I finished reading Malcom Gladwell's latest book, Outliers, a few nights ago.
I know what I have to say about this book is going to be completely esoteric, in the sense that you will likely have to read it before fully participating. Not that you're not brilliant people; I'm sure you can easily make sense out of my words. But my fear is that if you haven't read it, you may be tempted to take some of the things I say at face value, which is not how they're written -- they're written with the mental tapestry of Outliers as a background. I'm not sure of another way to do this, as I want to attempt to take the concepts Gladwell presents in Outliers one step further.
You should probably view these initial paragraphs as much of a disclaimer as anything else, as I don't want to "give away" the book for you. Go read it and come on back!
I enjoyed this read immensely, as I have all of Gladwell's works, and this is perhaps even my favorite. Where all his works provide plenty of abstract intellectual fodder for my mind to gleefully process for weeks, Outliers has a sharp edge of pragmatism that makes it special. It also contains tinges of the kind of social activism that really revs my engine, turns my crank, places my soapbox before a microphone... that kind of thing. Here's a few thoughts:
1. Education
How can the educational system continue to ignore works like this? In Outliers, Gladwell presents a bevy of facts (not to mention crystal clear logic) for how and why the college admission process, for one thing, is mostly an outdated ludicrous absurdity. But he doesn't stop there; it turns out, the social constructs we've built around most organized projects (schools, sports, music, etc.) have become self-fulfilling prophecies, archetypal facades that have been built on so many layers of edifice that they can no longer even see where they began, and for what purpose.
How does one even go about reforming these magnificent disasters of greed and perpetual fragmentation? Do we even try? I'm inclined to encourage the beginning of something else; to foster and support a brand new educational model, for example, that can hopefully someday replace the current system. (Gladly, some of this discussion has already begun: P21, KIPP, etc..)
2. Self-Made BS
I love the idea that the "self-made man" is a total myth. I've suspected this to be true for awhile, intuitively, so it's nice to see some logical background for it. The truth is, nobody makes it on their own. EVER.
This makes infinitely more sense to me. People don't live in a vacuum; we are constantly "made" by our social surroundings. That's not to say we have no control, but once we begin to realize that we need to change our surroundings and not just ourselves, I think we'll be a long way towards undersatnding how to better create the future.
3. Social Assessments
How can we connect an understanding of the social construction component in success with studies of our own lives, past and future?
This is the issue that intrigues me the most about the implications of Outliers: is there a way to somehow extrapolate a model from Gladwell's work to where we could analyze our own life story -- our own social constructs, our family backgrounds, the month and year in which we were born, and the particular moment of history we were born into -- and combine it with personal research into individual talents and strengths, and then multiply that knowledge by what we are passionate about, thereby providing a much more insigntful process into each person's unique "place in the world"...??
Seems like a an intense endeavor, to say the least, but just imagine the possibilities if we could! We've already made so much progress within individualized assessments (psychological, emotional, talent, etc.); why couldn't we develop systems to generate "social" or "contextual" assessments?
//
Perhaps you are on the cutting edge of technological innovation, are already harnessing the awesome syndicating power of RSS, and recognize it for what it is: a snapshot of what the web will become in the next few years.
But if you're confused about what the heck RSS even IS (much less pondering its future ramifications), this post is for you.
Now, I'm pretty nerdy. I get some serious jollies from techno-dorky articles, read blogs like Engadget fairly regularly, and sleep with my iPhone under my pillow so I can feel connected to the world (just kidding on that last one... most nights). But honestly -- can anything with the word SIMPLE in its title (RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication) be MORE confusing than RSS?
Even with my techie proclivities, RSS was confusing at first. I've searched all over the web trying to find an article that will clearly explain what it is -- and more importantly, how the heck to use it productively. Trust me: everything out there sucks. (OK, I didn't read them ALL, but whatever.) So I decided it's time for me to give it a shot. Hopefully my explanation will suck less than the others.
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RSS INFO STARTS HERE
At its core, the idea of RSS is somewhat simple. All it IS is a single page called a "feed" that compiles and lists new articles that are posted to a specific site. That's it: one page that will list the new stuff that is put on a site.
A blog is the probably the best example. The reason people visit blogs repeatedly is to see new content. Most blogs have RSS feeds because they are updated regularly.
Or take a news site like CNN.com for example. They currently offer two different RSS "feeds:" one for Top Stories and one for Recent Stories. Remember: feed is the word typically used to describe that singular page that is continually updated. Each feed page will typically list the 10-20 most recently written articles.
With me so far??
The "feed" is crucial because it is the piece that will actually make RSS helpful.
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SUMMARY SO FAR
So... so far we have a page that is updated by whomever is authoring the webpage. That page is called a feed, and is essentially what people are talking about when they say "RSS." But the other piece to this equation, that is sadly much less often discussed, is how the heck we make it USEFUL and/or why we should CARE about it!
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WHY YOU SHOULD CARE
I don't know if you feel this way, but one of my biggest challenges is staying updated with what's happening around the world while at the same time not being utterly overwhelmed by the staggering amount of information that's out there. Frankly, I don't even remotely care about all of the news out there, but there are some things (for me it's things like technology, entertainment, and economics) that I want to make sure I'm current with.
This is where RSS actually makes my life easier.
What you can do is take one of those RSS feed pages and "subscribe" to it.
The benefit of subscribing to an RSS feed is that the news you want comes to you. You don't have to go looking for it, explore a bunch of different sites, or waste a bunch of time.
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HOW TO SUBSCRIBE
In order to subscribe, the first thing you need to know is how to recognize if a website is providing an RSS feed. If the site you're on provides RSS, up in your URL bar (where the website address is) you'll see an icon on the far right side that will probably look like one of these:
If it's got one of these (or something similar), you're in business! They're providing an RSS feed and you can subscribe. (As you should be able to see, this blog site provides an RSS feed.)
To subscribe, though, you need something that will "read" the feed. It's just like you need an Internet Explorer, Safari, or Firefox browser to "read" a website. Make sense? You could most likely use that same browser to read an RSS feed, but you're not really gaining much, as you still have to go to each site and you'll just be looking at a more boring version of the articles. (This will probably make more sense if you click on a few of the feed links I provided above.) RSS feeds aren't pretty, and they aren't meant to be a substitute for a webpage; they're actually built to be subscribed to! Remember, the trick is to make the news COME TO YOU.
So the question, then, is what should I use to "read" these feeds, right?
There are a few "online" readers -- Google and Yahoo both have them built into their account services. These would probably be useful if you have a Gmail or a MyYahoo account. But for the rest of us -- particularly if you use Outlook or Apple Mail -- I would suggest just using your email program as a reader!
This is where it gets a bit tricky, as there isn't one way to subscribe to an RSS feed; it varies by browser and by email program. If you're using IE7 and Outlook 2007, this page looks like it would be helpful.
If you're using Safari, just click on the RSS button in the right side of URL bar. (If it shows options, pick one and see if it lists the things you want. If it doesn't, try the others.) This opens the feed, and at the bottom of the menu list on the right you'll see an option that says: "Subscribe in Mail." Click it. It's that easy!
The major benefit of using your email program as your reader is that not only do you get the benefits of RSS and the latest updated news will come straight to you, but If you're like me, you have your email open ALL THE TIME anyway! This way, if one of your news sources updates a feed, you'll get the new article right away, just like a new email!
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BLOGS
As mentioned, most blogs have an RSS feature built in, as well. For example, you can feel free to subscribe to my blog, if you like. Click here for my feed (or click the RSS icon above).
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THE FUTURE
RSS offers us a glimpse into the future of the internet -- technology like this gives us a way to manage something as vast and completely unmanageable as the internet (which is, of course, growing more gorged with every second that passes as people add more content to its servers). I'm convinced that we will see more and more applications like this as we are forced to find ways to make SENSE of the petabytes of information that will bombard us.
We're probably not as far from this as we think:
So, enjoy RSS for what is is.
Because soon it will be scanning your retina. ;-)
//
If it's got one of these (or something similar), you're in business! They're providing an RSS feed and you can subscribe. (As you should be able to see, this blog site provides an RSS feed.)
To subscribe, though, you need something that will "read" the feed. It's just like you need an Internet Explorer, Safari, or Firefox browser to "read" a website. Make sense? You could most likely use that same browser to read an RSS feed, but you're not really gaining much, as you still have to go to each site and you'll just be looking at a more boring version of the articles. (This will probably make more sense if you click on a few of the feed links I provided above.) RSS feeds aren't pretty, and they aren't meant to be a substitute for a webpage; they're actually built to be subscribed to! Remember, the trick is to make the news COME TO YOU.
So the question, then, is what should I use to "read" these feeds, right?
There are a few "online" readers -- Google and Yahoo both have them built into their account services. These would probably be useful if you have a Gmail or a MyYahoo account. But for the rest of us -- particularly if you use Outlook or Apple Mail -- I would suggest just using your email program as a reader!
This is where it gets a bit tricky, as there isn't one way to subscribe to an RSS feed; it varies by browser and by email program. If you're using IE7 and Outlook 2007, this page looks like it would be helpful.
If you're using Safari, just click on the RSS button in the right side of URL bar. (If it shows options, pick one and see if it lists the things you want. If it doesn't, try the others.) This opens the feed, and at the bottom of the menu list on the right you'll see an option that says: "Subscribe in Mail." Click it. It's that easy!
The major benefit of using your email program as your reader is that not only do you get the benefits of RSS and the latest updated news will come straight to you, but If you're like me, you have your email open ALL THE TIME anyway! This way, if one of your news sources updates a feed, you'll get the new article right away, just like a new email!
+++
BLOGS
As mentioned, most blogs have an RSS feature built in, as well. For example, you can feel free to subscribe to my blog, if you like. Click here for my feed (or click the RSS icon above).
+++
THE FUTURE
RSS offers us a glimpse into the future of the internet -- technology like this gives us a way to manage something as vast and completely unmanageable as the internet (which is, of course, growing more gorged with every second that passes as people add more content to its servers). I'm convinced that we will see more and more applications like this as we are forced to find ways to make SENSE of the petabytes of information that will bombard us.
We're probably not as far from this as we think:
So, enjoy RSS for what is is.
Because soon it will be scanning your retina. ;-)
//I was meaning to write a profound and incendiary blog post today about something I recently learned of called The Tytler Cycle, but in my research, I came across an article written by John Eberhard and posted on CommonSenseGovernment.com. I don't know anything about the author or the website it came from, but this essay is fascinating and communicates some of the very things I considered writing about.
Eberhard posted this on 09/15/03, but it seems just as poignant today, if not more so.
Here's the Wikipedia page on Tytler
//
Alexander Tytler [was] a Scottish historian who lived at the same time as the American Founding Fathers, [and] described a repeating cycle in history. He had found that societies went through this same cycle again and again, and that the cycle lasted roughly 200 years each time.
Tytler said the cycle starts out with a society in bondage. Then it goes in this sequence:
From bondage to spiritual faith;
From spiritual faith to great courage;
From courage to liberty;
From liberty to abundance;
From abundance to complacency;
From complacency to apathy;
From apathy to dependence;
From dependence back into bondage.
Tytler organized these items in a circle:
So to give a little more on the sequence above, a society starts out in bondage, meaning no or very limited freedoms. Now faced with a very difficult situation (bondage), they turn to religion and religious faith. Through this they achieve the courage they need to fight for and win their freedom. Next, through the benefits of freedom, they achieve an abundance in material things.
Now we start into the other side of the circle/cycle. We get selfishness and laziness setting in. Then we get apathy and finally dependence. Then we arrive back up at the top with bondage again.
I was intrigued. I looked for information on Tytler on the Internet, could find none, and finally wrote to Dr. Brooks. [Note: Dr. Shannon Brooks gave a lecture on politics at George Wythe College in Salt Lake City called "The Liber," which is where Eberhard learned of Tytler.] He told first how to spell Tytler's name, and told me that most of Tytler's work has been completely lost. On further online search I found a number of sites with limited information on Tytler, but little more than what Brooks had said in his lecture.
I found this cycle to be very interesting in relation to where we are in the United States today. Dr. Brooks said he has asked the question of where the U.S. is in this cycle, in every one of these lectures he has given, to over 10,000 people to date. No one so far has said that we are on the right side of the cycle (spiritual faith, courage, liberty, abundance). Everyone has said we are somewhere on the left side of the circle (selfishness, complacency, apathy, dependence).
Let's talk about selfishness for a second. We have a situation in America today where many people are trying to get whatever they can out of the "system," with no concern of how this hurts the overall group of the United States of America.
Remember JFK's words at his inauguration speech? "Ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country." You'd be hard pressed to find that sentiment in America today.
You've got one third of the US Post Office and the US Printing Office out at any given time on Workers Compensation disability. Does anyone really believe that at any given time, one third of those workers are injured so badly (and injured on the job mind you) so that they are physically unable to work? There are cases documented of federal government employees, for example, going out on disability in 1983, and collecting $5,000 per month for the last twenty years on a completely fraudulent claim. And only now is something being done about some of these cases.
How about all the damage claims cases in the courts? We've perhaps lost our incredulity for suits against the tobacco companies. But how about the new crop of suits against the fast food companies because they somehow misled people about the fact that their food is not really that good for you and (horrors) the customers became fat.
Recently a person sued his neighbor because that neighbor's dog bit him. And he won! Despite the fact that he was in the neighbor's yard at the time within the reach of the dog who was tied up, and was throwing rocks, antagonizing the dog!
Then we've got the welfare class. My mother taught school in the inner city, and would sometimes ask kids what they wanted to do when they grew up. They would sometimes reply, "Get high and get drunk." These kids' parents had been on welfare their entire lives and these kids expected to do the same. Why work or learn or achieve anything in class?
Selfishness Crisis
What we have in the U.S. today is a selfishness crisis. And believe me, this did not exist in any way, shape or form 227 years ago.
We have a generation, many of whom are looking for a way to bleed the system to get their "fare share." We could call them the "entitlement class." But it goes beyond the welfare class to people with jobs and careers, looking for some way to "cash in" in some way. There are many variations, but the common denominator is people looking for a way to get some kind of a free ride, in a manner in which they did not work for it or earn it.
This reaches even to the tops of corporate America, with the recent bunch of corporate executives and CEOs that had a lapse of ethics and conscience and seem to have forgot such annoying things as laws, in the interest of their own personal fortunes. Enron et al.
I'm not necessarily saying we are at the "selfishness" part of Tytler's cycle. We might have gone past that point. But we are at least up to that point. And complacency, apathy and dependence are not far behind. You could argue that some people today, such as those who have been on welfare for years, are in the dependence part of the cycle. I know that we had federal welfare reform passed a few years ago and that things are improving somewhat in that zone, but there's no question that dependency has become a way of life for a certain portion of our citizenry.
And when a people becomes completely dependent, they can be made into slaves. Rather easily.
What Next?
Since learning of this Tytler cycle, hearing the lecture myself and meeting Dr. Brooks, and discussing the issue with friends, I've been grappling with the idea that our country may go through a major crisis within the next 30-50 years.
As someone who feels that the United States is without a doubt the best form of government ever seen on this planet, the idea of such a crisis that could lead to what Tytler called "bondage" is very painful.
And yet, we can see the signs. Welfare recipients on the dole for life, people suing others for wacky reasons just so they can "cash in," state legislators and judges insisting that we must give billions in free benefits to illegal aliens, the concept of personal responsibility becoming a foreign concept, insurance claim fraud accounting for one third of all claims in California - all of these things weaken the group, the group of the USA. These examples penalize the ones who work hard and try to build a society, because these entitllement types are tearing it down. Those who take responsibility are hurt.
So is the cycle inevitable? Are we heading down the drain in the next few years? I wish I had the answer.
But I will say that I don't believe in the inevitability of our collapse. I don't think we can believe in it or that it's sane to believe in it. Otherwise that puts us squarely in the apathy part of the cycle. So I believe we have to assume it's not inevitable.
We need to educate people on the importance of ethics, of contributing rather than just taking, on insisting that people work for and exchange for what they receive. Only in that way can we reverse this slide. And I believe we can.
//
So to give a little more on the sequence above, a society starts out in bondage, meaning no or very limited freedoms. Now faced with a very difficult situation (bondage), they turn to religion and religious faith. Through this they achieve the courage they need to fight for and win their freedom. Next, through the benefits of freedom, they achieve an abundance in material things.
Now we start into the other side of the circle/cycle. We get selfishness and laziness setting in. Then we get apathy and finally dependence. Then we arrive back up at the top with bondage again.
I was intrigued. I looked for information on Tytler on the Internet, could find none, and finally wrote to Dr. Brooks. [Note: Dr. Shannon Brooks gave a lecture on politics at George Wythe College in Salt Lake City called "The Liber," which is where Eberhard learned of Tytler.] He told first how to spell Tytler's name, and told me that most of Tytler's work has been completely lost. On further online search I found a number of sites with limited information on Tytler, but little more than what Brooks had said in his lecture.
I found this cycle to be very interesting in relation to where we are in the United States today. Dr. Brooks said he has asked the question of where the U.S. is in this cycle, in every one of these lectures he has given, to over 10,000 people to date. No one so far has said that we are on the right side of the cycle (spiritual faith, courage, liberty, abundance). Everyone has said we are somewhere on the left side of the circle (selfishness, complacency, apathy, dependence).
Let's talk about selfishness for a second. We have a situation in America today where many people are trying to get whatever they can out of the "system," with no concern of how this hurts the overall group of the United States of America.
Remember JFK's words at his inauguration speech? "Ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country." You'd be hard pressed to find that sentiment in America today.
You've got one third of the US Post Office and the US Printing Office out at any given time on Workers Compensation disability. Does anyone really believe that at any given time, one third of those workers are injured so badly (and injured on the job mind you) so that they are physically unable to work? There are cases documented of federal government employees, for example, going out on disability in 1983, and collecting $5,000 per month for the last twenty years on a completely fraudulent claim. And only now is something being done about some of these cases.
How about all the damage claims cases in the courts? We've perhaps lost our incredulity for suits against the tobacco companies. But how about the new crop of suits against the fast food companies because they somehow misled people about the fact that their food is not really that good for you and (horrors) the customers became fat.
Recently a person sued his neighbor because that neighbor's dog bit him. And he won! Despite the fact that he was in the neighbor's yard at the time within the reach of the dog who was tied up, and was throwing rocks, antagonizing the dog!
Then we've got the welfare class. My mother taught school in the inner city, and would sometimes ask kids what they wanted to do when they grew up. They would sometimes reply, "Get high and get drunk." These kids' parents had been on welfare their entire lives and these kids expected to do the same. Why work or learn or achieve anything in class?
Selfishness Crisis
What we have in the U.S. today is a selfishness crisis. And believe me, this did not exist in any way, shape or form 227 years ago.
We have a generation, many of whom are looking for a way to bleed the system to get their "fare share." We could call them the "entitlement class." But it goes beyond the welfare class to people with jobs and careers, looking for some way to "cash in" in some way. There are many variations, but the common denominator is people looking for a way to get some kind of a free ride, in a manner in which they did not work for it or earn it.
This reaches even to the tops of corporate America, with the recent bunch of corporate executives and CEOs that had a lapse of ethics and conscience and seem to have forgot such annoying things as laws, in the interest of their own personal fortunes. Enron et al.
I'm not necessarily saying we are at the "selfishness" part of Tytler's cycle. We might have gone past that point. But we are at least up to that point. And complacency, apathy and dependence are not far behind. You could argue that some people today, such as those who have been on welfare for years, are in the dependence part of the cycle. I know that we had federal welfare reform passed a few years ago and that things are improving somewhat in that zone, but there's no question that dependency has become a way of life for a certain portion of our citizenry.
And when a people becomes completely dependent, they can be made into slaves. Rather easily.
What Next?
Since learning of this Tytler cycle, hearing the lecture myself and meeting Dr. Brooks, and discussing the issue with friends, I've been grappling with the idea that our country may go through a major crisis within the next 30-50 years.
As someone who feels that the United States is without a doubt the best form of government ever seen on this planet, the idea of such a crisis that could lead to what Tytler called "bondage" is very painful.
And yet, we can see the signs. Welfare recipients on the dole for life, people suing others for wacky reasons just so they can "cash in," state legislators and judges insisting that we must give billions in free benefits to illegal aliens, the concept of personal responsibility becoming a foreign concept, insurance claim fraud accounting for one third of all claims in California - all of these things weaken the group, the group of the USA. These examples penalize the ones who work hard and try to build a society, because these entitllement types are tearing it down. Those who take responsibility are hurt.
So is the cycle inevitable? Are we heading down the drain in the next few years? I wish I had the answer.
But I will say that I don't believe in the inevitability of our collapse. I don't think we can believe in it or that it's sane to believe in it. Otherwise that puts us squarely in the apathy part of the cycle. So I believe we have to assume it's not inevitable.
We need to educate people on the importance of ethics, of contributing rather than just taking, on insisting that people work for and exchange for what they receive. Only in that way can we reverse this slide. And I believe we can.
//An increasing topic of interest to me (and, apparently, the rest of the world) is the melee that seems to surround Generation Y. I'm sure you know many of these folks, as they are born between 1980-2000; they go by a number of names, including Generation Y, Echo Boom, the Net Generation, Generation Me, Sunshine Generation, and Millennials.
In their recent book Connecting to the Net.Generation, Reynol Junco and Jeanna Mastrodicasa found a few interesting facts about Gen Y by taking a survey of 7,705 US college students (info taken from Wikipedia):
- 97% own a computer
- 94% own a cell phone
- 76% use Instant Messaging (and 15% of us IM users are logged on 24 hours a day/7 days a week)
- 34% use websites as their primary source of news
- 28% author a blog and 44% read blogs
- 49% download music using peer-to-peer file sharing
- 75% of college students have a Facebook account
- 60% own some type of portable music and/or video device such as an iPod
How Will Millennials Manage? by Jim HeskettI was struck by the eloquence of Anonymous Commenter #4, who is describing some of the core values of a Millennial:
I am ambitious but not overly committed. I prefer to work as a consultant because I am not chained to one company. I am a problem solver by nature, and I want to get immediately to the problem solving. I'm not interested in meaningless titles, mine or anyone else's, and I'm not willing to enslave myself to attain a position with a great title and no depth of purpose. I don't want the appearance of success. I want the integral satisfaction of succeeding. I want to make a lot of money, but only if I have time to spend it, and I'm more interested in health care and vacation than bonuses that I'd have to work too much to get and work too much to enjoy. My family and my pursuit of knowledge for knowledge's sake are more important to me than any particular job, with any particular company. I have confidence in myself, my marketability, and my ability to put my nose to the grindstone when it is necessary. I'm interested in being as efficient and productive as possible, but not every second of every day, and not under someone else's thumb.If you're a Millennial (born between or around 1980-2000) let me hear it; does this description sound like you? //
The article I'm going to talk about is over a month old, but I just read it for the first time the other day, so 'round these parts (read: my blog) we get to treat it like news. ;-)
Now, there are a lot of ways to get music. Some folks buy it from iTunes or some other digital equivalent. Some enjoy the "free-dom" of Limewire or a torrent. Some import CD's they bought way "back in the day" (like, circa 1999). Some listen to radio (AM/FM/XM/WWW). Some frequent the MySpace.
"Piracy" has been a music industry buzzword since the days of Napster. It's also been the Industry's blatant and somewhat pathetic scapegoat for the fact that they simply didn't see the "digital age of music" coming. Well, almost a decade has now past since the lovable Shawn Fanning helped incite the music revolution, and the music biz has finally come up with an idea that just might work. If it flies, the thought is that it will preserve the Suit's high-paying executive job, pay the artists, and -- GASP -- maybe even create a workable solution for consumers.
The idea, in a nutshell, is to provide consumers with an unlimited supply of music downloads for a monthly fee that will be bundled into their internet service charges.
Here's the article that explains it more fully:
Fee For All Warner's New Web GuruAs always, critics already have their guns drawn, but I, for one, am having a hard time coming up with a downside to this agreement. I would GLADLY pay $5/month to get all the music I want, especially knowing that the artists I love would get paid! (Now, if we could only pay the artists fairly, that would really be something, eh?) But, existing within the current system, it's frankly the best idea I've heard in a long time. Am I missing something? //