Beyond
knowledge?
Aparna Jairam
|
Shirley Turner
|
The February issue of Wired features an
article on
offshoring by Daniel Pink, author of
Free Agent
Nation. Wired's story, entitled
The New Face of the Silicon
Age, might instead have been called
Free Agent World.
Here's a stunning exchange between Pink and New Jersey state
senator Shirley Turner:
I toss a slur across her desk. I call her a
protectionist.
"Oh, and I'm proud of it," she responds. "I wear that badge with
honor. I am a protectionist. I want to protect America. I want to
protect jobs for Americans."
"But isn't part of this country's vitality its ability to make
these kinds of changes?" I counter. "We've done it before - going
from farm to factory, from factory to knowledge work, and from
knowledge work to whatever's next."
She looks at me. Then she says, "I'd like to know where you go from
knowledge." [Wired:
Kiss Your Cubicle Goodbye]
Where indeed? I think protectionism is the wrong approach. And I
think Dick
Cook's ideas are right. But let's not kid ourselves. What's at
stake here isn't just call-center jobs, or mind-numbing
code-writing jobs, or accounting
jobs. Creativity, innovation and hard work are the levers that
move the global economy, and anybody, anywhere, will be able to
grasp those levers. [via Jon's Radio]
As for the question posed at the end of the article; where do we
go "beyond knowledge?" I have a simple answer -