In the US, or many other developing countries (i.e., those without a robust social security mechanism), the only way most of us can afford to pursue our passions to a high degree of performance is through cross-subsidization with a "real job".
The benefits that passion provide to a rounded life, better mental health, sense of perspective and so on are far worth the price paid, assuming your day job can finance it appropriately.
It's either that or poverty, which works OK for some until they have or want a family, get sick, have to take care of their parents or worse.
Monetizing passion is a shitty Faustian Bargain imposed upon us by the time and place we live in, unfortunately.
It would be great if I had a bathtub full of ice cream as well, and if we all lived in a world overflowing with love, respect and joy for all living things. Until then, I'm happy that these kinds of incredible tools are (and increasingly will be) be in more of our hands for close to free. Upwards and onwards!
Counterclaim: I live in Dubai, have several trans friends and colleagues who live and work here, and they have many other trans friends who come to visit frequently.
Never heard a single instance or issue of this, not to mention executions.
Wesley Faulkner (or maybe the person doing the interview) needs to differentiate between the future they want to see (aspirational or values-based futures) and the likely or probable future.
I'd love to live in a world where I could bring my whole self to work. I would love to live in a world where social and racial equity is part of the purpose of the company... where companies are radically transparent and honest.
We should absolutely fight for that world, but there is absolutely nothing certain about it. Wrapping it in "the future of..." is a dangerous framing which implies certainty or probability, which sadly isn't the case.
I went to a liberal arts college that allowed you to design you own degree. The process of design was half the degree itself. Whilst it make seem that "sociospatial analysis & design" is a useless boutique major, the attitudes of self-motivation, learning how to learn, and successfully exploring new areas of interest, inquiry and productivity have been essential to my career.
While I did use the specific skills and knowledge I learned in the process for a couple years, the underlying methodology of discovering needs, aligning interests, convincing others to support you, and developing new ideas and opportunities have been essential - even though I now do something totally unrelated to my degree.
Obviously I was both lucky and atypical, but the "useless vs. useful" distinction is not so black and white. Liberal arts universities _used_ to be about learning how to be a whole person in the world, of which gainful employment is an important part (but not the only goal).
Clearly the aristocratic origins of university education are out of step with the economic realities of today, but the DNA of the approach is arguably even more important to financial outcomes in the long run than just getting a degree in business or STEM.
The world is a mess and defaulting to a cookie cutter degree just because it will get you a vanilla, status-quo job out of the gates is not the kind of thing that will serve most people in the long run (IMHO).
I've been many times. It's far less nefarious than it seems.
Ever been to a corporate Christmas party? It's basically that with a lot more money.
There are some very interesting talks, but its mostly pretty vanilla. There are also some very, very interesting people, especially outside the gates of the main congress center.
But most of it is pretty much exactly what it sounds like; boring old people and their staff jockeying for status and bragging rights of who met with who, who got into what event, etc.
No one is in charge, there are no adults in the room and there are no sinister plots. Nothing really gets done or gets decided, other than an annual update of the ultra rich leaderboard, which is even scarier than the alternative if you think about it.
Normalize transition in your kids lives'. It will serve them so much better in the long run.
I had my own dramatic "mid-life crisis" a few years ago in my early 40's and have two teenage kids (pre-teen at the time).
We didn't hide anything from them, including the overall shape of the career issues, relationship issues, hopes and dreams, how we were handling regrets and commitments, and so on.
Of course we didn't involve them in all the nitty gritty (and what we shared, we do so with respect to their relative ages and levels of experience), but the idea that hiding what it means to be a complete, imperfect and yet aspirationally evolving human being from your kids is a major opportunity lost.
Now my kids know that just being successful doesn't mean you're happy, that everyone goes through changes of heart, that our goals and dreams evolve, and that this is a natural part of life.
I'm a huge fan of parental role modelling through action and reflective practice. Showing them how you go through your own life transitions helps them tremendously in theirs.
This kind of poor journalism, taking a momentary online scandal and turning it into "news", is both symptom and cause of the ongoing degradation of our media environment and public sphere.
How this is "news", and what anyone is supposed to do about it, is beyond me. Absolutely zero social, economic, or intellectual value add.
I, for one, welcome our robot overlords if they get rid of this kind of info garbage (which sadly, I'm very much afraid they wont).
In the US, or many other developing countries (i.e., those without a robust social security mechanism), the only way most of us can afford to pursue our passions to a high degree of performance is through cross-subsidization with a "real job".
The benefits that passion provide to a rounded life, better mental health, sense of perspective and so on are far worth the price paid, assuming your day job can finance it appropriately.
It's either that or poverty, which works OK for some until they have or want a family, get sick, have to take care of their parents or worse.
Monetizing passion is a shitty Faustian Bargain imposed upon us by the time and place we live in, unfortunately.