Glad To Sell You The Power: Consumerism Meets Creativity

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There’s no doubt we live in a consumer culture in America, and a good part of the Western (and Eastern) world. There’s plenty of things made, plenty to buy, and we do so beyond our basic needs. Obviously, not everyone is happy with this situation, as you can read . . . well anywhere. I myself, always a fan of technology and new things, am not thrilled with waste, passivity, and commodification.

However, at least in some spheres, I’m noticing there’s turns away from standard consumerism. There’s the DIY culture, and its offspring the Makers. There’s focus on simplicity and zero/low waste.

However, I noticed a curious phenomena building over time, one I’d like to discuss for it’s relevance in geeky careers and opportunities; we’re already getting “outbursts” of people wanting more control over what they do and more creative outlets – and people serving their needs by providing ways to do it.

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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 https://www.stevensavage.com/.

 

Why We’re Bad At Networking #4: Narrow Focus, Narrow Interest

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So I’ve been asking – why are we so bad at networking sometime? So far I’ve covered the fact that we’re tired of hearing about it, incoherent issues on the basics, and too much confusing new stuff.

I mean let’s face it, it’s rammed down our throats, the basics are treated incoherently, and every week there’s Some New Networking Thing.

All of this crazy creates problems that are further amplified because we’re actually taught a very, very narrow view of networking.

Networking is for jobs. That’s what we hear about. That’s what we’re told. Spend all that time getting ready to network. Get that site together. Remove the embarrassing picture of you dressed as Jack Sparrow from Facebook. This is all about your job.

This kills it. This kills the fun. This kills the enthusiasm. This kills the humanity. I’ve covered this before, so let me put it succinctly.

The idea that networking should primarily be about your job is pure grade-A bulls**t.

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