How to Do Yosemite
This is my advice for how to have a truly epic adventure in Yosemite.
On Working For Yourself: How to Be a Free Agent
I moved this post to my more official blog:
http://www.laurenkuhlman.com/on-working-for-yourself-how-to-become-a-free-agent
On the Changing Face of College
Remember the cursive conspiracy? In second grade, we started learning it. By fifth grade, we were convinced the entire world operated in cursive. In high school, no one ever mentioned cursive again. College is like that.
Read this:
http://www.good.is/post/college-is-only-good-for-helping-rich-people-get-richer/
My Comments:
I definitely agree wholeheartedly. I went through and worked at the same time. Sitting in class night after night, primarily because of a familial obligation, learning outdated material was painful. During the day I was forced to independently learn the actual, current techniques. These years instilled in me the need to stay on top of every development in my field lest end up unemployed or miserably-employed with the masses. I read every book on my core skill sets I could get my hands on and still do. I have amassed a teetering library of everything on independent software vending, consulting, marketing, freelancing, complexity economics, network theory and the like. (Thank goodness for the Kindle. I am becoming a fire hazard.) I had wondered if this experience was unique to computer science students. Unfortunately, my experience is echoed in conversations with my more motivated peers in engineering, accounting, finance, marketing and the like. Throughout school, I would read the latest developments in the subject matter and was consistently shocked when the teacher failed to address or even mention it. Upon my departure, I found that employers and professional peers were pleased with my professional skill set and I had an easy way forward. I would engage them on the latest trend in this or that and doors would open. It all seemed so simple but no one taught us this basic skill in college. I watched my peers graduate and their options wane. It was painful to see. I felt like I had kept a secret from them: college is not the path to knowledge. I heard their laments that employers were not hiring. I never mentioned that I wouldn't have hired them either. If you want a stock college graduate, India is churning them out for a song. I kept quiet when I wanted to tell them to read some books, find some experts and strike up an informed conversation. No one likes being told what to do. Unless, of course, it is by a college professor. I'd like to follow the party line and tell my nieces and nephews to study hard and go to college. In reality, I know they would be much better equipped with a hefty Amazon.com budget, as I was.
Also, an important read on the prevalence of cheating and an absolute reality I have witnessed time and again:
http://chronicle.com/article/The-Shadow-Scholar/125329/
Again, kids pick colleges based on enjoying four years of leisure:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/07/09/top-colleges-spent-more-o_n_640479.html
If you have some time, this site will probably infuriate you:
http://deltacostproject.org/analyses/delta_reports.asp
The rise of private education is burdening many while helping few. When I say private, think online. They tend to be more expensive and less effective in terms of salary increase. Watch out, these are private corporations who never provide transparent statistics on employment placement, effects on salary, percentage burdened by debt, etc.
If you don't have much time this article is short and to the point:
http://nakedlaw.avvo.com/2010/06/8-reasons-college-tuition-is-the-next-bubble...
In summary,
College is increasingly a publicly-funded private enterprise that rarely educates and primarily provides leisure and leaves "students" debt-laden without an increase in advantage over their peers. This rite of passage is somewhere along the lines of kindergarten. It teaches you to fit in for the next stage in your life.
In response, read more books. Engage with the best in your field. Attend college only if you are aware of the merits/detriments. I doubt any eighteen year old can grasp the effect of their debt load.
Lovely, Lovely Leadville
I am in Leadville, CO at the moment for a Wilderness First Responder course at the High Mountain Institute. It is crazy gorgeous here. We have had 5 days of intense training so far and we have 4 more Tuesday through Thursday this week. Some of the students had a bonfire at a campsite off campus last night. Good times we're had by all.
I am taking this chance to post some videos and pictures from the area. Its hard to capture its beauty. Every road going into/out of Leadville is marked as a Michelin Scenic Drive in my handy road atlas. It definitely lives up to that designation.
On Saturday morning, I will head South. I may stop in at Great Sand Dunes National Park, Mesa Verde NP and Black Canyon of the Gunnison before heading down to the Tuweep North Rim of the Grand Canyon. Cheers.
Video
Lake Mcconaughy
That was a long day. Started driving at 8 just stopped. Found a random Lake to camp on. Its actually a dammed river. Maybe I have been reading too much Edward Abbey but I hate dams. Stopped at the local beach bar for a brew and to catch the end of the Hawks game. 6 hours from Leadville. Looks like I'll make it tomorrow afternoon. Class starts Wednesday morning. Iowa and Nebraska were prettier than I expected but it definitely started to get boring a couple hours before I pulled off.Left Illinois... Barely
The truck was done a couple hours past schedule. I got on the road at 2. It was overheating at 2:30. Pulled off and it was gushing antifreeze. Took it back, faulty part. Bollocks. Sears guys stayed an hour late to help me out. Pretty much awesome. Barely made it into Iowa. Badlands is out for now. Couple of long driving days ahead of me. Down for the count.Indolent
“Look at them, rolling along on their rubber tires in their two-ton entropy cars polluting the air we breathe, raping the earth to give their fat indolent rump-sprung American asses a free ride."- Edward Abbey, in the Monkey Wrench gang. indolent
[in-dl-uhnt] -adjective lazy Related forms: indolently, adverb
indolence, noun
Reconnoiter
Hayduke and Smith would then go on to what was once the river, now the upper arm of Lake Powell, to reconnoiter the next objective: three new bridges.- Edward Abbey, in The Monkey Wrench Gang reconnoiter
[ree-kuh-noi-ter, rek-uh-] -verb (used with or without object) to make a reconnaissance (of) Related forms: unreconnoitered, adjective
reconnoiterer, noun
Quiescent
Westward on the bleak horizon the three volcanoes, quiescent for the time being, rose like warts, black, wrinkled, stubbed, against the haze of the afternoon. - Edward Abbey, in The Monkey Wrench Gang Quiescent[kwee-es-uhnt, kwahy-] -adjective inactive Related forms: quiescently, adverb
quiescence, quiescency, noun
Entropy
“Look at them, rolling along on their rubber tires in their two-ton entropy cars polluting the air we breathe, raping the earth to give their fat indolent rump-sprung American asses a free ride."- Edward Abbey, in the Monkey Wrench gang. entropy
[en-truh-pee] -noun 1. measure of the energy in a system that is not available for conversion into mechanical work
2. the tendency toward disorder in any system Related forms: entropic, adjective
entropically, adverb
