The Somewhat Clogged Culture Pipeline

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Serdar had responded to my post that we have replaced culture with economics with one of his usual, thoughtful replies. He notes that our technocratic marketing has driven innovation from the marketplace and we are left with what sells, not what necessarily has value, and that to an extent we have a case of this mediocrity infecting us or becoming a kind of cultural pollution. However out of many of his ideas, one thing comes up I want to talk about: the role of The Pipeline.

The Pipeline is how Stuff Gets To Us. There are Pipelines for food, for clothes, and of course for Culture.

When I say The Pipeline, for the sake of this post, I’m talking the media system we have.

The Pipeline that we have are often built of foundations decades, or even centuries old. Publishing houses, radio stations, movie studios, etc. Huge companies and small companies, various suppliers and interests, and so forth came together to create the giant Culture Engine we have now. Some of it is very old, and it often plays it very safe. Continue reading →

You Hack Or You Die

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OK, the title is a bit heavy, but it’s inspired by an intriguing quote from Big Think. Also anything Game of Thrones related gets attention, so my next post will be “Tyrion Lannister Brings Love Diet Secrets.”

From “To Those Who Can’t Hack It In Today’s Economy.”

“In a world created by hackers those who can’t hack are the underclass. No matter what you do today, success amounts to a form of hacking, whether you’re running a hedge fund or if you’re just clipping coupons to get by at the bottom of the economic spectrum. “

The author, Jaron Lanier (who I should note I do not always agree with) then goes and discusses general computer literacy, while missing what I think is a deadly important point.

We need to hack to survive. It’s not just about computers.

Continue reading →

Economics Not Culture

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Serdar Yegulyap and I have been having a scattered dialogue about science fiction, culture, and economics as of late, mostly over at his blog.

(As he and I are both fans of old-school correspondence, I’m working to make sure I do part.  I want to see what can be done with a blog-implemented, old-school correspondence on issues. Hell, we might get a book out of it.)

Frankly, I am concerned Economy has replaced Culture in America. Continue reading →

Update 5/13/2013

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Greeting everyone, so what’s up?

Well first “Epic Resume Go!” is basically done . . . but processing at the publishers.  Until it’s ready on all platforms, I’m not comfortable going public.  Also it’s a pain to go back and change the pages again and again.  It looks good, has a nice slick cover, and I’m pretty happy with it!

It looks like I’m going to be doing a lot more speaking at PMI – and around the Bay Area, so you might get a chance to catch me if you don’t want to come down to Silicon Valley.  Definitely enjoying getting out and meeting people!

Serdar and I are working on our seeming ever-growing cultural/media correspondence.  Get in on the latest at Genji Press.

Otherwise, gearing up for my usual events this summer – and trying to relax.  Which is not going that well because I’m me . . .

- Steven Savage

Steven Savage is a Geek 2.0 writer, speaker, blogger, and job coach.  He blogs on careers at http://www.fantopro.com/, nerd and geek culture at http://www.nerdcaliber.com/, and does a site of creative tools at http://www.seventhsanctum.com/. He can be reached at http://www.stevensavage.com/.

Recipe – Energy Bars

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Still experimenting with this one here, but if you want quick – if not always well-adhering – energy bars these are good – and tasty!

I decided to come up with an energy bar recipe in order to get a good, energizing snack or pre-meal snack to work into my day.  I tend to eat 400-500 or so calorie meals, just to keep from pigging out, so I tend to have about 2 snacks a day (and yes, I brush my teeth then as well).  This was an experiment in creating a good, solid one.

Ingredients:

  • 4 cups oats
  • 1/2 cup rasins
  • 1 cup maple syrup
  • 1 cups peanut butter.
  • Dash vanilla (1/8 tsp)

Directions:

  1. Mix Oats, rasins in a bowl.
  2. Heat maple syrup, blend in peanut butter and vanilla.
  3. Pour over mix, stir until everything is coated.
  4. Put in pan, cover with saran wrap, push down to pack, chill in refreigerator.
  5. When it’s firm, move to the freezer for about 30 minutes.
  6. Cut into 16 bars.

Each bar has 242 cal, 6 grams protein, 3g fiber, and is about 13% of your fat and 8% of your saturated fat needs.  So they’re good, but I wouldn’t eat more than 1 or 2 a day, or use them if you need a caloric blast while working out.

Now the hard part here is not making them fall apart, so I’m messing with the ingredients   First two times I did it they held together, then they fell apart last time.  I’m debating a bit more maple syrup or leaving out the rasins to get better binding.  Ideas are appreciated!

Taste-wise these are insanely delicious.  Plus when my last batch fell apart, it just became pseudo-granola – which is great, but harder to pace yourself when eating.

- Steven Savage

Steven Savage is a Geek 2.0 writer, speaker, blogger, and job coach.  He blogs on careers at http://www.fantopro.com/, nerd and geek culture at http://www.nerdcaliber.com/, and does a site of creative tools at http://www.seventhsanctum.com/. He can be reached at http://www.stevensavage.com/.

A Call For Artists!

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OK gang, I got a friend who is looking to get some art done for a game project. Now the pay is going to be low-to-paid-in-reputation, so we’re not talking heaps of cash. But he’s a good guy with his own vision, a Kickstarter plan, and an opportunity. So if you’d like to get involved, ping me here!

- Steven Savage

Steven Savage is a Geek 2.0 writer, speaker, blogger, and job coach.  He blogs on careers at http://www.fantopro.com/, nerd and geek culture at http://www.nerdcaliber.com/, and does a site of creative tools at http://www.seventhsanctum.com/. He can be reached at http://www.stevensavage.com/.

The Eulogy for “Too Soon.”

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“Too Soon?” is a common question I’ve seen asked when people make jokes, offcolor commentary, or inappropriate commentary on terrible events.  Sometimes it is hard to know when certain things become appropriate, or what is appropriate, so the question was asked in sarcasm at times, and in sincerity at times.  This would extend, to an extent, to politics.

After watching reactions to the bombing in Boston and the horrible kidnapping case in Cleveland, I’ve seen commentary . . . well I can’t say degenerate.  It’s as if “Too Soon” is gone, especially in the case of politics.

People were quick to work on their narratives in the Boston incident, and still are, even if it seems the case didn’t fit any popular political narrative – and is still ongoing.  Now with the Cleveland incident, it seems there was zero time between the announcement and inappropriate comments, and blatant politicization in comments I read on the internet.  True, we’ve had many a politician who would exploit the latest incidents for gain, but it seems that behavior is now completely normalized.

I miss “Too Soon.”  We’re in danger of becoming as bad as our worst politicians and pundits.

- Steven Savage

Steven Savage is a Geek 2.0 writer, speaker, blogger, and job coach.  He blogs on careers at http://www.fantopro.com/, nerd and geek culture at http://www.nerdcaliber.com/, and does a site of creative tools at http://www.seventhsanctum.com/. He can be reached at http://www.stevensavage.com/.

 

Weekly Update 5/8/2013

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Sorry there, a bit behind on the updates!  So where are we?

Well first, “Epic Resume Go!” is just being formatted now, and it’s looking good.  In fact, I decided to rewrite my own resume start-to-finish to try out the techniques as I wrote them down – and it worked good.  It’s always a pain to write down advice because you might miss something – so you have to try it out with a fresh viewpoint.

So I hope to get it out this weekend!  Stay tuned!

When it launches, I’ll also be adding direct resume coaching to my services.  I have done it a bit here and there, but really wanted to codify my techniques before coaching people, beyond a few select friends and volunteers.

As noted I have a side project coming up that I’ll discuss more in detail.  Let’s say I’ll be revisiting a few things . . .

Also there will be, as noted, an expansion and improvement to Fan To Pro.  That’ll probably be early June at this rate, and I think you’ll really like what you see.

Regarding Seventh Sanctum, I just got Way With Worlds restored – sorry I forgot that folks.  I’m wondering if that might be worth a rewrite along with the site . . . which I plan to get to end of June/start of July.

 

Also, I’d note that Serdar and I are still in a multiblog dialogue you probably want to read and participate in.  Frankly, I want to keep encouraging people to participate and post on their blogs, really build a dialogue.

- Steven Savage

Steven Savage is a Geek 2.0 writer, speaker, blogger, and job coach.  He blogs on careers at http://www.fantopro.com/, nerd and geek culture at http://www.nerdcaliber.com/, and does a site of creative tools at http://www.seventhsanctum.com/. He can be reached at http://www.stevensavage.com/.

 

Join the (Extended) Conversation

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I did a post at Fan To Pro that suggested we had an “SF Gap” – we don’t have SF to inspire us anymore.  Serdar jumped on this both at the original post, and in fascinating blog posts of his own he discussed the gap in ourselves, and how we can use technology to delude ourselves.

This is some seriously good stuff, so I wanted to prod everyone to join in the discussion – because there’s going to be more to come, trust me . . .

- Steven Savage

Steven Savage is a Geek 2.0 writer, speaker, blogger, and job coach.  He blogs on careers at http://www.fantopro.com/, nerd and geek culture at http://www.nerdcaliber.com/, and does a site of creative tools at http://www.seventhsanctum.com/. He can be reached at http://www.stevensavage.com/.

Project Management Time: The Horizontal And The Vertical

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As a Project Manager I both have to run processes, create processes, and get people do to them. It’s not as exciting as it sounds (and if the idea excites you then . . . well, we’re a lot a like).

The problem is that people don’t want to follow process for the most part. Who does like to fill out forms, do documentation, get the right boxes checked, etc.? People don’t enjoy this for the most part, and at best tolerate it.

Yet, at times, you’ll notice some processes do get done. Sometimes automatically, sometimes grudgingly. But they get done (and usually get done without coercion, or much of it).

So why does this happen? What is the difference between things that get done and things that don’t?

My answer is that there are Horizontal and Vertical Processes. Continue reading →