Technology

Are You Thinking About Less In Your Career?

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If you told me ten years ago people would be playing a game on their phones that was birds being flung at pigs, I wouldn’t believe you.  Oh, and ditto on the entire jewel-moving thing.  Games were always bout bigger and better, baby!

Have I mentioned I really like Angry Birds?

Or maybe that people would be publishing little pamphlets again, many in electronic format.  I’d probably give you a dull look and ask why – people seem to love books of a certain size.  Oh, and pamphlets are for blogs.

By the way, I just helped edit one and am working on my own.

The Windows 8 interface is simple – probablyy too simple.

Android is taking things by storm, and it’s a simpler-interfaced Linux.

Everything is icons.

It seems sometimes less is really more – or more what people may want in some cases.  It’s pretty big in the geekonomy right now.  So I want to ask you this . . .

Are you thinking about what less means for your career?

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How Borderlands 2 Illustrates Changing Content and Involvement

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As you may have guessed, some of us here are seriously digging Borderlands 2.  I’m enjoying it and am currently on the first DLC campaign AND running a second game with a DLC character.  Jose penned his own love letter to it when it first came out (where did he get the time?).  All things aside, it’s a great game, filled with references, and has a crazy cute robot named Claptrap who at one point threatens to violate a villain’s corpse.

Really, it’s great.  Also, the Commando class rules and you can’t prove me wrong.

But what’s interesting on a pro geek level, is that the game has several great lessons for those of us working in gaming and content.  Beyond the whole angry-cute-robot angle.

One of the great lessons?  Mindshare.  A lesson that shows how we need to rethink content.

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How 3D Printing Could Change More Than We Think

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So if you follow our Twitter feed, you saw the awesome news that Teenage Engineering, a synthesizer company, encourages people to print 3D replacement parts for their synthesizers.

Now that’s awesome on the whole cool-technology-culture, thing.  It’s also pretty awesome from a customer service perspective.  But I want you to think about this a bit further.

  1. This idea is great for making things easier on companies and customers.
  2. There are sites like Shapeways that will 3D print for you.
  3. There are also industrial collectives that have various tools people pool money to use.
  4. This is a lot like Print On Demand.
  5. Print On Demand is spreading, such as Kodak’s deals with CVS. (If Kodak can stop laying people off so they don’t have enough people to do it).

Now you probably see where I’m going here.  If POD is spreading, 3D printing can spread as well – it certainly seems to be.  I can easily see companies like CVS, Lowes, Home Depot, etc. keeping 3D printers around to make custom components.  Hell, some companies may let you print entire products in time.

Think what this means culture – and of course career wise.

  • People will need to be able to operate these things.  This changes supposed retail jobs and may give people options to move up at careers – and think of how companies may need POD or 3D printer managers and experts.
  • Companies could use this as further outsourcing.  They could literally exist as entities providing directions and support to print.
  • This changes consumer behavior.
  • This chances storage and mailing behavior.
  • This will bring up a lot of fascinating legal challenges (go for it geek lawyers).

So what do you think?

– Steven Savage

Steven Savage is a Geek 2.0 writer, speaker, blogger, and job coach.  He blogs on careers at http://www.fantopro.com/, nerd and geek culture at http://www.nerdcaliber.com/, and does a site of creative tools at http://www.seventhsanctum.com/. He can be reached at https://www.stevensavage.com/.