Kairos

If you thought the Bob Garfield chapters were bad, wait until you read this.http://www.businessweek.com/bschools/content/nov2009/bs2009115_016982.htm

It’s disheartening that our world and technology is changing so quickly that our best educators can’t keep up with teaching it. This article says it best— employers are expecting college graduates today to enter the workforce being equipped with all of the latest digital knowledge, and even to teach others within the company. But— how easy is it for us now, in college, to fully learn the latest tools when our professors don’t know how to use them, either?
Ultimately, how do the millions of us in college right now, without structured digital education, thrive in the upcoming job market? There’s the stigma surrounding Gen-Y that we are lazy. However, I believe our generation is going to emerge as the polar opposite of lazy because of the urgent need to start teaching ourselves. There’s a massive shift happening that Gen-Y needs to view as kairos, or “the opportune moment,” to shine.

I’m currently reading Malcolm Gladwell’s “Outliers,” and he discusses how the most successful and rich people didn't become successful solely because of their intelligence and drive, but because of the opportunity that arose as a result of the cultural context. Bill Gates and Steve Jobs were obviously brilliant, but they both were born at the opportune year to be the opportune age to take full advantage of the “computer-boom.” That, combined with practice, hard work, and intelligence, created success for them. The richest people in history were born at times where the world was changing— John D. Rockafeller, Andrew Carnegie, and Andrew Mellon are numbers 1, 2, and 6 richest ever. And, coincidently, they were all born around the industrial revolution— when change was happening at exponential levels. Even Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook happened to be in college at the opportune moment to take advantage of the next shift in communication when social media was in its infancy. He founded the thing in his dorm room, whereas people like me were still in high school; not the opportune age to have the means or focus to create something like Facebook.

But guess what? The tech-shift is still happening. And many of us are still in college. Those younger than us are most likely going to receive digital education, because by the time THEY are in college, the professors will establish a curriculum to cover it. However, for those with the entrepreneurial spirit… it may be kairos.


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The Begininning Of The End

I just read a disgustingly horrifying few chapters of Bob Garfield's new book "The Chaos Scenario." As a 21 year old Advertising Major about to enter the agency world, I'm still trying to decide if I should embrace his insights and take the changing world as a creative opportunity, or hide under my bed with my VHS's, CD players, house phones, Cable TV, and N64. Anyone that knows me understands my hatred for technology and change, but Bob made a point in the first page of his book. "If you don't like change, you're going to like irrelevancy even less." Hence the birth of this blog.

I usually write down things that I find pretty cool in a notebook that sits beside my computer. I'm making the transformation and posting it to the digital space instead of Mead 5-Star. Perhaps some other people out there share a brain as random and A.D.D spackled as mine.

If you're an advertising major in college and want to have anxiety attacks for the next few weeks, download the free chapters of Garfield's book here ----> http://thechaosscenario.net/blog/.

I leave you today with a picture of my current cell phone, which embodies the story of my life.

I promise in upcoming weeks I will post some interesting content for your entertainment. Usually I just tell people about sweet things I come across, but since social media is word-of-mouth on steroids...


I also know attention is the new scarcity. Ending here.


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