Just Go For It

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Recently I judged a group of senior technology projects at DeVry in Fremont, California.  It was a great group overall, and if you want to have your faith in youth and education restored, this is a great way to do it.

A few of the projects embodied something very important – that I wanted to share.

Several projects were actual WORK.  People identified an actual problem, or got an actual client, and did a full job.  They built a full software solution or website or whatever and got it running.

This.  Was.  Awesome.

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The Teachability of Silly

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At KinToki-Con I ran an event called "Crossover Mania."  It was simple – over time people picked an anime (though any media was allowed – this was an anime con), and figured out how to tie it to another anime.  As we went on we wrote down the media properties on paper and diagrammed how they connected – a lot of tape and arrows was involved.  Eventually we had an incredibly silly, yet strangely coherent crossover.

How crazy?  Well it mixed Space Pirate Harlock accidentally creating the time/space warp Bermuda Triangle while under mind control of the villain in Code Geas.  And THAT wasn't even the core plot, that just got the initial crossover to happen (mostly involving One Piece).

Now this was a deliberately silly exercise, but the creativity that started flowing was amazing.  Best of all no alchohol was invovled, at least on my part.  It was insane, it was crazy – but it was also imaginative and it made people's minds work.

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I Have a Job They Don’t: Invite Them

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So after a bit of a break, it's back to the "I have a job they don't" series, where we look at just what you, the employed, can do for those who don't have a job.

This week?  I want to encourage you to involve people in a project.

Your unemployed friends are quite likely to A) need to learn more skills, B) need to network, and C) feel depressed.  Involving them in a project is a way to address all of those issues at once.

Maintaining a blog?  Invite them to blog for you to hone their writing, get work out there, and meet your readers.

Running a con?  See if they want to help out, and give them a chance to use whatever relevant skills they have for big, public event.  In some cases it might be worth listing on a resume or a LinkedIn profile.

Run a newsletter?  Come on, your friend with the Tech Writing skills can help with formatting!

If you're any kind of geek, you're always juggling a few projects.  Inviting your job-seeking friends aboard gives them a lot of benefits.

Best of all, it helps you stay friends – which can be tough in times of economic stress.

– Steven Savage