Birthdays
My nephew, Spencer, turned six Tuesday. During the call I made to wish him a happy one, I asked, “What’s on your agenda for this big day?”
He paused, as if checking the young boy’s equivalent of a Blackberry. “Mostly play,” he cherubbed before launching into an excited stream-of-thought on his impressive stable of Bionicles.
That brings me to Richard Florida, and his book The Rise of the Creative Class, which I’ve chewed on for a few weeks.
As I consider my career path, I look at goals:
- “Cool” place to live
- Proximity to family
- Ability to shape the way I work
- Opportunity to grow
- Nearness to a feasible graduate university (long-term)
Florida calls many of these things emblematic of the creative class.
To that list, I’d also add a career that is “mostly play.” Or, perhaps having self-direction and chances to learn makes work seem like a bike ride, or a carpet war waged with Bionicles.
I’ll have more on Florida, I think, in later posts. Oh, and Tuesday this column also rounded out a calendar year, its first.