The Caffeinated Penguin

Posted By matt on September 18, 2004

So, over the past week, I've been driving to and from a customer site up past Boston (90 miles up 95). This has given me plenty of time to think upon many subjects, detailed past the cut.

Subjects: driving, Mass drivers, the American educational system, motivation, coporatism, conforming, disruptive technologies, .

(Note that corporations means large corporations here, like fortune 1000. A small LLC or Inc. with 20 employees is not really within the scope of what I'm talking about here)

- Driving up and down 95 past Boston definitely gets one used to traffic. Taking the curves at 90 makes me want my Volkswagen

- I don't know why people bitch about Mass drivers. Sure, they drive fast, but they seem much better than RI drivers.

- I've ordered John Taylor Gatto's book, “The Underground History of American Education”. It came with a free tape recording of a talk that he gave entitled “A Short Angry History of American Education”. The general point he tries to convey in the talk (and presumably in the book, though to more detail) is that the current nationalized educational system is designed not to educate, but rather to churn out “productive members of society”. What is a productive member of society? Well, for starters, a good corporate citizen. Someone easily managed and controlled.

Think about it – people need to be educated and specialized (especially in technical professions). They do not, however, need to be particularly intelligent or creative. A generally accepted opinion is that large corporations are excellent manufacturers and refiners of design, but poor innovators. Most innovations are acquired by large coporations when they buy some smaller, more innovative company. The employees from the small, innovative company are generally all out the door within five years, and the cycle repeats. Indeed, there are intelligent folks whose whole business model is to create a new business every 5-10 years, get it off the ground, then sell the technology at huge profit.

The problem with intelligent and creative people working in large corporations is that they threaten the status quo, they threaten the structure. They have criticisms, suggestions, and disagreements. They are independent, believing in the autonomy of the individual. This makes them difficult to manage, and ultimately they become frustrated and annoyed and leave the company.

- This brings up the next point – motiviation. Assuming you're an intelligent, creative, independent person, then why do you continue to work for such companies? This becomes an especially important question when putting in huge numbers of hours away from your family. The simple answer is money. You need a job, you need to eat. (We'll get back to this later). Money means fear. You are afraid of being fired, because you need money. However, assume that you are not afraid, because you're arrogant enough to think you can get a job anywhere (and maybe you can). What other reasons?

1. A personal stake – you have a stake in the success or failure of the company.
2. You enjoy what you do – you enjoy your job and don't feel stifled
3. Duty – you have a sense of duty and feel that you owe the company something for hiring you in the first
place.
4. Fear – mentioned above

There are probably more, but these are probably the most. Taking them in order:
1. It's a huge corporation; you have no personal stake. Succeed, you will likely not see any more reward. Fail, and you may get fired, but that's as bad as it can get. After all, you are just a cog in this huge machine.
2. Maybe. I suppose it happens. However, I find it pretty unlikely.
3. This is bred in by a variety of things in the educational system, but doesn't really exist. It's not the military, it's just a job. They owe you no more than a paycheck, you owe them no more than a good day's work.
4. This is where it gets really interesting. Yes, you need money. But how much? This is where education really starts to take place. People are trained to be good consumers, good impulse buyers. “Working jobs we hate so we can buy shit we don't need”. Think about it – companies LOVE it when you buy things. It means you will need to keep working for them to keep the house, cars, computers, toys, and that you can't just up and quit because you hate your job. This is fostered by the incessant marketing bombardment. You have to keep buying things, which means you have to keep working in order to support the cycle.

- So, you need to conform in order to be a good corporate citizen. However, the more interesting thought I'm having now is “what if you don't”? What if you limit yourself to working for small companies – say fewer than 100 people, and that is the way you live your life. Maybe it will be frustrating, but it won't be frustrating in the same way that a nameless, faceless corportation is. You can handle the scope, you can make a difference, you can have an effect.

- Finally, disruptive tecnologoes. Liz and I just bought a Tivo. Tivo was/is a small, innovative company. I can see why most large companies hate them. They're cheap – $100 for the unit + $13/month or $300 lifetime buy for the subscription. However, you are no longer subject to a regimented life. You watch the shows you want and have recorded when you want to see them. There is no need to watch what they want when they want. You don't have to watch incessant drivel anymore. And, most importantly, you don't have to watch commercials. This is perhaps the most serious threat to #4. If you don't see “must-have” products, then you won't buy those products, and therefore you won't need to keep working the nasty job you hate…

Or, maybe I'm just off my rocker.

Suggested reading/viewing:
- Fight Club, Chuck Palahniuk
- Brave New World, Aldus Huxley
- Rollerball (the 1975 one w/ James Caan)

“My grandfather was a painter, he died at age 88 and he illustrated Robert Frost's first two books of poetry and he was looking at me and he said “Harry, there's two kinds of tired: there's good tired, and there's bad tired.” He said, “Ironically enough, bad tired can be a day that you won, but you won other people's battles, you lived other people's days, other people's agendas, other people's dreams, and when it was all over, there was very little you in there, and when you hit the hay at night, you toss and turn, you don't settle easy. Good tired, ironically enough, can be a day that you lost, but you don't even have to tell yourself, because you knew you fought your battles, you chased your dreams, you lived your days, and when you hit the hay at night, you settle easy. You sleep the sleep of the just and you can say “take me away.”" He said, “Harry, all my life, I wanted to be a painter, and I've painted. God, I would have loved to be more successful. But, I've painted, and I've painted, and I am good tired, and they can take me away.” Now, if there is a process, in your and my lives, in the insecurity that we have about a prior life or an afterlife, God, I hope there is a God, if he does exist, he's got a rather wierd sense of humor, but if there's a process that will allow us to live our days, that will allow us that degree of equanimity, towards the end, looking at that black, implacable wall of death, to allow us that degree of peace, that degree of non-fear, I want in.” – Harry Chapin

Category: LJ Import
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