Conceptual leaps forward often owe their origins to artistic or scientific processes that are far removed form the regular beat of our lives, at the crossroads between Art and Science one can find amazing creative evolution.
Unfortunately we tend to focus more on consumption than on creativity; we don’t nurture or value the creative process and the individuals that take part in it enough we prefer to be passive observers. If you’ve ever had the pleasure of being around scientists or highly creative people you know first hand that they don’t see the world like we do at all. Everything to them tends to be a source of inspiration, an opportunity to try, to explore to create and they often don’t really mind that we think that they are quirky. They’re not afraid to expose themselves and try.
Reorganizing our education system and businesses to encourage creative thought and expression seems like a basic need today, but we are not taking the steps to get there fast enough. Some would argue that we are not taking them at all.
Take the time this weekend, disconnect from the matrix to think act differently. We might start something by collectively not being afraid to express ourselves.
Throughout my life I have been involved in media in one form or another. Having had the opportunity to experience professionally both sides of the fence, from holding the mike to being on the business end of one, I still find myself in awe when it comes to the impact that our communication mediums have on the depth of discourse in today’s society.
As a journalist you’re on a never ending quest for the right sound byte or words to effectively communicate the truth of a story in a certain amount of time. On the flip side, you do your best to make your the ideas as clear and concise as possible so that journalists latch on to the right message because in the end you know they have only 30 seconds for you in the next broadcast.
Unfortunately sometimes an idea can’t be crunched down to 30 seconds or even to 5 minutes; you need to explain it because it’s new or outside conventional thinking. But you can’t take the time to explain because if you do nobody will listen, you lose the attention of the audience… and when that happens the advertising revenue that allows media to exist is negatively impacted and can affect their capacity to communicate your message.
Some would say that digital channels change this reality but I would argue that they perpetuate it. Blogs postings have to be short, video clips on YouTube are short, most podcasts’ are short and we text our thoughts in 140 character chunks.
So we are caught in an attention span and media consumption paradox that sometimes limits the depth of thought and advancement of ideas that could positively change our world. But is it in fact a paradox or a reflection of who we are?
Charlton Heston’s passing yesterday made me think back to an episode of NPR’s On the Media that aired a couple of weeks ago. The report discussed the general misconception that American have about the second amendment.
Most US citizens think that their constitution guarantees them the right to bare arms, that they have the right to own and carry a gun for their own protection. As a reminder here is the complete second amendment text;
I don’t know about you but when I read this the right to bare arms is clearly conferred to “a well regulated militia” that is necessary to ensure “the security of a free state”, something like the National Guard.
Instead of taking the time to read the amendment, most are satisfied and hold as truth what is propagated by popular culture and the Media. Owning a gun is one of the defining characteristics of their culture, it’s as American as apple pie. It is a part of the American dream… It is the American way.
So while Heston’s passing was an automatic link to gun laws in my mind because of his deep roots to the NRA for million of others it will mean that Moses has left the building.
Ok this is cool. It took me all but 5 minutes to setup everything so that updates on the blog would automatically update my Twitter and Facebook profiles. Anyone would have told me back in the day that it would have been this easy… I would have laughed.
I don’t know why I waited so long to leave Jaiku and jump to Twitter, its always a question of time in the end realy. Now going to try this setup for a while.
Finished setting up the new host account and WordPress last night. Easy as pie, tool me all but 20 minutes for everything. It was refreshing.
The simple tweaks to the interfaces where kind of fun to play around with, hey who doesn’t like to leave their paw print right! If I look back at the last 11 years I can say the following with complete certitude… managed services are the only approach that makes sense for 99.9% of every SME’s!
