Owen, you said, I worked in Silicon Valley and knew I could be "let go" at any time. I didn't mind, there were lots of jobs.
Being an at-will employee (is that what it's called?) is a lot different from being on a term contract. A specific initiative is required to terminate at-will employees. With a term contract, a specific initiative is required to retain someone. A world in which everyone is a term employee would be a chaotic jungle. I doubt that you or anyone else would like to live there -- especially when it's not the case that there are lots of jobs. It's like a continual game of musical chairs. You have to hope that when your music stops (i.e., your term expires) that there is a chair available. What if there isn't? The only way I can see that working is if there is a guaranteed employer of last resort. There is a reason this won't work. When we were hunters and gatherers, anyone could (presumably) make a living without have a job. Just go out and hunt and gather. That's not true today. Someone who loses his job doesn't have the option of going out and hunting and gathering for himself. There were a couple of moving segments on NPR over the past few weeks on a women who lost her reasonably good HR job. She was willing to work, but there were no jobs. What were her options? Not very many? Let's not make the situation many people find themselves in today the standard for all time. -- Russ On Tue, Apr 28, 2009 at 10:09 AM, Owen Densmore <o...@backspaces.net> wrote: > Oh Gawd: The Agile University? > > I sometimes feel I'm living in an alternative university (er, universe). > > 1 - Are we talking about education or academia? If the latter, yes its > fucked up. I worked in Silicon Valley and knew I could be "let go" at any > time. I didn't mind, there were lots of jobs, and I cleverly made myself > (gasp!) USEFUL. If the former, my Physics/Math background was not described > by the (rather poor) article .. it was not too narrow (Hilbert Spaces are > fungible), and to this day still relevant. I was not a slave -- I got a > fellowship. > > 2 - None the less, education has been migrating towards blurring the lines > between Education and Creativity. I.e. my Stanford, U of Rochester, RIT and > other grad students were all Creative .. they got things done, and did it > through Agile (in the current programming paradigm sense) techniques that > leveraged their schools and industry. I think this is a Good Thing. > > 3 - So I presume I'm listening to a conversation far removed from my > experiences. For one thing, in my life education never stopped. At Xerox, > Apple and Sun I was expected to learn new stuff continuously. > > 4 - Dave West is taking a shot at fixing what some of the discussion > apparently is focused on: restructuring. In Computing we discuss > "Refactoring" programs .. changing their Architecture as they scale in size > and scope. Dave's approach refactors along a time/topic/methodology triple: > Shorter bursts, therefore adaptive depth/breadth topics, and with a project > focus. > > @George: Name another profession where you mostly get to do what you want >> to do, work in a pretty pleasant envirionment with intelligent colleagues >> and students to chat with, and if you are a full professor at Columbia you >> make a pretty decent salary. >> > > Ans: All my jobs in industry. Every one. Not just the companies (3) but > jobs within them (12, say). > > @Russ: I doubt that any working person would happily agree to term >> employment if it implies that after N years the employer has no obligation, >> legal or moral, to retain that individual. >> > > Ans: Me. I liked it. Thrilling, and boy does it keep my honest! > > @Pamela: My impression of the op-ed piece was that it was mostly about the >> humanities, where I'm sorry to say the numbers are correct... >> > > > Ans: Thanks! That does clarify a lot for me. Although its a bit spooky .. > after all we are all human, the presumed focus of humanities, and its being > mishandled is both sad and frightening. Dave's approach seems apposite. > > @Merle: Did you guys read the same op-ed piece that I read? It's about >> revitalizing higher education as a complex adaptive network. It's about how >> specialization doesn't work for today's world. It's about how irrelevant >> and boring higher education has become. And all you guys can talk about is >> JOBS and MONEY. I guess most of you are somehow connected to the >> privileged, but sadly constrained world of academia. Come out into the fresh >> air where the work is always exciting, and the money is just enough to >> sustain the excitement. >> > > > Ans: Well, sorta .. and along with Pamela it does explain that I indeed DO > live in a parallel universe. It became clear after a few emails that there > were two conversations going on, one about academia, one on education. I > like the latter and find the former quaint. I think the 6 points sorta blur > the two, but I sorta like them. > > I think I've been living in the future too long. > > -- Owen > > > > > ============================================================ > FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv > Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College > lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org >
============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org
