RTE is Hiring: Looking for a Research and Editorial Assistant

You Readers Created This Problem (Kidding...Mostly)

Rounding the Earth (RTE) started out as my outlet to share my thoughts on my favorite topics (education, economics, statistics, history, etc.) and post chapters of a book I partially completed (The Chloroquine Wars) about the pharmaganda campaign (borrowing the term from Chris Martenson). I wanted those chapters out more quickly than it would take to complete such a complex book, and the stories moved too fast for any section of the book to feel resolved. So, I just wrote for months on this substack platform (which I give high marks for its technology and business operations), and with an audience that trickled up by four or five per day.

Suddenly, last month, what was a readership of a few hundred people who were mostly scientists, doctors, technical minds, and friends, quickly turned into thousands of people who know things aren't right during the pandemonium, and also know that it's a complex task to understand much of it. While I keep nearly all my content free, subscriptions came in, too, for which I am grateful. 

So too did the network and the workload. It's an impossible task, or perhaps I'm a slow worker trying to balance carefulness with a sense of urgency. I have hundreds of pages of unpublished work and dozens of important topics for which I haven't written the first word. Priorities change rapidly. My inbox is filled with hundreds of emails that I cannot keep up with, and I have 100-200 browser tabs, five spreadsheets, 20 PDFs, and other technical software open at any one moment in time (really). Meanwhile, I am navigating an unfamiliar and contentious labyrinth of publishing scientific papers---both as a primary writer and as a ghost writer.

Oh, and I'm shopping for a home during all of this. And a dog. But after the home.

So, I'll take your generous subscription money (with gratitude) and put it toward a part-time assistant. The job will start on a trial basis and pay will depend on qualifications. I have no idea if this can or will turn into a full time job, but for the moment it will be contract work with no need for a public profile.

Primary qualifications:

• The applicant is already personally motivated by the topics.

• The applicant communicates well, and can work independently.

• The applicant enjoys reading/research and does not mind documenting. I have around 1500 pages of documentation on a large array of topics, some of which has been turned into a sort of community pool that a few volunteers have helped with, but the applicant would focus on one topic at a time according to RTE article priorities.

• Basic editorial abilities. We're not trying to win awards for prose here, but I am dyslexic. While I've spent many years developing my clearly imperfect coping mechanisms while writing some textbooks, thousands of pages of other mathematics curriculum, and a few million blogged words here and there, it speeds my work up and improves its basic readability substantially to have experienced eyeballs on my writing.

• The applicant has flexible time, meaning not currently employed full time.

• High integrity is a primary value.

• Likely 10-15 hours per week to start.

This could be a college graduate, a recently retired and fed up nurse, or somebody smart who walked away from the pinnacle of their career as a horse jockey, so long as they are efficient with basic office computer technology. While I wouldn't mind hiring an assistant outside of the U.S., time zone matching is clearly preferable, give or take.

Please only forward this to high quality people you know who are motivated to help. Applications should be sent to RoundingTheEarth@gmail.com.