And you thought the winner was the working man. Joel Kotkin at Forbes describes who he thinks won and who lost in America’s class wars.
Obama’s triumph reflects a decisive shift in the economic center of gravity away from military contractors, manufacturers, agribusiness, pharmaceuticals, suburban real estate developers, energy companies, old-line remnants on Wall Street and other traditional backers of the GOP. In their place, we can see the rise of a different set of players, predominately drawn from the so-called “creative class” of Silicon Valley, Hollywood and the younger, go-go set in the financial world.
These latter business interests provided much of the consistent and massive financial advantage that the Illinois senator has accrued since early spring. The term “creative class” was popularized by former George Mason professor Richard Florida, who used it to describe those with both brainy business acumen and a very liberal cultural agenda borrowed from the bohemians of the ’60s.
It’s an interesting concept, which assumes that sometime in the recent past people who made tangible things, like food, airplanes, cars, and do-it-yourself furniture stopped “creating”, a term which can now only apply to artistes. I think it’s a concept which can only exist where the existence of things is taken for granted so that we no longer regard their creation as remarkable. Assured prosperity creates strange attitudes. There’s a story about a London bum who went up to a Duchess during the Depression. “I’m hungry,” he said. “Why don’t you eat?” was her reply. Bertolt Brecht wrote in words whose original intention are ironically reflected back on his own ideology.
Each page a victory
At whose expense the victory ball?
Every ten years a great man,
Who paid the piper?So many particulars.
So many questions. …And even in Atlantis of the legend The night the seas rushed in, The drowning men still bellowed for their slaves.
Kotkin goes on to say that Obama’s truest believers came from “college towns, urban centers, some elite suburbs … Nearly one quarter of the core “creative group,” those working in the arts and culture industries, live in just two cities, New York and Los Angeles.”
Many of these workers are employed by a far smaller, and more influential, base of largely pro-Obama corporate and financial titans who embrace the Florida view that “creativity” can save the U.S. economy. These include the likes of Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google … as well as a who’s who of other Silicon Valley oligarchs. Obama has also enjoyed almost lock-step support in Hollywood and among the go-go wing on Wall Street. Hedge-fund managers, for example, gave 77% of their contributions in congressional races to Democrats last year, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonpartisan analyst of campaign finances. George Soros, the peculiarly left-leaning financial speculator, has been a long-time financial supporter and a critical ally in terms of funding pro-Obama media.
Creative. But what did they create?
Tip Jar
“”"”"But what did they create?”"”"”
Excellent question. Sounds like the ultimate triumph of style over substance. Maybe.
Creating a new, cheaper launch vehicle, or a new small-class commercial aircraft probably doesn’t count. Or does it?
In each case, I’m referring to two individuals who, by definition, belong somewhere in this “creative class:”
Elon Musk (SpaceX, formerly PayPal), and Vern Rebun (Eclipse Aviation, formerly Microsoft). These two men, along with Jeff Bezos (Amazon to Blue Origins), and John Carmack (video gaming to Armadillo Aerospace) have moved on to create tangible things that have to be machined, tested and flown.
So, perhaps it’s still possible to be a member of this “creative class” and move on to create the tangible. To be fair, the Silicon Valley “Creators” also develop the tangible.
But America has always had a creative class, which includes everyone from Thomas Eakins to Thomas Edison. Apparently a good chunk of genuine creativity may not count anymore in the elitist realignment.
If we want creators of the tangible, apparently we now have to hire East and South Asian technological mercenaries, because we are too busy developing a class of people who create beautiful “houses of cards.”
Am I being unfair in my assessment?
This has been my point, too.
The new elites who think the are the ultimate in hip and cool electing the First Rockstar. A Shaman.
Too much money, too long, too easy. It’s going to get really, really ugly when a few cities get nuked, we turn off electricity to save the polar bears, and we get street riots in America over food.
I suspect these guys will be rich targets. For populists, who are not going away. Indeed defeating McCain leaves the path open for a true, hard core populist running against the hip and cool crowd. By definition, only a few can be winners in the hip and cool crowd (which itself is a function of people dating and being single for decades, marrying very late if at all). Everyone else is a loser. A bunch of Richard Florida Gay Antique Store owners are not the basis for a sound economy, and leaves all those blue collar workers and white collar engineers out in the cold.
It’s going to be ugly.
Whiskey’s blue demeanor may finally be fleshed out. The Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood naivity of Obama’s college brigades (my errant son is one) is sure to be kicked in the teeth by reality. The world is full of hungry brigands. Last night as the results came in, it grew increasingly chancy McCain could have every break go his way. Now Obama faces the same crap game in the world. Clinton was ill prepared but was lucky to inherit peace and prosperity from his betters. Obama is walking on crow eggs through a mine field with the bridge out ahead, hurricane warnings, plague alert and
an ill wind blowing. You wanted it, Slick. What you gonna do wid it?
It’s good to see the political demise of the soggy-brained 60′s generation. I personally believe that “creativity” is the most important element to the American economy. But, and this is huge, our educational system is soooo poor that we must import our “creators”. What happens when we can’t attract the “best and brightest” because America isn’t all that great a place to live?
I think, rather than creative, it’s best to call them the Human Capitalists (unlike the Industrial Capitalists who own factories, farms, oil wells, etc., the Human Capitalists only owns his own education, equity in his company and cheap means of production & distribution). An HC can “produce” with tools he can own personally (a computer, or a Red One digital camera) and distribute through a general medium (FedEx, the Internet). They have no fixed costs and flit from one project to the other (or one company to the other) quickly and efficiently, always taking their most cherished possessions with them.
In fact, the government is incapable of taking away their only possession of great value. You can’t take away their knowledge of math or their skill at acting or architecture. That’s why taxation of “mere income” doesn’t bother them as much.
The Human Capitalists, in centuries past, used to be only authors and painters, but with the rise of IP and digital distribution, they are entering into all other fields of human activity.
“Former” Human Capitalists such as Elon Musk and John Carmack will become Industrial Capitalists, even as they bring the entrepreneurial attitude of the HC’s with them. They will commit billions of dollars to specific physical investments which require particular economic conditions to be profitable. To plan years in advance like they they must commit to a course of action and oppose any change which can swing them into the red for decades at a time (or into bankruptcy court). They will lose the nimbleness of a Human Capitalist who can drop one company on Friday and start a new one on Monday. Thus they become conservative.
The conceit of the “Human Capitalist” is that they work alone. They always seem to forget all the support staff and QA folks and the call center in Bangalore and all those staffing companies that take care of the dirty work like cleaning their toilets and filling their refrigerators full of free drinks. It seems to take a lot of people to permit the chosen few their “Human Capitalist” lifestyle.
I can’t wait for the AFL-CIO to card-check a few of those places.
Back in the mid-70’s I went into a computer store (there were a few, very few, back then) and saw a copy of a magazine – it was probably Byte – with a cover painting that pretty much summed up the attitude of the computer techies.
The painting showed a view out the window of a 19th century industrial city. Dark, ornate towers and blackened smokestacks protruded into a sky filed with back smoke.
On the table before the window was a computer, and on its screen was a vision of the future. A beautiful city with low domes that rose gently and a few swooping graceful towers protruding into a clear blue sky, all surrounded by green. The message was clear: we will conceive on our computers and make it so.
But it appears that they so often think that once they have created that beautiful picture on the screen the real work is done and all the drones or robots or menial workers will just build it while they watch. They won’t get their hands dirty. After all, they no doubt have illegal aliens cutting their grass, and the computers are built to their specs in China, so it is just a matter of degree.
Attempting to build machines that move and fly and build new cities takes some rather different techniques than writing software or building computers. It is hard to reboot in the real world.
trangbang68 – I favored Romney and generally voted Republican this election.
That said. McCain failed spectacularly in his 1st test of executive leadership. He and the 1st crop of people he selected drove his 1st campaign into uncontrolled bankruptcy. Then he ran what people are calling the worst General Election campaign since Bob Doles. Incoherent, no vision, horrible organisation, constantly changing messages. He lurched about yammering “my friends, my friends, I’ll fight for you, fight.” But he never said who his “good friends” were past his good Senate friends like Teddy and Joe and Lindsay, and we had no idea what he would “fight, fight, fight” for.
We got nothing but further doubts about McCains ability to lead, use good judgment.
On the other hand, Obama and his team ran the best Primary and General election organization since Reagan’s group in 1984. It excelled at every level. Obama’s ability as an executive and organizer and a strategic thinker was tested and he showed true executive ability as we watched John McCaim fall flat on his face attempting the same.
In a dangerous world, we probably picked the right guy.
I have no doubt there are better Americans for the job than Obama. Romney is one. Haley Barbour, Petraeus, Alexander, Bayh…a very long list. But with McCain we had a man of some dimbulb thinking, running on his biography which has nothing to do with being a competent leader, rash, impulsive, at times incoherent jet jockey who “goes with his gut”. (have we had a recent President that was a jet jockey “hunch deciderer kinda guy?)
Yes, McCain served!!! And – he suffered!!! And has been milking it for 35 years in a political career where he has never learned about economic matters or attempted to assemble a coherent future vision for the country or build lasting political alliances beyond “Myself, the great hero Senator and my POW-worshippers in the media and my dear Senate friends…”.
McCain talked “I” throughout the campaign. Obama talked “we” throughout the campaign.
Now real horror stories are emerging about his failed campaign organization and whacked tales of the never adequately vetted Palin..”You think I should know ALL the countries in that NAFTA thing?” “African leaders? Well, do you think journalists will focus on just that one country, because I don’t know who is the leader of Africa…”
No, we might just have a very good President for these times in Obama…while what I saw of McCain had me thinking that guy should have been handed his gold watch and retired out on pension years ago.
How about the internet? That cell phone in your pocket? That iPod? The idea of the creative class isn’t that new. If you read this article you’ll have a hard time saying they’ve created nothing.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creative_class
And yeah, there’s a difference between a carpenter who builds a house and an architect who designs one.
I’m a card carrying member of the creative class. I didn’t vote for Obama but everyone I know did. Members of the creative class probably voted for Obama in droves. If the money from the creative class helped to elect him, and I don’t doubt it, it will continue to be a factor in the future.
Driving home tonight I was reflecting on the giggling elation I’ve seen all around me among black people today. One Los Angeles radio station has cobbled together the Seal rendition of “there’ll be a change a’comin’” along with quotes from the Messiah and played it every half hour all day.
If I wasn’t racist before this, I’m seriously thinking about becoming racist now. Because of the way they’re acting, blacks are facing the same sort of backlash they created when they acquitted OJ Simpson and then danced in the streets over it.
They do NOT, yet, run the corridors of power in NY, DC, or LA despite what Obama has promised. And I see absolutely no reason to believe that a significant percentage of unqualified black people will be promoted, admitted or awarded week after next just because a con man with black skin weaseled his way into what used to be the most powerful office in the world.
No worries NohnCee, sounds like you already were a racist. The change is that black people can now, for the first time in American history, tell their kids they can become President, and actually mean it. I must say I’d be fairly “giddy,” too, and I certainly don’t see the point in resenting such happiness after only one day. Call me again if they’re still playing the song a month from now.
Pelted, it is NahnCee.
Raoul,
The AFL-CIO will never be able to card-check a tech company. It’s like hugging a cloud of mist. Ford Motor Co. and it’s big factories are a sitting duck to a UAW union, but Google can evaporate along with the top 10% of its employees who take an equity stake and a cubicle in the search engine across the street, leaving the union guys holding a couple server farms with no one who knows how to run them.
Among Industrial Capitalists the tools & factories are the unique assets, and the employees are commodities. Among the Human Capitalists it’s the other way around.
Ah yes, predictable. Ladies and Gentlemen: first playing of the race card — ONE DAY after Teleprompter Jesus got himself fraudulently “elected” via fake ACORN votes.
ONE DAY.
Yes, Blacks WILL face a Backlash. Here are the facts: Blacks are both an integral part of America, and American culture, and only 12% of the population. America could no more be without Blacks than it could be without the Stars and Stripes. But Black Separatism, Nationalism, and Racism will create a huge political backlash by Whites, who vastly outnumber them.
Conceptually, there is no reason why Affirmative Action could not be jiggered to exclude Blacks, or Hispanics, or any other group outside the spoils process. It probably has to end here and now, in the face of a deep lasting depression, otherwise the White majority gets pushed outside the patronage train and will burn the Welfare House down.
As for the large amount of unqualified clowns being in power — that’s a given. We can look forward to Farrakhan, Wright, Keith X, Dinkins, Marion Barry, and every other clown being rolled into a place where they will be spectacular disasters the way say, “Cold Cash” Jefferson is, because Obama has to “prove” he is indeed “Black Enough.” His entire career he’s embraced White-baiting, and proving he’s the Hard Angry Black Man. He can’t resist it anymore than his role model, Richard Nixon, could resist picking fights with the Eastern Establishment.
Obama is Nixon. Complete with a cast of characters that recall Ehrlichman and Haldeman.
Raoul Ortegas said: I can’t wait for the AFL-CIO to card-check a few of those places.
With the right contribution in the right hands a CEO will be able to make those union goons go away. Trust me on that one. A fellow doesn’t just go out and raise $600,000,000 for a presidential race w/o a few favors trading hands. It’s the Chicago Way.
Pelted, there is a country in Africa, which was forced to abandon its racist ways and where, if Obama was a citizen, could never become president because of his skin color. It’s South-Africa. The reason is Obama is not black enough. America remains however a racist country.
And yeah, there’s a difference between a carpenter who builds a house and an architect who designs one. – Utopia Parkway
Didn’t used to be. In the old days you did both.
what is the name of the man who came up with the shipping container?
Slade,
The elite class has regulated out third generation carpenter from drawing up plans.
Naturally the New Mandarins like the regulatory state. It protects their guild status and provides a barrier to entry. Why do you think all the professional architect organizations support Democrats? Why do you think there was the upset with Joe the Plumber throwing in kitchens, toilets and glue welding PVC with out …a….license?
Since I live in LA, I’ll throw in my two cents.
From my perspective, most creative types in Hollywood,except for the very top highly paid Actors, Directors, Writers and Producers are not wealthy. Most of working Hollywood, often of considerable fame are independent contractors, do not work continuously and more often than not have taken a few hard knocks. They may appear out there to most people, but often are conservative. Working Hollywood’s City council district, Council District 4, has been represented almost continuously for decades by a conservative democrat and is either the most or second most conservative council district in LA. ( There are to my knowledge no Republicans on the LA City Council and there hasn’t been for some time.)
It’s the Industry Lawyers, MBA’s. Agents, Upper Studio Management and Dealmakers who are the problem. They are uber cool, far left, pushy and all style over substance. There are thousands of them. They rely on an uber cool fashionable cache, often an Ivy League degree, drip phoniness and haughty intimidation and generally can’t be trusted. They live far from the studios in exclusive places like Beverly HIlls, Bel Air, Brentwood, The Palisades and Malibu. They make more, a lot more, than the rest of Hollywood except for the very top creative types. They are generally not creative or entrepreneurial, but otherwise fit the mold of Brock’s ” Human Capitalist”. And they are the ones responsible for all the crap Hollywood produces.
Paul from Florida – so true. I could tell a few (fairly funny) stories from many years back but I’d better keep them to myself.
Creative. But what did they create?
==
I’m really surprised you’d ask such a question. Especially considering your writings and all the tools and infrastructure you use, is the creation of brain capital. Brainless mechanical and human robots are cheap and are a dime a dozen. Brain capital on the other hand is expensive because it is everything in the new economy.
Take for example solar power. Limitless renewable energy. The creation of human capital. How many brainless human robots is that worth?
The creation of human ^brain capital.
I’m really surprised you’d ask such a question. Especially considering your writings and all the tools and infrastructure you use, is the creation of brain capital. Brainless mechanical and human robots are cheap and are a dime a dozen. Brain capital on the other hand is expensive because it is everything in the new economy.
But why should brain capital be limited to a certain type of work? Where’s the line? And brain capital isn’t everything. With all the vast amount of brain capital at my disposal, I’m still doing my dishes, the laundry, sweeping the floors etc. How is it privileged over the brain capital of plumber, let us say? Have they invented a robot that can replace a plumber yet?
A large number of people who come to Australia are simply strongbacks, whose job it is to care for all the old folks who are in hospitals and nursing homes. They haven’t been able to find a robot replacement for those either. And there is something to be said for the carer who will cheer a patient up, detect the irregularities in breathing that herald the onset of trouble, or clue the doctor in on something he may have missed. That’s creative. It’s not clear to me that carers don’t create.
So unless we equate “creators” with “all sentient human activity” we get into definitional problems. Besides, I have problems thinking that some are more equal than others. And it would be ironical indeed if the people who decided to support BHO did so on the basis of some kind of elitism that is even less justifiable than old-time racism.
Have they invented a robot that can replace a plumber yet?
==
In a sense, yes. He’s called Draino.
Whiskey,
Nixon with a tan, absolutely. I just hope that the One’s administration is only as corrupt as Tricky Dick’s was.
So unless we equate “creators” with “all sentient human activity” we get into definitional problems.
==
It’s very easy to define technical knowledge. And 95% of the population doesn’t have it.
How is it privileged over the brain capital of plumber, let us say?
Who said it is? W, you are all over the map on this today. This is nutty.
You guys are just pissed that McCain lost. Didn’t you listen to his concession speech? The reason he lost? He said it was his fault. And he was right.
Now you’re blaming it on computer programmers and architects?
You’re nuts.
All this talk reminded me that supposedly there was a sign above the gate into one of the camps in the gulag…
People are our most important capital
Stalin… the Human Capitalist?
One story a buddy told me was about his wife’s work. She works in a corporate HQ in Green Bay, I can not recall the exact position. Someone in one of their locations in New York City was not performing some of their routine administrative tasks and my buddy’s wife got on the phone.
The person in New York sniffed “We are the creative ones, we don’t do that kind of work”. I did not get to hear a follow up story.
I am an IT guy and I do not quite get why guys who code at Google should be considered any more “creative” than the guy trying to figure out how to convert 50 million billing records in a timely fashion. In fact, quite a few IT people buy into this notion that much of what we do or things like the web or Linux is “hi-tech” it isn’t. Google is one heck of a system, but so to was the PnA distribution system I worked on at a local international manufacturer.
Who said it is? W, you are all over the map on this today. This is nutty.
You guys are just pissed that McCain lost. Didn’t you listen to his concession speech? The reason he lost? He said it was his fault. And he was right.
Now you’re blaming it on computer programmers and architects?
You’re nuts.
The Forbes article makes the assertion there’s a new class of creators, who have catapulted Obama to power. That’s Kotkin’s thesis. I disagree with the idea there is a privileged class of creators.
Some discussion threads may not be to your liking, but I can’t help that.
Last I checked, the only real creator in this universe is The Creator. We improvise, invent, package, discover, and organize. But we never truly create anything. Those who think they do, flatter themselves with falsehood.
The most lasting, durable things come to us serendipity. Please read Rev. Bernard Lonergan, S.J., “Insight.” It will clarify a lot of things for ya.
Utopia Parkway,
I did some opp research for the opponent of a friend in a state assembly race. Much of my friend’s opponent’s cash came from out of district and out of state. One of those contributors was a Google employee from San Francisco CA. What is a Google employee from SF CA doing contributing to a race in northeast Wisconsin? This is not a unique occurrence either, many other races had this action going on.
Politics is a team sport and like a team just doesn’t plan around one player from the opposition neither should we.
Unsk is spot on about the kind of people he, and I presume most of us, have no use for. They are not really useful in any good way.
I have absolutely no use for the hipster socialists who are now struttin’ their stuff. They are worse than useless, since most of them really do not know or understand the provenance of the ideas they parrot like the clever imbeciles they are.
The Forbes article makes the assertion there’s a new class of creators, who have catapulted Obama to power. That’s Kotkin’s thesis. I disagree with the idea there is a privileged class of creators.
==
Actually, the privileged class is still the car oil military mafia. They appropriate to themselves the vast majority of the public’s tax dollars in support their personal welfare scheme. I agree with Kotkin. They create nothing.
I disagree with the idea there is a privileged class of creators.
He doesn’t use the word privilege in his article.
The idea of the creative class is that it is a group of knowledge workers. Privilege is something you have read into it.
It is just a group of people with similarities. Similar outlook, similar backgrounds, similar jobs. The fact that they have similar political outlooks shouldn’t be surprising.
Remarks about this group not wanting to dirty its hands and this group looking down on others are merely sour grapes. There’s no evidence that this group is different than any other group in these regards.
You’re off base here.
Pelted,
You wrote: “No worries NohnCee, sounds like you already were a racist.”
I don’t agree with your position vs. what Nahncee was saying. I am a white male, but I have grown up in NYC. We were one of the last white families to live in the Queensbridge housing projects where I grew up with mostly black and hispanic neighbors. I have many great friends who are family to me that are black and hispanic.
From this perspective, I have observed that we shared a common bond growing up, mainly poor and raised in single parent households; again, these are folks I would consider my family, and I have shared these thoughts and concerns with them also.
There is a line that divides us on certain issues. This line manifests on a number of issues – e.g. the OJ situation was one of them. So was Dinkens response to Crown heights. I could go on. There is a grievance that they have and is deep. I can understand the cause of this grievance, but I cannot allow it to distort my views of right and wrong. In my opinion, many blacks threw out their sense of right and wrong based on their past grievances.
As far as I can tell, Nahncee’s point about “a con man with black skin weaseled his way into what used to be the most powerful office in the world” is a fairly accurate statement and the fact that the black community threw out judgement on his lack of qualifications, or radical past, or hate America friends, or his voting against medical care for infants who survive abortions or would think that Thomas Sowell was an ‘Uncle Tom’ is disturbing.
Feeling this way is not racist as you propose.
How many sq miles of forests is the Internet worth? How many lumberjacks? How many fire fighters? How many paper factories? How many book binders? How many ink factories? How many delivery trucks? How many libraries? How many librarians? How many hours of indexing? Etc, etc.
I never made any remarks about this group not wanting to dirty its hands and this group looking down on other people. Please read the main post. Here’s what I said:
This is not an attack on programmers. I’m a programmer for Pete’s sake. But why Kotkin should think this group of people should “triumphant” or should now constitute a class separate from “military contractors, manufacturers, agribusiness, pharmaceuticals, suburban real estate developers, energy companies, old-line remnants on Wall Street” is beyond me. People in pharmaceuticals, manufacturing and in military contracting are pretty creative.
So what distinguishes them from others? He gets his concept from a book written in 1973.
Unsk,
What you describe reminds me of the antagonist in the movie Alvin & The Chipmunks.
Somehow a lot of the pundits have this notion that data entry into an Excel spreadsheet is a more advanced task than polishing a hub cab. As a code coolie myself I have to laugh at the hubris of these so called ‘knowledge workers’. How many of them would stand comparison with the engineers and workers of the past, men who made electrical generators with 98% efficiences that for all practical purposes never break down? Men who gave us supersonic flight in a mere decade, put man on the moon, built the Empire State and the atom bomb with just log tables and slide rules. These people have no sense of history and what is worse they revel in it like dwarves casting long shadows at twilight.
But why Kotkin should think this group of people should “triumphant” or should now constitute a class separate from “military contractors, manufacturers, agribusiness, pharmaceuticals, suburban real estate developers, energy companies, old-line remnants on Wall Street” is beyond me.
==
Because he sees what I see. The oil car military nexus is a $2 trillion USD a year albatross chained to the neck of American society, dragging it to the bottom of the sea.
I never made any remarks about this group not wanting to dirty its hands and this group looking down on other people.
OK, those remarks were made by others upthread. Although it’s fair to say that your remarks about privilege imply people looking down on others.
This is not an attack on programmers. I’m a programmer for Pete’s sake.
So did you ever create anything? That was your original question.
Creative. But what did they create?
I’ll assume the answer is Yes. You did create things. I know I do. Every day.
But your question implies that the so-called creative class mentioned in the article are not creative and don’t create things. And that’s ridiculous.
So what distinguishes them from others?
The idea is that they/we are knowledge workers. It’s not a hard concept.
The point of the article is not that these people are somehow walking around with their noses in the air saying that they’re better than others, as a number of people upthread seem to have said. The point is that Obama was supported by those people. And Obama has won. And those people will now have their day in the sun.
Like it or lump it.
“Last I checked, the only real creator in this universe is The Creator. We improvise, invent, package, discover, and organize. But we never truly create anything.”
Fred, I agree with you. But it does seem that creating a POTUS out of a guy who’s one big empty bag of shuffle is about as close to an act of “ex nihilo” as we’re ever going to see with our own eyes.
But almost every single Toyota, even almost every single Chevy, that rolls off an assembly line staffed with these lesser beings who don’t create but just produce, almost every single one is drivable. Yet in my (and Wretchard’s) own “creative” field of software, well over half the projects started end in a pile of useless code. And it can’t even be melted down for scrap.
The artistes are, as usual, quite full of themselves (no wonder they voted overwhelmingly for Obama).
The artistes are, as usual, quite full of themselves (no wonder they voted overwhelmingly for Obama).
You base this on what? Do you have a quote?
Your remarks are totally made up out of thin air.
Prove me wrong.
I have a hard time as seeing the divide differently than the same old thing where we talk about what it means to be elite.
Generally, I take creative to mean artists whether performing or otherwise (painters, sculptors, writers, etc), those lines of work more or less directed by technical imperatives I do not consider creative. How many ways does a code coolie (I like that phrase) have to update a particular field in a table record? I suppose they could come up with some variations on the theme but their employer’s standards are likely going to restrict that, and in any event most of what “non-creative” workers do is fairly routine. The 80-20 rule probably kicks in where 80% is routine and 20% requires creativity. Almost but not quite enough routine to automate.
There are a lot of writers out there, but not all are as “cool” as some. I find writing like this more challenging and stimulating than writing job descriptions and HIPAA concern summaries. Guess which writer is “cooler”?
When we think of creative ability it is easy to revert to stereotype.
Still, as I said coding updates to Google’s search algorithm is in lines with adjusting the IMS caching routine of that order fulfillment system, why are Google coders considered creative and the guy working on the IMS cache considered a dinosaur (yes, IMS guy knows DB2, Oracle, and other database systems)?
By artists I mean “creative”.
What did they create?
I can only speak for myself, but I have designed and implemented a robotic warehousing system that permitted a few women (the why that women ended up running this system is a sociological study in itself) to run a system that had previously required a lot of very strong men and forklifts to maintain.
I designed and implemented a system that replaced over a hundred support system operator/analysts with 4 people and a room full of computers.
I designed and implemented a system that analyzed and displayed in graphical format hidden reserves of oil and gas from old field recordings that had previously been deemed useless.
I have designed and implemented educational software for resale by major educational publishers that has helped the young to learn to read, write, and do arithmetic.
I designed and implemented an AI system that allowed airline reservation agents to rapidly respond to customer inquiries about flights without information loss.
I worked on weapon systems that I am not at liberty to discuss, but if you were in the military and ever had your butt saved by timely, accurate artillery and rocket fire, you’re welcome.
I am currently designing and implementing clinical management systems for health care that permits small (and large) medical groups to handle more patients, get reimbursed faster, and manage for better results.
Other than that, I haven’t been doing much other than running around with my nose in the air. The only problem is that kind of restricts my vision and I trip a lot and man is that embarrassing, but I’m working on small portable radar to detect obstructions and warn me in time to…, Darn I tripped again, over a dead rhinoceros, wouldn’t you know.
Oh, and I voted for McCain/Palin.
Mika — the Private auto allowed desegregation to take place. No one is ever going to take public transit outside NYC because Blacks and Hispanics will victimize Whites and Asians. It’s better and safer and buys more social peace to have everyone in their car. Much as the personal freedom disagrees with the notion of telling people what to do.
Let me assure you that if Whites actually had to LIVE with Blacks on a sustained basis that they would institute very harsh policing methods. Blacks are 12% of the population. Whites are 75%. Do the math.
—-
Speaking of Jerry Brown, it’s fascinating that the Dead Kennedy’s California Uber Alles satirizing the dreams of a Flower Power, “era of limits” combining the worst elements of EST, New Age idiocy, and old-line communism/fascism, have come to light with Obama. Funny.
Actually, as I read the above that I have typed, I realize that, to quote and old pop-psy book, “Someone hooked my child.”
whiskey,
I’ve mentioned him before, but it’s worth mentioning it again. Please check out Jaime Lerner and what he did in the Brazilian city of Curitiba. I think his is the model to emulate.
Joel Kotkin’s article should be read entirely. His concluding argument, which has not been addressed in this thread, is that the people he defines as the “creative class” are relatively unconcerned about our country’s availability and supply of energy. Therefore these people are much more concerned about the possible dangers of climate change.
The Republican Party and, in particular, the McCain campaign have failed to address many issues in a sufficiently intelligent and convincing manner. One such group of issues involves climate change, energy alteratives (especially petroleum, coal and nuclear) and the appropriate role of our Federal Government in controlling the associated requirements and risks. These are major, important issues, but they were discussed in this campaign superficially and insipidly.
With regard to the issue of climate change, the Bush Administration acted like it had its head in the sand for at least the first six years. The young generation cares a lot about this issue, because they fear they themselves eventually will suffer the consequences in their own lives. The Republicans should have addressed and engaged the issue and show they at least care about the public’s concerns.
The young people are worried about mother polar bears trying to feed their cubs as the arctic climate changes, while McCain spent millions of dollars running advertisements about Bill Ayers. McCain did have a position on these climate and energy issues, but the only occasions when he talked about them was when he was asked.
I have only one objection to the role of digital technology relative to human creativity. When it first rolled out in the ’80′s, the end-users were informed in somber tones that the new technology would master the routine repetitive work and free up time for humans to … do something else, presumably of the creative, human type.
That has not been my experience. Rather than solving problems through managerial solutions that require creative thought, such as restrategizing approach or reformulating coalitions, all solutions default to the technical – perform as many alternative analyses as possible in order to exhaust all scenarios. All that “free time” to creatively manage is consumed by expanded technical analytics. Analysis got bigger. Creativity stayed about the same.
Hey Slade,
Ever used a cash machine? Ever buy something on eBay or Amazon? How many people did you have to talk to to get those things done? Did you save time?
Ever post a message on a blog or send an email? Did that save time vs calling someone on the phone or writing a letter?
fred, I agree that the only real creator is the Creator of Heaven and Earth. My prayer is that he somehow intervenes in the heart and life of Barack Obama and saves him and us from his worst instincts. But what do I know? All I did today was nail a couple hundred feet of base board.
When you get to the subject of race, it would do some here to dial it back a notch. Black people are not monolithic. They do usually and once again did vote overwhelmingly Democrat. (maybe the GOP ought to run somebody besides old white guys). But they are not all grievance mongering boyz in the hood. You ought to get out of your white enclave once in a while.
Well said, trangbang68.
Kudos, Wretchard, on another magnificent post. You’ve made (some of) these programmers and creative class aficionados stand naked before us. The comments are incredible! “Yes, I’m freakin superior to you . . . because I’m ssssssmart! But I never said I’m superior to you! Go find me the quote, go find me the quote!”
Damn.
A few years ago my wife did a festival on campus and called it “Artists in Bloom” and I tried to convince her to use artist in the broad, old-school understanding of the word. It would have allowed her to embrace virtually the entire university community through the festival. Not just the fine arts, performing arts, etc. I think this gets at why you were inspired to make this post. There’s an odd hierarchy being enforced that is dismissive of creative activity and claiming it all for themselves.
Because they’re ssssssmart!
Quite a neat trick that allows for one to engage in all kinds of activity that would lead to cries of racism, etc., yet permit you — the so-called creative class — to scream racism, oppression, environmental rapists, etc., at everyone else such as the “oil car military nexus.”
Hey Slade, – Utopia Parkway
Well Utopia, we all have our issues, even the robo-coders from The Valley have feelings.
Well that was my stab at humor. This seems borderline hissy fit to me. The social tensions between (what we today call) “knowledge workers” and the trades people, or those who work with their hands is older than spit. Been around forever. Joe the Plumber and Sarah Palin ignited a latent spark that exposed the friction which still lingers in this country as but ONE of the many gaps that threaten some serious disharmony in the near-term. The Free Choice Act is pushing the same buttons.
But circling back to the point, the new “time” invented by digital tech was put to what use? Managerial solutions to business problems are still dwarfed by the increased options of technical solutions. Any variety of problems that could be approached at a higher level managerial approach are now routinely downloaded to the techs to run more numbers. It is inappropriate, time-consuming, and expensive.
Forbes can’t spell “predominantly” with an editor and a spell-checking human-capital device. There’s your whole creativity thing, right there. I’ll bet they pronounce it “hoobris.”
Gavin :
McLean is the guy who came up with the shipping container & revolutionized the overseas transport industry…BTW, here is a very sobering sidenote about how innovators may not create sustainable commercial operations in the longterm timeframe : his shipping company (McLean Industries)went bankrupt & even tho it owned lots of tangible assets, bondholders only recovered 1o cents on the dollar (I know, I was one of them…ouch !! it still stings !)
Mike Sylvester comments are very exasperating for conservatives.
“…the “creative class” are relatively unconcerned about our country’s availability and supply of energy..”
If the spike in petroleum to $150/bbl isn’t enough bring the creative class to reality, nothing will.
“The Republican Party and, in particular, the McCain campaign have failed to address… climate change, energy alteratives (especially petroleum, coal and nuclear) and the appropriate role of our Federal Government…”
But they they did address it. We have to do everything but particularly drill for oil and natural gas and build nuclear power plants! With luck, these conventional sources will supply enough energy until solar power is economical in perhaps 30 years.
But is really illuminating is his view that the government has to solve or direct the solution to this problem. Up to now, Americans have overwhelmingly understood that multiple, independent groups will provide the sure solutions to technical problems. The government will go in the wrong direction, waste trillions, and delay the final solution. Think Gasohol! The child like faith in the government is really the European view that now being adopted by many Americans who should know better.
mikec,
People like you should be consigned to testing incandescent light bulbs in a Chinese factory at 1¢/hr for 18hr/day 365/yr. Ignorant brainless farts like yourself is why we are we where we are. It takes more energy to power a plasma TV than it does to charge an electric car. And the difference in using clear green renewable energy versus dirty goal is less than 1¢ per mile driving an electric car, TODAY!
mikec (62):
“Mike Sylvester comments are very exasperating for conservatives.”
==========
I was telling people here about the conclusion of Kotkin’s article, a conclusion which was not being addressed in this thread.
The Republican Party and the McCain campaign did not address the climate/energy issue EFFECTIVELY. I wrote that they have a position on the issue, but discussed it only when asked.
The young generation — and according to the article, the “creative class” — are concerned about the climate issue to an extraordinary extent. The Republicans and McCain therefore had to engage the issue coherently and convincingly, but the impression they left is that they don’t really care about the issue — that the issue is mostly just ludicrous. That’s a big reason why we Republicans have lost the youth vote overwhelmingly. We didn’t really address the issue that concerns young people the most. We talked much more about Bill Ayers.
mika2k1 (63):
Why don’t you spend more time checking your facts and less time with the name-calling?
The following article states that electric cars require 4 times the amount of electricity as plasma tvs:
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/07/23/tech/main4286157.shtml
This came up at the top of a Google search for “plasma tv electric car”. The search took very little longer than typing an insult.
Mike Sylwester,
The “creative class” (I believe that description is patently absurd, as I pointed out)being concerned about “climate change” (notice that it was altered from “global warming”) only demonstrates to me what I already suspected: they aren’t as bright as they see themselves as being. They may be narrowly focused people and successful in their fields, but it does not make them Renaissance Men. They apparently are not up to date in their understanding of the natural phenomenon. AGW rests on the assumption that correlation = causation. Additionally, we still do not know the entirely of the complicated relationship between CO2 and weather, let along long term climate trends. Also, the global climate stopped warming in 1998 – and even that year was not the hottest one in the last century (it was 1934). Other valid hypotheses have gone largely unnoticed by the general public and by these scion’s of Silicon Valley. Sunspot activity and alterations in the earth’s orbit around the sun also can explain what has been repeatedly happening with the earth’s climate for millions of years. There is a geophysicist in Iceland who thinks some of the oceans’ warming may be due to gargantuan releases of geothermal energy from the earth’s mantle during deep underwater seismic events.
The computer modeling of the AGW crowd is rickety, to say the least.
I think young people in the U.S. have been sold a bill of hoodoo. And it is more mature minds that are needed to provide a steady hand before these lemmings want to go in lockstep to wherever it is they want to go.
Finally, imposing on ourselves the Kyoto Protocols (which prior administrations have rejected) in order to make AGW drive energy and economic policy is madness.
I think with this election the kids have shown themselves to be…kids.
Why don’t you spend more time checking your facts and less time with the name-calling?
The following article states that electric cars require 4 times the amount of electricity as plasma tvs:
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/07/23/tech/main4286157.shtml
==
Wow, someone who still believes the political hacks at CBS.
Plasma TVs vs. Plug-In Cars
We already wrote about a study by Oak Ridge National Laboratory that shows that plug-in cars might not need new power plants (or few of them), and now we learn that a big screen plasma TV actually drains more power from the grid than a plug-in.
“Plasma TVs, industry officials say, consume about four times the electricity as recharging a plug-in hybrid. Yet utilities have managed to cope with the increased loads as thousands of new televisions came on line.”
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2008/07/plasma-tv-television-plug-in-cars-electric.php
Why don’t you spend more time checking your facts and less time with the name-calling?
The following article states that electric cars require 4 times the amount of electricity as plasma tvs:
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/07/23/tech/main4286157.shtml
==
Wow, someone who still believes the political hacks at CBS.
Plasma TVs vs. Plug-In Cars
We already wrote about a study by Oak Ridge National Laboratory that shows that plug-in cars might not need new power plants (or few of them), and now we learn that a big screen plasma TV actually drains more power from the grid than a plug-in.
“Plasma TVs, industry officials say, consume about four times the electricity as recharging a plug-in hybrid. Yet utilities have managed to cope with the increased loads as thousands of new televisions came on line.”
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2008/07/plasma-tv-television-plug-in-cars-electric.phpm
fred,
I didn’t intend to start an argument about climate change. I myself don’t have a strong opinion about the subject.
My point — and Kotkin’s point — is that this is a major issue for young voters and for what Kotkin calls the “creative class” — and that the Republicans need to address the issue better.
In your comment, fred, you make an argument about the issue. Do you really feel that McCain made such an argument? Or do you recognize that McCain more or less avoided engaging in such arguments?
We Republicans have to argue coherently and convincingly about the arguments that concern the voters the most. That is what I am trying to say; I am not trying to say who is right about this climate issue.
Mike,
I agree with you that McCain avoided the issue, made no argument of the type I posted, and that he would utter some platitudes about the subject that really admitted that he did not know more about this than any other politician.
In fact, I don’t think politicians are generally courageous enough to go beyond what the voters want to hear. That is part of what has infected the body politic of this nation. There is a kind of staleness of intellect that has infected almost everyone, especially the climate change issue.
McCain dodged it. But I still think the kids and their professors are wrong about this. And the evidence is pouring in and there are many scientists who are contesting “the consensus.”
The problem is, how does one challenge the mindset of a voting bloc without alienating them? After all, most people are pigheaded and they don’t like being told that what was stuffed into their brains may be a lot of mush.
Maybe I’m telling my considerable age, but does anybody remember McNamara and the “Whiz Kids” that afflicted this nation under the JFK and LBJ administrations?
Pulling in the bright “kids” with the new ideas has been done before, and I personally was impacted by McNamara’s bright ideas in the army from 1968 on.
It is well to remember that bright ideas that won’t work in the boardroom or classroom have very real impacts on the firing lines.
MC
The “creative class” amounts to a “Blue Eloi” thinking they can lord over “Red Morlocks” indefinitely by occasionally throwing a few of their own down the hole.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Time_Machine
Boy, are they in for a surprise.
If I could find a computer model to explain the causation and ending of the Ice Ages I think that I would have more confidence in them. The “Creative Class” are very good at some things, most of which are not essential to life, meerly convienient or amusing.
The fetish for solar power is an example of the lack of foresight and understanding. The stuff that goes into making photocells is far rarer than oil or coal and requires huge investments in carbon to extract and process before it becomes “free energy”. Wind farms require massive structures standing on huge concrete bases, check into how much carbon is produced making concrete and then figure out when that wind farm starts producing “carbon free” energy.
Don’t get me wrong ideas are great, that’s why we don’t live in caves anymore, but unless grounded in real-world knowledge and an understanding of how things actually get done they are nothing at all.
The Best and the Brightest by David Halberstam.
Read it a long time ago. I almost posted my prediction for “big war” in next thread but fell into platitudes, which sprinkle this post as well. Let me just say that I have more hope for the whiz kids to repair the structural and regulatory deficiencies of the financial markets than I do for State/Defense/CIA/Pentagon/Congress to pull off a similar miracle in geopolitics – developing an intellectual foundation to drive strategy and resource allocation instead of the ad hoc scrambling under a Long War scenario. It’s a good-sized FUBAR to my mind. What angers me about the Bush administration is the way in which the five players went “independent” from and at times actively opposed to Presidential direction in foreign policy.
The markets can be fixed. The rest of it, I don’t know.
A large segment of our society thinks that food comes from a supermarket and money comes from Washington D.C.
Parkway, as Bertie Wooster would say, don’t be an ass.
In case you were thinking I have no basis for claiming over half of all software projects end in fiasco, they do. I’ve been a professional software engineer since the Reagan Administration. I’ve been a manager, executive, founder, architect, trouble-shooter, you name it. I’ve studied the “art” of managing software engineers, and I know the history, statistics, and trends of the profession. Most projects do end in cancellation. Almost all go significantly over budget and miss deadlines by months.
There’s a reason for that – it’s hard, complicated work. There’s another reason for it – many of the people engaged in it have sloppy work habits and take an ill-disciplined approach to things. That’s slowly changing, but one of the things holding that change back is a sense of “artistry” about the work that tries to claim any imposition of discipline or rigor will kill the creative spark.
“”"”"”"“Former” Human Capitalists such as Elon Musk and John Carmack will become Industrial Capitalists, even as they bring the entrepreneurial attitude of the HC’s with them. They will commit billions of dollars to specific physical investments which require particular economic conditions to be profitable. To plan years in advance like they they must commit to a course of action and oppose any change which can swing them into the red for decades at a time (or into bankruptcy court). They will lose the nimbleness of a Human Capitalist who can drop one company on Friday and start a new one on Monday. Thus they become conservative.”"”"”"”"”
A largely realistic scenario, but keep in mind that Musk and Karmack are introducing nimbleness to a hidebound aerospace industry. They have not yet evolved into the industrialists you envision them eventually becoming. Secondly, the “HCs” would be foolhardy to think that a manufacturing base can grow entirely on cheaper foreign trees. Also, Musk and Karmack are committed, in their particular niche, to drastically bringing down the costs and complexities of their particular industry. It is a similar philosophy to that of the HCs, but fleshed out to accommodate an additional set of realities.
Too many HCs have a house-of-cards/pyramid scheme mentality about how they go about making their fortunes. A healthily-functioning society needs large solid anchors of real, tangible production fueled by a different aspect of creativity, and manned by the proverbial solid citizens.
“”"”"”"”"20. Unsk:
Since I live in LA, I’ll throw in my two cents.
. . . most creative types in Hollywood,except for the very top highly paid Actors, Directors, Writers and Producers are not wealthy. Most of working Hollywood, . . . do not work continuously and more often than not have taken a few hard knocks. They may appear out there to most people, but often are conservative. . . .
It’s the Industry Lawyers, MBA’s. Agents, Upper Studio Management and Dealmakers who are the problem. They are uber cool, far left, pushy and all style over substance. . . . . They are generally not creative or entrepreneurial, but otherwise fit the mold of Brock’s ” Human Capitalist”. And they are the ones responsible for all the crap Hollywood produces.”"”"”"”
Interesting observations.
I personally love the concept of “Human Capitalism,” (follwing the “Army of Davids” mold if you will) and, frankly, as a concept and in practice it is a good thing that actually helps to keep societies freer than they might otherwise be. The problem, to me, is when entrepreneurial creative types try to wed their career lifestyle to incompatible ideologies like big government progressivism. I’ve seen that a lot, and find that baffling. Such people are unwilling or unable to connect all the dots.
Secondly, many of the more successful of such types — which includes Bill Gates, by the way — suffer from the hubris and corruption of the power that their success and wealth give them. THIS is at the crux of the problem: a lust for power coupled with the notions that, because they have demonstrated to themselves that they are enormously succesful at making certain things happen, that they must be able to and should be involved with making OTHER THINGS go teir way as well. The Google dies fits this mold. Soros, while, in my view, not a true “Human Capitalist” is also in this category. These are the kinds of people that traipsy off the Davos to discuss ways of sabotaging genuine free enterprise and free market systems so that they can stay on top.
I have a saying that’s probably not original to me: “There are more people who want power than there are people who deserve power.” This desire for unearned and undeserved power lies at the bottom of much of the world’s misery, and no group or mindset or ideology is immune from it.
“”"”"”"making OTHER THINGS go teir way as well. The Google dies fits this mold.”"”"”"”"”
Huh? “Google dies?” I meant Google guys, like Sergei Brin and the other one.
The thesis of a “creative class” is close but not quite it.
I prefer the idea of a “mindf*ck class” (sorry to be so crass.) It is a constellation of interests that acheive their power by selling ideas of one sort or another. Some of these ideas are indeed useful (like Jobs’ electronic gizmos) but need little physical manifestation. The biggest, most prominant subsets are academics, entertainment, and journalists.
Sometimes I think the worst of this bunch are people who make their money off rent-seeking. For example, the financial industry won one with the bailout – they generally supported Obama. Likewise, some in the energy industry expect new government policies that will advantage them over possible competitors – for example Exelon over AEP.
This model has evolutionary roots. “Bad boys” get a lot of girls that the “good provider men” don’t, at least at first.
Hey mika2k1! Why does it always come down to “Ignorant brainless farts like yourself …” (post 63) name calling by you people? Why, mika2k1, when someone defends themselves against your personal attack, you respond with “…less time with the name-calling?” (post 67) holier-than-thou hypocrisy? Why can’t you just have a civil conversation mika2k1? Why?
Why can’t you just have a civil conversation mika2k1? Why?
==
I’m been called a KGB agent and a Commie stooge and other nasties, because I called the oil car military mafia for it is; I never cried off to Richard to complain. Anyhoo, describing ignorant brainless farts as ignorant brainless farts, is just keeping it real. If mikec feels that’s not an apt description, let him prove it different.
I’ve been called..
76: JMH,
There’s a reason for that – it’s hard, complicated work. There’s another reason for it – many of the people engaged in it have sloppy work habits and take an ill-disciplined approach to things. That’s slowly changing, but one of the things holding that change back is a sense of “artistry” about the work that tries to claim any imposition of discipline or rigor will kill the creative spark.
I’ll bet that you are a strong believer in outsourcing. How’s that working out for you?
Roderick Reilly:
I hope they always keep the attitude of Silicon Valley; but committing a billion dollars to non-commodity physical assets will turn them into an Industrial Capitalist. The key difference between the HC and the IC, as I model them, is that the assets of primary value creation are tangible (and owned by the corporate entity) in the IC context and intangible (and owned by individual persons only) in the HC context. John Carmack will always have his brain, but once he builds a rocket he’s an IC.
One day if rockets become cheap disposable commodities, like pickup trucks and Intel servers, then you’ll see HCs in the space industry. But not until then.
By the way, if anyone has noticed, there is a third category of worker – the non-Capitalist. They have neither an education or any tangible asset which is unique and capable of returning out-perform profits. They make work in a call center, at a point of sale register, or in a factory, but the one thing I know is that there are too many people in the world like this today. It is a waste of human potential.
Mika’s not the sharpest tool in the drawer, though she (he?) IS, in fact, a tool.
Florida’s concept has a lot of currency among urban planners, these days (I am one). Needless to say, the profession is lousy with leftards. What I find amusing, is the fact that they seem to have this feeling that they are independent of, and have no further need for, the hard industries. Their product is largely non-physical, so they don’t need the “physical” things produced by industry. Yet, to take only the most obvious example, their beloved computers don’t exist without the drilling, mining and refining processes of the “old” style industries. Nothing gets built, transported, eaten or otherwise “created” without the base industries. Raw materials are still a necessity, and if you can’t grow it, you have to mine it. Mika’s on-going idiocy to the contrary notwithstanding. Like many (most?) self-obsessed urbanites, ahe apparently thinks that all this wonderful stuff just kind of appears on shelves.
Which brings up a further observation: Without manufacturing, what are these mind-numbed Obots goiong to spend all their money on? I mean, even the patently useless Prius needs to be manufactured out of steel, aluminium and plastic, right? Or perhaps the “creative” class can find an alternative, like basket-weaving, that will get them to the club on time.
One of the fundamental tensions in any society is between creativity and experience.
Creativity is the source of innovation. The ability to think of a different solution to a problem – or to recognize a different problem from a set of facts – is a skill that is essential to improving the lot of mankind. If we just kept doing the same ol’ thing again and again, there would be no innovation (this sentence was copied verbatim from the Big Book of Duh). This skill tends to be strongest in the young; many a problem was solved by a young, inexperienced person who didn’t know that the problem was intractable. It is not a coincidence that the vast majority of scientific breakthroughs were made by young investigators.
The problem is that most new ideas are bad ones. Years of evolutionary selection have weeded out the stupid, silly, and wrong ideas that were hatched by young thinkers. What is left is, for the most part, proven to be successful.
Experience is the source of efficiency. We do things we know have worked in the past based upon our experience. Since most new ideas are bad ones, the benefit of change is rarely worth the investment in innovation. Constant change has both physical and psychological impacts; we get tired of change, and relatively quickly since constant change means regular failure, and no one likes to fail.
The problem is that without innovation, there is no wealth creation. The material progress of mankind relies upon doing things better over time, and that comes only from investment in innovation. If we rely only on experience, and we underinvest in innovation, to our long-term detriment.
It is Exploration vs. Exploitation.
The pendulum throughout history has swung back and forth between creativity and experience – or youth and age, if you prefer their proxies. It appears we’re entering a phase when creativity and youth have gained currency over experience and age. This is not necessarily a bad thing, although it is certainly a risk, and usually causes a lot of damage (see above: new ideas usually bad ideas).
But the notion of a “creative class” strikes me as nonsense. Class is a characteristic that is invariant over time. If you’re “upper class,” you’re always upper class, even if you’re broke. Creativity naturally evolves into experience with age; you see this in advertising firms where the real creative work is almost always done by the young, but is edited and sold by the experienced. But the “creative” 22-year-old copywriter becomes the 35-year-old account exec becomes the 50-year-old partner becomes the 65-year-old eminence grise.
And even the notion of “creative” vs. “working” is a wholly artificial distinction. Even the most edgy “creative” still has to possess the skill of using Photoshop (or pen-and-ink, at the least). And even the most plebian plumber has moments of remarkable creativity.
The best example of the two working together I ever saw was when we had a tub leak in our old house. The house was built in the 1920s, and the original tub had a leaky drain upstairs that dripped water onto the downstairs living room ceiling whenever the kids took a shower.
We called a residential plumber to come take a look, and he said we’d have to rip out the plaster wall and half of the hardwood floor on the back of the tub to fix the problem. He explained (channelling Vincent Gardenia’s character in Moonstruck) that there was no way to access the pipe and replace the leaky section from the access panel. If we wanted to do it right, we needed to bite the bullet. We were looking at several grand by the time all the work was done.
Not willing to accept that this answer, I called one of our superintendents (I run a commercial construction company, among other things), and he sent over a plumber from his jobsite. The plumber showed up with his apprentice, and the looked at the situation. They began talking through what they’ve have to do to fix the leak. They described getting a special kind of wrench through the access panel at the correct angle, and holding the wrench in a certain way so that they’d have the clearance to actually turn the nut at the junction. They also talked about how they’d cut out the old section of pipe, and splice on a new section, how they’d seal it, etc. They spent 30 minutes choreographing each move, changing the sequence a half-dozen times as they encountered obstacles that emerged during the process. They even went through the hand motions that would be required to get the job done.
Once this planning was all done, they went to the truck, and returned with the tools and materials they needed. About 30 minutes later, they were done. Tub fixed. No wall or floor damage. Repaired, cleaned up, and gone. It was awe-inspiring.
It reminded me just how potent creativity and experience were when they worked together in unison toward a common purpose.
It is a lesson unknown to the young/creative, and easily forgotten by the old/experienced. But both groups (re)learn the lesson in time.
Usually when they’re standing in front of a pile of plaster and hardwood.
L3
Creative. But what did they create?
Derivatives.
Prescription Drug Bill.
“”"”"”"I hope they always keep the attitude of Silicon Valley; but committing a billion dollars to non-commodity physical assets will turn them into an Industrial Capitalist.”"”"”"”
Ok. So be it. I don’t consider that to be a pejorative, nor will I assume that you do either.
“”"”"”"”One day if rockets become cheap disposable commodities, like pickup trucks and Intel servers, then you’ll see HCs in the space industry. But not until then.”"”"”"”"”
Contrary to what some of my fellow space enthusiasts think, I don’t expect that to happen in many generations, if ever!
Mika’s not the sharpest tool in the drawer, though she (he?) IS, in fact, a tool.
==
mika might not be anal about his typing, but mika is plenty sharp. Sharp enough to notice when someone is trying to attribute him an argument he never made. My complaint has nothing to do with heavy industry. my complaint has to do with the $2 trillion subsidy that the oil car military mafia gets every year, and I’ve yet to receive a rational answer as to why that should be.
What a great multilogue this is!
So many good thoughts. I like Leo Linbeck’s pair of plumbers, that’s the post-messiah style of life. They are there in that instance, but such harmony is like a rare-birds song heard in the marsh during the migration season — it is such a transient happening.
The rest of us all are still caught in the dynamics of historical human nature. Do you think these “creative class” hasn’t been seen before? Let’s ask Imperator Vespasiano, who built the Coliseum. All the “creative arts” of establishing an Empire were well-known then. Bor-rr-rrr-ing. Not leading edge. Thereafter, upon what were political fortunes established, and personal empires within the Empire built? By what played in the Circus, what drew the crowds, and that kept up all the way to Constantine — the Blue-Green sports teams played until the whole Empire fell. Circuses are always leading edge, until the society they mollify and act as the massive axle (a virtual social axle, that) about which all “intellectual property” revolves. Until, to close that hanging, is until the forces of nature, or rather of Nature’s G-d, breed a fierce and strong enough “outsider” to breach the veneer and free the termites to sunlight. Which for termites, is very uncomfortable and harmful.
So there we are, under the new Imperator, all the masters of Circus have taken the Capital and the masses have led them in, on palm fronds, with waving incense and cheering.
Not a new thing under the sun, so to say. The rivers still all run to the sea.
Mike, try and document this “subsidy,” then maybe we’ll address it. Otherwise, it’s just crap.
The elitist illuminati elected the rock star because they feel he’ll be easily swayed, like his record in the Senate showed.