Next Monday, March 28th, I will be judging the Orange County SIFE USA regional competition. When I was at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, I joined SIFE (Students in Free Enterprise). It changed my life and I might not be where I am today because of SIFE. Therefore, I’m excited to be able to contribute to the SIFE organization as an alum.
SIFE’s mission is to bring together the top leaders of today and tomorrow to create a better, more sustainable world through the positive power of business. Students at individual universities apply business concepts they’ve learned in the classroom to real world applications. They develop outreach projects that improve the quality of life and standard of living for people in need within their community. These projects are what develop tomorrow’s leaders and build communities.
During my years at UW, our SIFE team started with about 8 of us. We developed into a knit group of friends. We not only wanted to help our community, but to also build the organization so others could experience and feel what we felt. As the seniors graduated, the remaining five of us took on leadership roles. We not only focused on our community programs, but also to build our organization. When I graduated, active SIFE members of our chapter was around 80-90 students.
Because of SIFE, I learned that I could be a leader, build an organization, and empower a community. I might never have started Demeter Interactive had it not been for that one, fateful evening at the Der Rathskeller. My involvement with SIFE started a domino effect that directed my life to it’s current course. I’m proud to be able to give back and help the organization that changed me.
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February 11, 2011 | By Gaia |
Innate human creativity, expressed technologically.
“[Every] ideal is a psychological truth; each is a fantasy playing through us, telling us who we are, what we are made of, and what we need.” – Robert Johnson*
What ideal is expressed in the fantasic world of TRON: Legacy?
In the film, a human creator, Flynn, successfully manifests a new plane of existence by fusing together the physical human form and the non-physical world of programs. It is significant to note that this fusion is not considered miraculous – as in the work of God or the supernatural – but rather the fruit of intense mental, rational labor. In this unprecedented biotechnological landscape, Flynn is able to create new life forms at will by virtue of his prodigious skill in computer programming. His creations are numerous and abound in diversity and utility, however nothing that he creates is absolutely perfect. Yet in his egotistical shortsightedness, he strives only for perfection.
One day, a “miracle” occurs. New beings – i.e. programs – emerge spontaneously into this new plane, (supposedly) without Flynn’s knowledge or input. These beings are called isos, and they are characterized by fundamental naïvite, striking beauty, and immense wisdom. These gorgeous creatures represent the innate creative impulse in human beings, which is the divine. If the ego is allowed to relax its grip on the conscious mind, a wondrous creativity springs forth, and divine inspiration and creation flows through human hands. Across the ages there are many tales and examples of this type of creativity, often in music but also in painting, poetry, sculpture, and so on. (I might recommend Musicophilia by Oliver Sacks for an in-depth discussion of what this looks like on a neurological level.) Flynn’s rational ingenuity created a functional and abundant place, but it was only his unconscious that was capable of creating such grace and wisdom as the isos.
Robert Johnson wrote:
“All fantasy is reality, reality expressed in symbol and flowing from an ineffable source… [It is] a truth that we can live, if we will understand it on the right level. The truth behind fantasy has to be earned.”
So what is the truth that may be earned behind this fantasy?
From both the psychological and the sociological perspective, the truth that emerges from within this story is that we have finally turned the corner: the epistemological unification of man and machine has been transformed from monstrosity into the potential for divine creativity.
No longer is it for the evil Dr. Jekyll – the shadow part of the psyche – to scheme ways to merge flesh and machine into a monstrosity. No longer is technology only capable of Terminator-like destruction. Now Flynn, a flawed yet essentially good man, who follows his ideals, and believes he can save the world, stumbles down this path and creates the right conditions for a miracle. And yet, Flynn falls victim to his own rashness and arrogance: he too has a shadow side.
Nonethelesss, as an old man who knows better, Flynn sacrifices himself to save his son and the only remaining iso, the seed that holds the potential for the continuation of his divine creation, and thus pays for his own sin of arrogance. (In this instance my interpretation is contrary to what many people read as the archetype of the savior who sacrifices himself for the sins of others.)
What does this mean culturally? It is a significant step toward the acceptance of technologization as a means of attaining not just greater convenience, but greater meaning. Just as Avatar told the story of sustainability in popular and emotional language, so TRON: Legacy recounts the story of the power of technology to benefit humanity and change the world, albeit in the language of myth and symbol. This is not a documentary about the Khan Academy, a very moving real-life example of how technology can change lives for the better, TRON is a story about a talented programmer who melds two worlds and in doing so creates new life, rife with unkwown possibilities, capabilities, and knowledge, and blessed with grace.
While many people already give great importance to the belief in the fundamental good of technology, and place a great deal of trust in the tech industry, this is an attitude that cannot be taken for granted. TRON provides a vehicle through which many more people may begin to subconsciously adopt these new ideas.
Myth and symbols are “the primary material of the psyche” (Johnson 56), and are the primary tools par excellence for communicating truths from the unconscious and for showing us what we have yet to learn.
*Johnson, Robert. We. 1983
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February 10, 2011 | By Gaia |
A SWEET way to communicate. But will it last?
Challenge #1: Speed
The speed of communication is continually increasing. Theoretically, this should mean greater productivity, efficiency, and ease, but instantaneous communication has its dark side too. All too often, people are seduced by the ease of click-of-a-button convenience, and slip-ups in personal judgment and skimping on quality in all types of communication have become extremely common mistakes. Not only does quality suffer in this case, but also quantity. As the transaction cost of sending more messages (think emails, marketing messages, texts) decreases, the flood of ever-more irrelevant information looms darkly in our inboxes, on billboards, and in “targeted marketing” the world over.
Overcoming The Time Warp
Make sure you have checks and balances in place in your daily workflow. Establishing routines increases efficiency as well as diminishing the likelihood of forgetting an important step in quality control. Working as a team is made easier with CMS software (or SaaS) that allows you to maintain the speed you need to stay ahead, the convenience of real-time communication, and the built-in processes that maintain the quality of your work. The discipline of having a routine, and the added functionality you gain by having the right technology, will enable you to maintain the pace you need to stay motivated while avoiding the frantic or careless habit of thinking every message needs to be sent this instant.
Challenge #2: Attention
In 2011 attention will be scarcer than ever before. Individuals will continue to be engrossed by smartphone applications, embattled by targeted advertising, and enveloped by a fire hose of information streaming in real time from all over the world, 24/7. How do you cut through the noise?
Overcoming ADD
To get your audience’s attention, whether it be your customers, co-workers, or friends, first make it clear that what you’re communicating is important and relevant. Be confident in this respect and you will have people’s attention, regardless of the medium you choose.
To keep their attention – and to deserve it – be respectful of their time. Eliminate everything unnecessary in your communication style. Edit. Be clear, be direct, be engaging, and if the situation is appropriate, don’t be afraid to be entertaining.
What are your biggest communication challenges? Share and discuss in the comment section below.
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Welcome to Demeter Interactive’s new website! We are very excited for this redesign! This website has been in the making for two months now. Gaia and I are so very proud of the site’s outcome. How did this all come about?
Demeter 1.0
The first site was thrown together by me after I abruptly quit my job to start Demeter Interactive. It looked…well…like a site that I would design and create myself. Gaia and I recognized this and made a new site a priority. Together we hammered out the site’s new design.
The design didn’t happen overnight. We had long talks about what we wanted from the site. We brought our ideas together, mixing and matching, compromising and perfecting. We got inspiration from many different places, and fused it all together to create our own unique identity. Once we had our ideas outlined in an Evernote document, we connected with our programmer, to whom we owe an immense debt of gratitude for his incredible patience and undying dedication to making our vision happen.
Read the rest of this entry »
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