Purposive Drift

The Safety of the Street

I've been telling my son, Ben, whose just turned eighteen, that if he wants economic security the best way to do it is to build up a portfolio of tradable skills. By tradable skills I mean a set of skills that are clearly identifiable by people who will pay for them. (I should add this is something I have manifestly failed to do myself. Most frequently asked question, "What exactly is it that you do?) I've also pointed out that he already has some such skills, but I'm not sure he really believes me.

Thankfully, I can now point him to an entry in Douglas Rushkoff's blog, which he is likely to take seriously since he devoured Rushkoff's "Children of Chaos" at a relatively early age.

This extract, gives a taster, but read the whole thing, it could, as they say in the ads, change your life:

"What I've come to realize is that the street is the safest place to be. There's no fear, here, because you're already here. (It's where you are, anyway, even if some company has given you cubicle space - but that's a bit existential for spring.) Your employment is as diversified as your ability to multitask. And the more different kinds of work you take on, the more media in which you can play. It's not a jack-of-all-trades problem, at all, since the more different arenas in which you work, the more clear it gets what you bring to each one of them."