Thursday, February 03, 2005
Left brained economy to right brained economy
I previously wrote about how the U.S. is moving from an information economy to a marketing economy.
This article which appears in Wired Magazine reminds me a lot of what I wrote; the author just uses different lingo.
He describes the change as a move from the left brain to the right brain, or from an "Information Age" to a "Conceptual Age."
But the point he makes is similar to what I previously wrote. The information jobs are moving to Asia, especially the IT jobs, but also all kinds of other information jobs.
The only problem with the article is that the author doesn't understand that the shift is about marketing. He calls it right brained activity, but what it's really about is selling the cheap overseas goods and services to rich Americans.
Wednesday, February 02, 2005
The Apprentice: Brian gets fired
I wanted to post something about last week's episode before the next episode comes on, so in case I write something prescient, I will be able to proudly point it out.
The task for this episode was to run a run-down motel in Seaside Heights (boy, those places looked vaguely familiar!). The non-college educated team lost, and the project manager, Brian, was fired. And deservedly so.
In this episode we begin to see the difference between the college educated and the non-college educated, which is basically the difference between the lower classes and the middle/upper-middle class. The non-college educated team, basically, lacks class. They were screaming and yelling at each other, using the "F" word, and putting off the motel guests with their loudness. The ritualistic polite behavior of the college educates allows them to work better as a team.
Brian is supposedly a "self-made millionaire" at the age of 29. But he's also an abrasive moron with absolutely no self control. This proves that you can be a person with few redeeming qualities and still be successful in real-estate sales. A very important life lesson there.
