The Grand Parade

The last great adventure left to mankind
Screams a drooping lady
Offering her dream dolls at less than extortionate prices
And as the notes and coins are taken out
I’m taken in, to the factory floor …

The Gabriel Theorem

Image via Wikipedia

I postulate that all of human existence can be summarized by the lyrics of Lamb Lies Down on Broadway by Genesis. Everything. Since this is essentially my first blog, I will set to prove that theory in my first posts.

We’ll be sticking to an IT theme since my brain prevents anything else.

The Dry Theorem

A close friend of mine is, like myself, an avid ITer. We’ll call him Dry since that’s pretty close and (if may say so myself) is a pretty cool name for a theorem. Dry works for a small (local) IT firm and builds some really kick ass applications. He’s the technical director which, in small-firm-speak, means he programs, manages, administers, deals with users, deals with sales … basically deals with a migraine-inducing, professional lifestyle that could best be described as monotonous.

The issue Dry faces (and I’m paraphrasing somewhat) is that as he sits in his place and does his work, he feels the rest of the world is whizzing by.  To compensate, he takes the occasional jaunt over to Amazon/etc and buys whatever books spark his interest. Typically these are tech or managing-tech books. What Dry has done — and no offence to him since he’s about the only person I know who actually absorbs then breathes knowledge — is enter himself into a growing, festering, nerd influenced, pool of lifeless packaging. So, the Dry Theorem then can be stated as:

“A group of nerds in a room who’ve all (only) read the same books will have nothing useful to say.”

Un|fortunately for Dry he rarely has time to read these books; which only adds to the whizzing sensation. Vroom. Vroom.

This brings me to what is hopefully my last blockquote of the day.

Got people stocked in every shade,
must be doing well with trade
Stamped, addressed, in odd fatality
that evens out their personality
With profit potential marked by a sign
I can recognise some of the production line
No bite at all in labour bondage,
just wrinkled wrappers or human bandage

Pretty much sums it all up, eh?  Welcome to Society 2.0.

Fin

Don’t fret. This buy-books-look-smart phenomenon is an epidemic of social change brought on by those of us out there who also feel left behind. The solution is to diversify, read books (etc) that explain the change rather than those that are part of it. Predictably Irrational or any book in the field of behavioral economics fits here. Then, when you’re surrounded by the 37signals monkeys, you’ll at least be armed and distinct.

Special thanks to J. Blake for making this post suck less.