Advice

Your Progeek Edge: Smell That Snake Oil!

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To say the world is changing faster and faster is both A) an unabashed understatement, and B) a tiresome tirade that we see in too many lazy news commentaries (unlike this hard-working one, of course).   We progeeks and profanes, being wired and technical, know the world is changing fast – some of us are responsible for it for that matter.

The world is changing frighteningly fast because of, let me state the obvious, technology.  I imagine many a science fiction writer has watched the rate of change in the world and just thrown up their hands in frustration.  Technology is one of the major drivers of change in the modern world.

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Extremes, Memes, and Self-Esteem

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You know the people that are the big self-esteem gurus?  Don't buy it, don't feel all this telling people how wonderful they are works except to make them feel entitled and become vaguely delusional.

You know those people that believe in strength through adversity, how we really all need to be super strong people who suffer through a lot?  Don't buy that either, because that which does not kill you usually leaves you broken and wishing it had.

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How Cheap Is Also Confusing

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Does it seem that a lot of things, especially things in the geekonomy, are cheap or for that matter free?

I've got books on discount by ordering online.  I can get epic games for my Smartphone for pennies or dollars.  I've got eBooks that are usually cheaper than buying the physical book.  I can save money with a simple Netflix subscription that brings me endless streams of DVDs and endless streaming of shows.

The geekonomy is filled with cheap (and Cheap's unltimate manifestation, Free) . . . for all the expensive entry fees of the technology.

Cheap is something people are understandably interested in.  We like to save money and spend less.  We like to get more for less.  Cheap isn't the only thing we're interested in price-wise, but it is certainly a driver for us.

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