sf apartment in NY experience the same level of happiness as an equivalent family in a remote suburb with much more living space.

There has been some research done around how some people who live in cities (especially those who can be paid a relatively high livable wage) are those who want the local optimum of their available choices (maximizers). [1,2]

This tends to make them possibly less happy than those who have less choices. For instance, if you live in London or NYC, there are hundreds of options for nightlife and entertainment - and you might want to be somewhere else even if you are at club X (fear of missing out).

But the reality is:

"Happiness is complicated. Wherever you live." [3]

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Paradox_of_Choice:_Why_More_Is_Less

[2] http://blog.penelopetrunk.com/2012/02/14/the-real-value-of-diversity/

[3] http://www.theatlanticcities.com/arts-and-lifestyle/2011/10/urban-rural-happiness-debate/290/

Wow, this is horribly bad advice and the examples provided to bolster it appear disingenuous.

Sure, Mark Cuban lived on bar food and crashed on a single couch in an apartment shared with a number of other guys, but that was before he'd even started as an employee selling software at a small tech shop! As soon as his means let him live better, he did.

The example provided for Penelope Trunk is even worse: The temporary blindness, stress-induced pain, and apparent psychosis seems to have cropped up just as her latest company started accelerating down the road to ruin ( as told at, http://blog.penelopetrunk.com/2009/01/05/7-things-to-consider-before-launching-a-startup/ )

I don't know how long the author's been in business but, if you follow your own advice, your body is likely to give out before your company has an exit.

Your company exists for your benefit, not the other way around.

I'm not sure why people still take Penelope Trunk seriously.

http://blog.penelopetrunk.com/2011/08/16/blueprint-for-a-womans-life/

This should be enough to convince you that she is full of shit. She doesn't practice what she preaches and holds very strongly to the status quo.

She actively discourages women from entering the startup world, so no wonder she is annoyed that some people are trying to encourage women.

http://blog.penelopetrunk.com/2011/03/05/the-workplace-should-be-segregated-maybe/

She regards inequality and unbalance as a non-problem and generalizes that all women are the same.

http://venturebeat.com/2011/11/29/woman-problem-what-woman-problem/

http://baileybear.hubpages.com/hub/Penelope-Trunk-Brazen-Careerist-or-Brazen-Narcissist

Listening to anything this woman says seems to do more harm than good.