Is it already stale?
Although few would argue that I've accomplished nothing in the 15 months since returning from South America, I can't help but feel the things I've been pursuing are, if not meaningless, at minimum not meaningful enough.
I have never felt that merely living one's life while largely ignoring the concerns of others is a healthy way to live. Reading Ishamael has only solidified my thoughts that working a reasonably well-paid corporate job should only be viewed as a means to an end, to be discarded as soon as a more intellectually profitable venture comes along. My conversations with Jen have convinced me that such occupations *are* one there, and that if one merely looks hard enough, a person can find more meaningful fufillment than Taker/corporate/consumer culture.
So, yes, I've been earning money, but I haven't been fufilling any sort of useful goal. My helpdesk job obstenibly helps disadvantaged school-children by helping schools fufill the special education ports of NCLB, but in reality, the best I achieve in a given day is to help a hapless teacher wander the myriad mazes of beaucracy expressed as software.
As I surf the internet in the moments between activity at my job, I have oft run across articles about people who are doing things that are fascinating have have amazing potential. Jane McGonigal's ground-breaking work in Alternative Reality Games resulted in a spate of research regarding ARG's, but I realized that this work would be ultimately unfufilling for me. Anything that can help bring Americans out of their intellectual apathy is grand, but there are far larger concerns than the slow implosion of our country.
The OLPC project is another with tremendous potential. But it already has a massive following, and I can't help but think such a noble project is destined to fail because the creators have not sufficiently studied the ways of corruption and I fear that these laptops will quickly be taken from children (or never put into their hands in the first place) and end up in the black market, grey market, or in the hands of rich first-worlders (there is already a significant clamor to make these machines available to first-world kids).
My latest interest is the work of Amy Smith. She is more on the right track than anyone else (watch her explain her work and results here). But, god, I'd be setting myself up to study applied physics, my most hated science. I dragged my way through my mandatory year of physics classes by skipping class entirely and forcing myself to learn it from the book (anything was better than listening to my godawful prof). I don't know if I could handle another 4+ years of physics. But oh, the things I could do with it.
I don't know.
I have never felt that merely living one's life while largely ignoring the concerns of others is a healthy way to live. Reading Ishamael has only solidified my thoughts that working a reasonably well-paid corporate job should only be viewed as a means to an end, to be discarded as soon as a more intellectually profitable venture comes along. My conversations with Jen have convinced me that such occupations *are* one there, and that if one merely looks hard enough, a person can find more meaningful fufillment than Taker/corporate/consumer culture.
So, yes, I've been earning money, but I haven't been fufilling any sort of useful goal. My helpdesk job obstenibly helps disadvantaged school-children by helping schools fufill the special education ports of NCLB, but in reality, the best I achieve in a given day is to help a hapless teacher wander the myriad mazes of beaucracy expressed as software.
As I surf the internet in the moments between activity at my job, I have oft run across articles about people who are doing things that are fascinating have have amazing potential. Jane McGonigal's ground-breaking work in Alternative Reality Games resulted in a spate of research regarding ARG's, but I realized that this work would be ultimately unfufilling for me. Anything that can help bring Americans out of their intellectual apathy is grand, but there are far larger concerns than the slow implosion of our country.
The OLPC project is another with tremendous potential. But it already has a massive following, and I can't help but think such a noble project is destined to fail because the creators have not sufficiently studied the ways of corruption and I fear that these laptops will quickly be taken from children (or never put into their hands in the first place) and end up in the black market, grey market, or in the hands of rich first-worlders (there is already a significant clamor to make these machines available to first-world kids).
My latest interest is the work of Amy Smith. She is more on the right track than anyone else (watch her explain her work and results here). But, god, I'd be setting myself up to study applied physics, my most hated science. I dragged my way through my mandatory year of physics classes by skipping class entirely and forcing myself to learn it from the book (anything was better than listening to my godawful prof). I don't know if I could handle another 4+ years of physics. But oh, the things I could do with it.
I don't know.