Tis the Season

The Half Life of Knowledge

Knowledge decays over time as society transforms by adopting new technology. Nobody knows how to work a VCR or a cassette player anymore. Therefore, it is important to focus on knowledge that won't likely become outdated. Everything else we can look up on Wikipedia.

Long term knowledge isn't tied to any particular technology or application. Algebra is a good example because no matter what language or platform you program for, you still have to manipulate numbers. Though my eventual career may be in a technological field that does not now exist, chances are algebra will come in handy. The more I am tied to a particular technology, the most limited I am in my opportunities in life. If, rather, I can learn good foundational skills that apply in every field, then I can adapt when the world shifts again.

One pertinent example is the realm of social media. It has transformed that landscape, but the people on the landscape are still fundamentally the same. Facebook friends have not changed the nature of friendship or people's need for a few deep, personal relationships. You will be better served by learning relationship skills outside the context of social media, and then applying them to the social media landscape.

"C'mon Women, Call the Bluff Already!"

If someone verbally advising against your career of choice deters you from pursuing it, you probably don't want it bad enough anyway. Even more so, if stereotypes, which are perceived but not real opposition, are keeping women from studying computer science, then perhaps it is for the best. The real problem is that pre-college exposure to computer science (CS) is so limited that both males and females need to rely on stereotypes to evaluate CS as a potential career. The solution is not to change the stereotypes, but to decrease ignorance by increasing early exposure. Once an individual has decided on CS, outside pressure shouldn't have any influence on that decision.

If Kids Enjoyed School

Students in school and developers in open source software both do work, but achieve very different results. On the one hand, open source developers novel projects of their own choosing and set their own deadlines. On the other hand, teachers assign students to jump through hoops by certain deadlines. Unlike the open source environment, school kills incentive to innovate because school work has no real value outside school. The open source paradigm has a superior power to motivate because contributors like what they do and make something of value for themselves and the world. Other systems, like school, would be wise to adopt some of these principles.

The Gospel to All the World

The medium is the message. Newspapers are for news. TV is for entertainment and commercials. The Internet is for, well, everything. Many web pages (especially social media) have a unique way to spread content and can be considered a unique medium. These media are still relatively new, and the content is produced by amateurs, so the expected messages are not fixed. Have you ever said, “that doesn't belong here,” in response to anything you've seen on Facebook? Probably not, because Facebook content is a digital form of everyday conversation, which can be anything anyone feels like talking about. Then, is there any reason to say that the Internet is not a medium for spreading the gospel?