Economics/Geekonomics

Economic Common Sense Goes Derp

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You know the story.  We just don’t train people in manufacturing, and thus we’d have more people employed, but there’s just that skills gap, right?

Wrong.  Turns out the problem is that manufacturing has changed, and employers paying the properly-educated people lousy wages means they’re not interested. The skills gap is made up – but in danger of becoming a real skills gap.

Or maybe that war stimulates the economy – which is usually based on the experience of World War II, which wasn’t what we thought and really doesn’t apply to today.

We can go through more of course.  Remember when home investment was a great and unbeatable idea?  That was one ruined economy ago.  We could talk about the idea that certain degrees are always employable, or how MySpace was unbeatable, or . . . you get the idea.

It doesn’t take much work to dredge up economic myths.  Just look at how the Freakonomics guys became famous with one simple book.  Really I need to find a way to make money by telling people they’re full of it.  Maybe it can be like the Monty Python argument sketch.

I treasure these stories, in fact I seek them out, because a lot of economic common sense is just plain wrong.  A lot of us get taught many things are too good to be true, but it seems that when we dress it up with economic language, we somehow will believe anything.

We have to remember how much crap we believe, economically.  A few things I’ve found help me stay aware of real economic issues:

You Need To be Informed: Follow economic news.  Yes I harped on this for years, but trust me.  I usually follow:

You Need To Be Hands On: Do as much of your own budget and financial planning as possible (but hire or ask for help when you need to).  That visceral understanding is very helpful.

Economics Is A Religion: Like it or not a lot of people deal with economics as areas of unquestioning faith and overarching universal assumptions – and they’re often full of it.  Don’t trust someone who doesn’t show sufficient explanation or skepticism.

Economics Has Plenty of Conmen:  Merely look at Jim Cramer and why John Stewart took him apart.  Don’t trust anyone who doesn’t have some credibility, puts on a crazy show, or sells out.  There is money in selling people B.S.

It May Change:  Much as Nate Silver’s poll analyses brought attention to how many pundits are full of it, I’m hoping the trend towards reality-intensive news and analysis continues.  I’m not gonna hold my breath, but still, it’s promising.

We all believe plenty of economic myths because a lot of it is ideology, it is hope, it is information, and it is wrapped around a damned difficult science.  But for the sake of our careers, we can try and disarm it.

Besides we’re geeks.  We’re good at information and thinking out of the box.

– 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 https://www.stevensavage.com/.

Hating Black Friday 2012: The Hatening

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Last year I went on about how I hated Black Friday.  To sum up last year, I felt it:

  1. Distorted economic planning.
  2. Was stressful on businesses.
  3. Was a giant cultural distorter.
  4. Wasted mindshare on things like . . . me writing about it.
  5. Distorted perspective.

None of my areas of concern really changed, and repeating them is kind of useless.

So I’d like to turn this around and ask – do I see Black Friday going away?

. . . and the answer really is no, not without specific effort or changes.

Black Friday is integrated into not just our economy, but our culture.  It’s there, it’s expected, it’s assumed.  As much as people (like me ) complain about it, it’s just something we do.  There’s a lot of inertia behind the idea.  I see no reason for it to stop.

It’s fascinating to imagine something economic like this being a cultural fixture, but there you go.  The mutant offspring of Christmas greed (which we’ve been decrying for decades), bargain-hunting, and watching-the-car crash is just something we do.  Much as we also rant about it (which is strangely its own traditions).

Now could I see it going away?  Maybe, but it’d have to be conscious.  We’d have to as a country and a culture, or at least part of us, move against the insanity of the day.  We’d have to get businesses to go along with it.  In short, there’d have to be a kind of movement.

Do I want one?  Actually, yeah.  The entire holiday distortion of the economy can’t be healthy, and I’m not sure it can last in its currently exponetially-insane-ifying state.  Also it’s really annoying and distracting.

OK, you go start the movement. *I* am tired ranting.

– 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 https://www.stevensavage.com/.

Why I’m Keep An Eye on Coinstar

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I’m keeping an eye on Coinstar because they seem to know where the money is.

Yes, it’s a lame joke that is, and I admit this, based on those green kiosks you see everywhere.  You know the ones, where you dump in that big pile of change you’ve accumulated and get a receipt of some kind (or even convert it to cards).  They’re everywhere it seems (especially out here in Silicon Valley), with that big Coinstar logo.

Not that geeky?  Well remember Coinstar is just part of Coinstar Incorporated.

Coinstar Inc.doesn’t just do those prominent Mean Green Machines though.  They do cards, e-payment kiosks, and so forth as part of their brand.  Neat stuff, sure, but you see it everywhere, right?

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