Lookks like your page was heavily hit by spam…

Lookks like your page was heavily hit by spam…

elite children are treated much more as people

How, exactly, does being treated as someone else’s project amount to being treated more as a person?

elite children are treated much more as people

How, exactly, does being treated as someone else’s project amount to being treated more as a person?

I know you’re not solely focused here on artisitc creativity, but taking that as an example, the trends in that arena have all been running directly counter to what you suggest. As technology has allowed the cost barriers to entry in so many artistic fields — from filmmaking to publishing to music recording — to drop precipitously, public demand is not nearly keeping pace with the explosion of supply. This has a depressing effect on the profits and wages artistic entrepreneurs can capture across the board. A certain cream may always rise, but marginal artist is giving way in many more areas than ever before to the unpaid amateur. I know I find a lot more enjoyment out of YouTube than I do the whole mass of 600 channels I get through digital cable.

And I’m not as sure as you are that the process of “making” carries over so neatly into the world of entrepreneurship. The first distinction I’d make is in the focus of the entrepreneur rather than the artist. It is less important to “create” than to “create that which other people NEED.” Moreover, the conventional wisdom, and I’m inclined to agree with it, is that developing the great idea, the killer ap, the visionary business model…is the EASY part. Executing it, convincing others to sign on to your vision, navigating how to deliver that product or service to those who would most value it, learning from your mistakes, spotting and adapting to changes in the market — THOSE are the hard parts.

And most of those things have to do with social dynamics, the ability to read people, to manage expectations, to play politics, the willingness to humble oneself (or to engage in blatant self-promotion) when necessary, and so on.

Some of those things can be taught. Most of them, though, are honed over time through social interraction. Which is why, though I have no philosophical objection to home-schooling, I just can’t help but feel whenever I hear parents or would-be parents talking about it, that they seem to be missing what exactly what is most important about what kids learn in school. There is no class more important than recess, because the lessons you learn on the playground will take you a lot further than any curriculum, no matter what its substance.

I know you’re not solely focused here on artisitc creativity, but taking that as an example, the trends in that arena have all been running directly counter to what you suggest. As technology has allowed the cost barriers to entry in so many artistic fields — from filmmaking to publishing to music recording — to drop precipitously, public demand is not nearly keeping pace with the explosion of supply. This has a depressing effect on the profits and wages artistic entrepreneurs can capture across the board. A certain cream may always rise, but marginal artist is giving way in many more areas than ever before to the unpaid amateur. I know I find a lot more enjoyment out of YouTube than I do the whole mass of 600 channels I get through digital cable.

And I’m not as sure as you are that the process of “making” carries over so neatly into the world of entrepreneurship. The first distinction I’d make is in the focus of the entrepreneur rather than the artist. It is less important to “create” than to “create that which other people NEED.” Moreover, the conventional wisdom, and I’m inclined to agree with it, is that developing the great idea, the killer ap, the visionary business model…is the EASY part. Executing it, convincing others to sign on to your vision, navigating how to deliver that product or service to those who would most value it, learning from your mistakes, spotting and adapting to changes in the market — THOSE are the hard parts.

And most of those things have to do with social dynamics, the ability to read people, to manage expectations, to play politics, the willingness to humble oneself (or to engage in blatant self-promotion) when necessary, and so on.

Some of those things can be taught. Most of them, though, are honed over time through social interraction. Which is why, though I have no philosophical objection to home-schooling, I just can’t help but feel whenever I hear parents or would-be parents talking about it, that they seem to be missing what exactly what is most important about what kids learn in school. There is no class more important than recess, because the lessons you learn on the playground will take you a lot further than any curriculum, no matter what its substance.

Identifying one of these two pools of children as the one from which the creative people will come is not to say it holds for every child in the pool. It does make it more likely for any given child, and I would assert with certainty that the pool as a whole is dramatically more creative.

Nor is sophistication my choice of word. The wealthier children consistently have their own personal voice cultivated, and they are valued for having and expressing that voice. Is it not clear how that connects to creativity? Is it also clear that Will is off in calling this “hyperprogramming”?

Identifying one of these two pools of children as the one from which the creative people will come is not to say it holds for every child in the pool. It does make it more likely for any given child, and I would assert with certainty that the pool as a whole is dramatically more creative.

Nor is sophistication my choice of word. The wealthier children consistently have their own personal voice cultivated, and they are valued for having and expressing that voice. Is it not clear how that connects to creativity? Is it also clear that Will is off in calling this “hyperprogramming”?