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PROMISCUITY FOR THE MIND
Music to accompany your reading: Brushy One
string, http://bit.ly/NO_MAN_STOP_ME.
(The astonishing Reggae Singer with a one-string guitar,
www.brushyonestring.com)
A. if you can: get a fancy education and fancy job.
B. If you cant, you do not have to follow the herd.
C. And, those that do not follow the herd, you do not have to follow them either!!!
It WAS the most unusual mathematical problem. Fermat's Last Theorem. Everybody who has been to school would be familiar with its basics, for the first step is the familiar Pythagorean Theorem to do with squares. But can you say something about it when the 2 is raised to 3 or more? Looks so simple. It took 358 years, defeated the A-list of Mathematicians, and took all the guile and wiles (pun intended) of Andrew Wiles and practically his whole life to crack it, he had met the Theorem when he was ten. It took the genius of several mathematicians to lay the foundations and whole new areas of maths to be devised and the incredible insights of Dr. Wiles who spent years learning the techniques that would eventually help him to crack the problem.
The point here is simple. Here is a story of stubborn determination connected to mathematics at every level of a person's life. An incredible achievement including self-satisfaction, recognition, dozens of prizes...even prize money.
But what kind of ‘education’ does it take to ‘career-it’? Education&Career. The desire has been hard-wired to crave for – Engineering, Medicine, MBA, Law, Design, and the corporate job. In the same old chant with zombie accents. What if it doesn't happen? No obsessive preoccupation with education. No pedigree that so impresses the Joneses, Sharmajis, Wangs, and Kims? Cannot win the Nobel, Olympics, and a job in a Fortune 500 company. And, by the way ….. jobs in soap, shampoo, kutte ka biskut (dog biscuit), and credit card companies are not available anymore. What then?
In a recent exercise on Creativity & Innovation with a team of youngsters, we tried to answer this question in an evidence-based fashion. The specific question was: what connection is there between ownership of Land, Capital, Education, and its ability to insufflate Money, Achievement, Self-fulfillment, Recognition, Independence, and Ability to be creative. The use of the word 'insufflate' here is deliberate: it is one word that encompasses medical, magical, religious, and exorcist approaches – no prizes for guessing how these approaches are being deployed elsewhere by eager parents and anxious youngsters!!!!
And so while there are heaps of examples, for want of time, we zeroed in on six people. All exhibit the following characteristics:
Age: 48
Education: A graduate
Previous 'career': Drew Cartoons
Current activities :
My Story: I love pencils and have a huge collection. Researching pencils, I stumbled across Rees's video on Artisanal Pencil Sharpening on Vimeo and then became an instant fan.
Woooah: “How to Sharpen Pencils: A Practical & Theoretical Treatise on the Artisanal Craft of Pencil Sharpening for Writers, Artists, Contractors, Flange Turners, Anglesmiths, & Civil Servants,"- Rees’s book was a hit !!!
Learn More: www.mnftiu.cc/
Stats: Money, Achievement, Self-fulfillment, Recognition, Independence, and Ability to be creative in full flow
Comments: Says Vikas Kumar evocatively “David finds out a unique profession with ordinary things and makes it a very expensive product. Now he can do whatever he wants, no one is going to order him around. Compare this to his previous job where he would have to listen to his boss or seniors.
Age: 60
Education: Degree in Economics and Business Admin.
Previous 'career': Journalist and Stockbroker
Current activities: All Rock: Rock Star Author, Rock Climber, Lead Vocalist and Songwriter for the Norwegian Rock Band Di Derre.
My Story: Norway and Crime Noir did not happen to go world-class until Jo Nesbo made it happen. His first book the Bat was also the first Nesbo I read. And then I was hooked. So much so that when I first visited Sydney, Australia where the Bat is set, the very first place I visited was Kings Cross Police Station and then did the Harry Hole trail all across Sydney. His macabre use of Terra Nullius, a part of Australian history is chilling. Some of his dog breeds are inventions that pique dog lover curiosity!
Woooah: 33 Million Copies of his books sold, some of them have been made into films.
Learn More: https://jonesbo.com/
Stats: Money, Achievement, Self-fulfillment, Recognition, Independence, and Ability to be creative in full flow
Comments: ObservesAaquib Sheikh wryly, …. avoiding functional fixedness helped him to open the door to many other disciplines, for instance: From being a bookkeeper to being a book writer and songwriter and so on.
Age: 44
Education: High School diploma
Previous 'career': Game developer and ‘bubble life’. In his own words - ‘apartment bubble’ to ‘car bubble’ to ‘office bubble’ to ‘mall bubble’ and all over again.
Current activities: Crazy Dancing videos at locations all over the world.
My Story: while checking out Jawed Karim, the then 28-year-old YouTube millionaire, there was an article about him telling Univ of Illinois grads that his favorite video was "Dancing Matt'. This was intriguing enough. A couple of weeks later I stumbled up this series of background scores for a website some incorporating almost lost languages, and another with Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore's Gitanjali… When the dots connected… it was an astonishing experience !!!
Woooah: Corporate sponsors include Stride and VISA !!!
Learn More: www.wheretheheckismatt.com/
Stats: Money, Achievement, Self-fulfillment, Recognition, Independence, and Ability to be creative in full flow
Comments: A visibly impressed Anusree Menon posits that Matt learned from traveling what he was capable of and also the path laid in front isn’t the only path to choose in life. He created that fact that the last thing a video should have is a point. After all, he was happy with what he was doing, and in the end that is what matters.
Age: 35
Education: Graduate in Journalism and Business
Previous 'career': Newsreader and talk show presenter
Current activities: insight into the supercar culture and what it's like to drive these incredible cars in a light, fun way. vLogger
My Story: While researching prominent women in the Gulf countries, I stumbled upon her name and sites. Her knowledge and fascination for cars were exactly like Mona Lisa Vito in 'My Cousin Vinny', a 1992 film. Though I am not a car, much less a supercar fan, Maria's interpretation of riding is very entertaining.
Woooah: Ferrari and Bugatti Advertise on her pages !!!! Facebook 31 Mil, Instagram 7 Mil, YouTube 4 Mil !!!
Learn More: www.supercarblondie.com
Stats: Money, Achievement, Self-fulfillment, Recognition, Independence, and Ability to be creative in full flow
Comments: Rashmi Tekchandani applauds Alexandra in making cars light-hearted and more of an experience measurement rather than technical specs. This concept and its uniqueness helped her get her hands on some of the most exclusive cars on the planet, meeting and attending the exclusive car shows, car launches, and high-profile personalities. And of course, the estimated earning of Alex is approx. $2 million a year with a whopping $43,000 per Instagram post.
Age: 64
Education: ??
Previous 'career': Piano Tuner
Current activities: Extreme Unicyclist
My Story: I am a very serious unicyclist and started Unicycling when I was 48. A very, very niche sport, Unicycling has several God-Level icons: Kris Holm, George Peck, and Terry Peterson come to mind. What sets Terry apart is the amount and intensity of extreme unicycling he does at his age !!! For older unicyclists, his inspiration is legendary.
Woooah: Started Unicycling at the age of 50!!! Yes, 50.
Learn More: unigeezer.com/
Stats: Money, Achievement, Self-fulfillment, Recognition, Independence, and Ability to be creative in full flow
Comments: Lekha Shah notes that “It’s all about his interest. If he kept at being a piano tuner then he wouldd'nt have been able to achieve whatever he is right now; which makes him more satisfied & physically & mentally healthy.”
Education: Graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a degree in microbiology.
Previous 'career': Food Scientist
Current activities: Ranking animals in Tier lists and commenting on the natural world as if it were a video game. The style used by Lacey within the channel is based on Outside, a Reddit group that discusses real life as if it were a video game.
My Story: As a Natural History Interpreter I am always looking for ways in which experts 'translate' complex concepts into easy to understand language and metaphors. TierZoo came in as exquisitely accurate and superbly communicative.
Woooah: His idea is to get gamers interested in Biology !!! By presenting life on earth as a game !!!!
Learn More: www.tierzoo.com
Stats: Money, Achievement, Self-fulfillment, Recognition, Independence, and Ability to be creative in full flow
Comments: Drashti Shukla maintains that avoiding Functional Fixedness helps him to craft a new way, creating something new/innovative which useful and liked by users.
So what are YOU waiting for? Ditch the Pitch. Forget the Interview. Avoid dysfunctional/multifunctional 'teams'. Give up the soap, shampoo, kutte ka biskut, and credit cards. Go on. Conquer whole new Worlds all by yourself !!! Good luck.
Illustrations from Pixabay.com
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