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The Big Score And Bad Economics

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(Sorry for the delay in posts, been a tad busy!)

Economic policies, economic choices like careers and business plans, are of utmost importance in life.  Sun Tzu may have talked the importance of war, but I wish the guy had taken a little more time to focus on economic issues as well.  Then again he was kind of busy being brilliant.*

When one considers economic issues in a society, the most important thing is sustainability – can one maintain a functional system or even enhance it over time.   This is necessary to society as society itself is essentially a long-term thing – no long-term economics, no society as many nations have found out throughout history.  When there is no planning and cultivating of a sustainable economy (or half-baked planning constrained by ignorance, ideology, or moral faults) there is no stability, no success, and no society.

Needless to say I see great examples of bad planning and bad policy today.  Hopefully you see them, but by now fish may have no word for water.**

There are many reasons for that, but one thing I feel should be examined – and which is not examined as much as it should be – is the idea of the “Big Score.”

The “Big Score” permeates our culture and our economic culture.  It’s the lottery win, the perfect IPO release, the Big Novel that makes you famous for life.  It’s the idea of having the bit, the big victory, and then everything will be fine.  It’s the economic version of the Rapture.

In the small, the “Big Score” is believing that college degree will set you for life – and in the large it is the idea that our student loan bubble won’t hurt “us.”  In the small, the “Big Score” is the idea of the IPO that’ll make you rich forever, and in the large everyone thinking they’ll be the next Facebook before the VC pulls out.  In the small, the “Big Score” is hoping for a piddly tax break you’re convinced will jump start the economy forever, while wondering what happened to the school system.

In a way, the “Big Score” is the Winner-Take-All/Superstar effect internalized.  It’s the idea you will/can triumph and have it all fantastic forever.  You just need to get there “once”, forgetting plenty of others want to get there too.

Of course we don’t get there.  We don’t build a sustainable system, a sustainable economy, a sustainable career, a sustainable life.  We focus too much on the low-chance “Big Score” and not enough on the possibility of a sustainable economy or economic life.

Then we wonder what happened.

– 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/.

* I do recommend reading “The Art Of War” so you can know about what everyone pretends they read.

** I could have made an “underwater housing” joke here, but didn’t.  You’re welcome.

What Isn’t Education?

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Lately I’ve been thinking over issues of education – and that, namely, we need a lot more of it.  The world is more complex, the environment is changing on us (yes, manmade global warming, taste the science), there’s new inventions every day, education is big in some countries yet under attack here in the US, student loans are insane . . .

*SLAP*

OK I’m back now.  Sorry.

Anyway, one thing that has come into my mind lately is that education is something that needs to be focused more on, more needs to be done, and more people need – and have to – be educated.  It’s a complex world out there and you need to know more and more just to function effectively.  It’s a global world out there and you have to be able to sell things to people in China, swap jokes with someone in India, and explain issues with a guy in Britain.  It’s a world where you need to know how stuff works and how to make things work.

As you may have guessed by my above rant, I’m not exactly happy with the state of formal education right now.  Actually I’m rather worried about the state of education because it affects our economy, it affects our quality of life, it affects my fellow citizens, and I don’t want to live in a society of uneducated people.

I don’t want to deal with people who wonder why the download elves haven’t gotten their files to them yet through the magic plastic tablet.*

So lately considering the dismal state of schools and  . . . well everything, I began asking myself the inevitable question: how can technology help education.

In fact this question is important for we progeeks as education is going to affect our careers directly, indirectly, and could even be our careers.  Some of my usual online gang knows that in my past job searches I was talking to several educational tech/service companies because . . . well it fits me.

It could well fit you.  The only thing is . . . where is education going with modern technology.

The problem is  . . . right now everything can be education.

We are in a very highly wired society.  If you told me ten years ago people would be watching films, reading books, and viewing pornography** on thin plastic tablets, I wouldn’t have believed you.  Now everything is about the internet, which means everything is about communication (even if that communication is trivial or B.S.)

Which means right now anything can be education.

Books can come in ebook form.

Classes can be done by video

Tutorials can be recorded and displayed.

Automated walkthrougs can be constructed

Right now we have so many ways to educate.  We’re just not using them – or finding the best way to use them.  Maybe the answer in many cases is just “here’s an online guide, now go buy the physical book and read the bloody thing,” but we still have to find the right answer.

That answer is going to be harder than people may realize.

So there’s a challenge for some of you progeeks.  Right now leveraging all this wonder to make education work in this modern age – for as many people as possible – is a big challenge.  As a teacher, developer, member of a startup, etc. you might just be one to figure out how the heck we use all this stuff to make people more informed and less dumb***.

– 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/.

* Download elves would be a great band name.

** Hey you people in coffee shops, we can see you.  The screen resolution is better than you think.

*** A lot less, please.

 

 

The Debate Died Early

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The Obama/Romney debate was unimpressive (big looser?  Jim Lehrer).  From what I hear about the Stewart/O’Reilly debate it was livlier but uninsipriing.  Everyone’s already talking Twitter, Facebook, and how that impacts the debates.  Big Bird is a meme, the Stewart/O’Reilly debate’s technical glitches are being discussed, and the debates kind of fade away.

I miss the idea of good, substantial debate.  Catchphrases, bumper stickers, and blatant lies aren’t exactly the substance of great historical import.  Neither is statistics diddling or mathematical games.

So I began speculating that perhaps the internet is replacing debates.  There you can post length discussions and link to numbers.  There the dialog is ongoing.  There things happen.

My answer to this is, possibly, yes.  But I don’t think the internet killed the debate.

I think that it died a lot earlier in our media.

Everything is turned into media sound bites, spectacle, and sensationalism, and our supposed politics and policies aren’t much different.  It’s an age of sensationalism and catchphrases, of what makes audiences angry over any kind of discussion, of what sells ad time.  Politics is entertainment – it’s always been, but it’s pretty much merged as far as I’m concerned, accelerated by television, media empires, and 24-hour news cycles people have to fill.

Worse, it’s a mix of advertising and reality television.

To put the final capper on it, it’s been entertainment long enough for people to imitate it.  You’ve heard the catchphrases bubble up in people’s political discussions.  You know the people who ape their favorite media-news pundits.  This reality-TV politics has infected us.

So debates are dead.  We just started killing them early – and I think the internet is replacing the gap.

Even if that gap sometime is using LOLCats as template for political discussions.

– 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/.