"The Unbalanced Trajectory of Human Life"

I offer you 2 learning objects to close out 2013 and launch into the future. 

This post was motivated by a thought-provoking opinionator piece in NYT this Sunday. The author, Todd May, said: 

"There is an assumption I would like to make here, one that I can’t verify but I think is uncontroversial. It is very unlikely that Edward Snowden will ever do anything nearly as significant again. Nothing he does for the remainder of his life will have the resonance that his recent actions have had. The powers that be will ensure it. And undoubtedly he knows this. His life will go on, and it may not be as tortured as some people think. But in an important sense his life will have peaked at age 29 or 30."

The question raised is: if at some point in our lives we are destined to "peak" in some sense, how do we respond to that experience, or even the knowledge that the experience of peaking can or already has happened? 

As I reflected on this question, it reminded me of a TED talk I watched this summer.

In her TED talk, Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat, Pray, Love, looks at fear, creativity, and how to handle the real probability of having already achieved the greatest success she will ever achieve. 

"Everywhere I go, people treat me like I'm doomed... 'aren't you afraid you're never going to be able to top that?'... I still have maybe another 4 decades of work ahead of me...and it's exceedingly likely that my greatest success is behind me..That's the kind of thought that could lead a person to start drinking gin at 9 o'clock in the morning...I have to create some sort of protective psychological construct." 

http://www.ted.com/talks/elizabeth_gilbert_on_genius.html

I propose that when we think about time and the one life we each have, the answer to finding constantly renewing purpose and meaning lies somewhere in the "protective psychological construct" that Gilbert presents in the latter part of her talk. It involves continually evolving our own complex identity. It involves recognizing that while our circumstances may make it impossible to ever top some past experience, they also likely allow us to reach a new peak on a new plane of accomplishment or awareness. 

To a creative, ever adaptive and hopeful 2014. May you all discover new geniuses. 

Grad School and Career Planning

Should I go to grad school? Do I need the credentials? The network? What do I need to learn for the rest of my career? Would I be better off teaching it to myself with free and inexpensive resources, or through a degree-granting program? Do only the top-10 schools justify the opportunity cost of losing out on two years of more work experience? What if the program is free? What if it's part-time? What if it's only one year? What if I just traveled the world for a year: wouldn't that be a better education? What if I start my own business or non-profit: wouldn't that be a better education?

These are the questions that my peers and I ask ourselves all the time. Two years ago I was pretty sold on at least applying to MBA programs; however once I started running my own business it seemed like everything I needed to learn I was learning as I went. Not only that, but grad school is expensive! Well, not all of the programs out there, but the fact is that most grad schools involve assuming 5-6 figures of debt.

Right now I have friends who are at top business schools, who are in or have done a variety of graduate school programs, or who are considering whether or not to go. There seems to be no consensus on whether or not it is worth it, though the most sage advice seems always to be along the lines of "do what's best for you." What's interesting and to many, what's stressful, is that the economy seems to present so many unknowns now. What will be most valued in the labor market of the future? Do we all need technical skills? Creative skills? Management skills? Work experience? World-class networks? Passion?

I'm curious where other come down on this.

-Joe