bostonbubble.com

[Boston ITer]

[john p]

http://www.wayofthemaster.com/

I thought you were kidding.

The circumventing the intellect part is where he lost me.

Ok, so what we're talking about is how some technology is bumping up against some Brave New World kind of stuff. Emerson's stuff was pretty harmless, I mean he wasn't talking about cloning. It is fair that some people have got their spirits raised about some stuff. Coming to terms with this stuff respectfully is very important. We want people who value rational thought to feel at home here.

[Guest]

I wouldn't worry about Boston and religious fanatics. Massachusetts is socially conservative (no strip clubs nor brothels) but plenty of liberal politics (don't force your religious diatribes on me) type of region.

The problem is that if companies leave in droves, most if not all of that type of thinking will be confined to Harvard Divinity School which would be detrimental to the region.

[Boston ITer]

It's not so much religious fanaticism that I worry about but the notion that a tight knit group of peoples have to be oriented around a spiritual dogma then out of mutual respect. You see, the whole purpose of Freemasonry was so that a group of bright, civic-minded fellows could gather from time to time w/o it being an Episcopalism, Catholic, Orthodox, Jewish, Buddhist, or {fill in the blank with a doctrine} society. When people say "our faith gives us strength", what I really hear is that we've got an "us vs them" model based upon some spiritual hierarchy system. Sorry, but I'd pick some old Freemasonry secret handshakes over that any day.

[Guest]

Lots of socio-political musings here but the fact remains that the region is doomed as far as tech goes because of VC bias towards offshoring and the lack of concern by local authorities to keep technology around for future generations.

I recommend that a young graduate, from a BU or Northeastern, consider moving down to the research triangle park in N.C. than to waste his time hoping for a change up north. I think only townies have an intrinsic need to hang out, within striking distance of their high schools. The remainder of the world is more practical and goes where the jobs are. Sorry folks but there's not much to add here.

[john p]

If you look at the numbers, many cities have been affected by the real estate bubble, even N.C.

Do you think N.C. is set up to sustain for the long haul of your career?

If the barriers to entry are high for Boston, they will be filtering to some degree the talent. If the opportunity is so much better in N.C. even the best will go there.

I think the place with the "tooth to tail" capability will have a powerful future. I think Boston is closer to that than N.C. I think this bubble will correct or at least come better in line with the potential earning capabilities of the region.

Our company had a guy from the Kentucky office up for a month to help out. The guy told me that he had never had to work so hard in his life. I went down to his department and asked if they were slammed and the guys said "not really". Boston folks are mad dog hard workers. It would have to be a big carrot for someone wanting to move away from this talent and work ethic.

[Duff Man]

The process of getting an MBA had the equivalent intelligence hampering effect as opening doors with your forehead. It did double my salary however. Here's a cheer for market effectiveness, where the brightest (engineers, physicists, etc.,) are governed by the dimwits.

P.S. Dear MIT Guest, I spent five years as a Sloan admin and the best thing about it is that I don't have to be impressed when I meet an alum from that school.

[Guest]

In a hypothetical situation of "being a 15 year old", no response has convinced me or any of my classmates to opt for an engineering career, despite having a 750-800 on the math SATs I and II.

The standard approach for a bright kid is to apply for 6-7 BA/MD programs at let's say RPI-Albany, BU, Miami, etc, with the hope of gaining admissions to one of them. The other is to study at a brand name school (like Carnegie-Mellon or Cornell) or a state u with a full scholarship (like U Maryland) and try to get a 172+ LSAT for a legal career or finally, apply to pharmacy school out of sophomore and transfer credits for a BA-PharmD.

[Boston ITer]

[john p]

What are the questions here?

What will be the the more lucrative fields in 5-10 years?

Which pathway to these fields give you the best return on your investment?

What combination of skills and backgrounds will help amp up your earning potential?

Follow up questions are:

Do you think this sort of thinking is what leads us to having future gluts of workers i.e. the lawyer bubble, the IT bubble and now the MBA bubble?

Which future fields have obvious fundamentals supporting them?

In the portfolio that is Boston, where do we line up with these future fundamentals?

If a future field doesn't exist, is it possible that some will be invented? If so, in what areas?

[Boston ITer]

John, I think the points here are not the plausible or even potential future job categories but the way aggressive, book (and work) smart young people think and operate.

Today, whenever I talk to any college bound or even college student, they balk at the thought for working in IT unless they're deadset on getting into an Ebay or some other hot glamour firm. The reality of the situation is that they know that most doctors, pharmacists, and even lawyers (who attend the top tier law programs at Harvard/Yale/Columbia) have jobs. These facts haven't really changed during the past half a century. Now, if I'm approaching graduation with a 3.9 GPA from Latin Academy with a 1590 SAT, would I be wondering what it would be like to work at a place where my job could move to Romania at any time? Or would I be volunteering at a Beth-Israel hoping that BU takes me into their 6 yr BA-MD program out of h.s.? I think the latter is more likely.

[john p]

God bless a 17 year old for thinking along those lines. I was throwing keg parties in the woods and chasing hoodsies at the "Palace" in Saugus. (Sadly unsuccessfully) My theory is that it is better to waste ones youth than to do nothing with it. I started connecting with some serious scholars once the temptation of knowledge sunk its teeth into me. They wanted nothing to do with me, however.

Anyway, it is too bad that people don't "find themselves" anymore. I mean spending a lifetime being a round peg stuck in a square hole doesn't sound like much fun. The liberal arts sounded plausible until tuition costs made it got cost prohibitive. The kid with the 1590 SAT is bound by nothing really. I think as long as someone has the discipline that in order to get money they eventually need to plug in productively somehow, they will get a good reward in the end. I think that writing code is such a cool ability. To direct those little electrons and wavelengths of light sounds cool.

I think your comments offer some of the future demands i.e. support for pharmaceuticals, medicine/medical admin etc. I mean as an architect, I plug into whatever needs to be built for society. After getting the MBA, my salary did double, but the MBA didn't give it to me. I think if you like doing what you do you'll think about it more and not just go through the motions. If people see that you're dialed in and can see the value of plugging into you, I think you'll get the money eventually.

One thing about IT: Very crude here, my apologies... Everyone works with standard software i.e. Microsoft stuff. Do you think that code will ever be developed that can make custom programs more translatable? Can code be written so that it can understand the intent of what is being asked? I think that if the language develops more, it will make the customization aspect explode. Look at the flexibility of website design.

Lastly, I think that IT people are needed to build a virtual universe. What I mean by this is if we can input the basic laws of the universe we may be able to model behavior to do things like medical testing. I think if we can reverse engineer real behavior almost like replaying the memory of a fractal, we might be able to elevate our observations as well. For instance if we could get a better understanding of the neurons within us by following the electrical charges we could understand how our circuits work within us. We could go in for our inspection stickers by plugging in. I also think by observing basic mechanical functions like how a fish breathes or propels itself in water we might be able to design less crude machinery. It would be interesting if we could have a flying craft that used its skin to open jets or to observe better how resistance is created etc. I think IT is the new telescope instrument and with the increased power of computing this virtual universe is possible. Can you imagine the man hours needed to populate this?

The trouble is that kids are taught not to open their minds, but to fall into a track and become a high level follower. I think if they wasted more of their youth, they might feel more comfortable being idle, bushwhacking it, getting lost, wasting time thinking etc. Do you know Ben Franklin used to rub things to see what type of static electricity would come out? (PG-13 stuff here, really, please stay focused....). Who does that today?

The saying "curiosity kills the cat" is totally true. The resistance created by fear can seize people up. If the cost of living is so great that people are spending all their time trying to make ends meet, they won't have the idle time needed to explore new ideas.. Whenever I am afraid to do something, if I eventually do it, it is because the curiosity got the best of me and I put the fear aside. Again, wasting ones youth builds curiosity. It tells a kid that it is ok to fart around and screw around with things to see how they work. If you’re shuttling your kid around in the minivan every day trying to mold them, it might be stifling to the kid.

[admin]

[john p]

I figured I'd ask anyway; my wife wants me to read her mind and now I can say that it is impossible, even with computers. You guys could have some fun doing the Jedi mind trick with the "intent" stuff; my wife has it down pretty good (I'm easy prey).

What do you think the current lynch pins in IT are? I mean if we could get this to do that, than all of this is possible.....

[john p]

Suffices to say that I'd have flagged the essay portion of the SAT.

This is how my essay would go: My favorite American is the professional wrestler Rikishi because he delivers the dreaded stinkface. The end.

http://www.info.tampere.fi/y/phervanta/ysit02/Karri/rikishi.html