Rational Idealist

I’m reading Guttenberg the Geek, fantastic essay / biography by Jeff Jarvis, focusing on entrepreneurial aspects of famous inventor.

Several topics here are super interesting, like similarities between inventors, geeks, entrepreneurs, and what it means for the future of mankind.

Guttenberg Bible (Photo credit: Joe Shlabotnik)

However, one is not so obvious, but it might be inspiring for new generations of entrepreneurs around the web – Guttenberg spent a lot of time, energy and risk in building out the typeset and printing the first book.

The situation was much harder than anything today – he could not know if he will even survive the project, but let’s still compare this risk and emotional investment with today’s entrepreneurs – geeks between 20 and 30, who choose the uncertain but shiny path of building their business.

The project you are working on, should compensate for the conditions of extreme uncertainty. Compensate by reward and/or importance for yourself, human kind, the planet.

The product you will be judged upon should encapsulate the shiny core of the promise, of the better world. That’s why Guttenberg wouldn’t stop until he fulfilled his mission and printed the Bible – there were several smaller projects before it, to perfect the technique, but nobody really talks about them these days.

He was able to change the world because he endured on his journey until he could crown the disruptive technology, with a really memorable crown. Respect.

Related articles

• Gutenberg the Geek, reviewed (buzzmachine.com)
• Gutenberg the Geek: A Kindle Single (buzzmachine.com)
• 10 New Books Worth Checking Out (twistimage.com)

Image via Wikipedia

z mediji in novinarji v sloveniji in njihovim kolektivnim in posamičnim odnosom do bralcev in okolja je marsikaj narobe, ampak danes me je zbodla na videz najmanj pomembna bodica. morda se bo kdo strinjal da odseva širše težave.

v sobotni prilogi Dela sem se razveselil članka o Leonardovih večnih ženskah. razveselil iz dveh razlogov – ker je tema razstave zares zelo zanimiva, in ker imam to srečo da se občasno znajdem v Londonu in si vedno z veseljem vzamem kako uro za obisk kake galerije.

žal sem bil ustrezno razočaran že po prvem stavku. članek se začne z besedami:

pravijo da je bila to razstava tisočletja. vrste pred londonsko nacionalno galerijo so bile, kljub mrazu, vsak dan neskončno dolge.

vir: delo

vse je jasno, razstava je že zaključena, priložnost zamujena.

uredniÅ¡tvo ali novinar, ali oboji, pač domnevajo da piÅ¡ejo za bralce v dolini Å¡entflorjanski, in da je njihova naloga fascinirati z nedostopnim, ne pa obveščati o priložnostih. Slovenski bralec se lahko zgolj naslaja nad izbranima dvema reprodukcijama in sanja o ‘resničnem svetu’.

če bi članek pisal o finančni krizi bi naÅ¡teval podatke brez konteksta, zato da bi ‘nedostopnost’ zamaskiral v ‘nerazumljivost’; če bi pisal o uspehih bi govoril o tujih podjetjih; končno sporočilo je vedno: “itak se nič ne da spremeniti, pa tudi če bi se dalo itak ne boste nič spremenili.”

zavedam se da sem izbral izjemno nepomemben primer za to poanto, ampak ravno zaradi svoje benignosti je najbolj iskren.

Related articles

• Flower Power – photo exhibition (borutpeterlin.wordpress.com)