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In the previous post I copied an email to my cousin recommending that she hang in there and finish her education. Since then, one of her friends has countered my post. Before I show you that post, please accept my apology for turning this blog in to a family therapy session - we will return back to the usual broadcast as soon as possible. Anyway, mimi’s friend Sarah said the following…

“well, im sorry we live in america and not austrailia or whatever. we live on two opposite sides of the globe and in two completely different enviroments, in american majority of people go to college for the sports, education is just a side factor, a back up plan just incase they cant go pro or they arent good enough to make money. i admit, i am personally thinking of attending college, but only one with a good swim team. i would like to go into premed or go into religion and attend law school. you are mimis family, there is one thing in america we do, and thats stick behind our friends and family no matter what. so instead of critising her decisions, try to look at things from her point of view, not the austrailian view.”

I’m beginning to suspect that this is a fairly common topic in households these days so I thought I would publish my response below. Like my previous post, this help clear the fog for you, or your friends, or your children?

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If this wasn’t about my cousin then I would just let your post slide, satisfied that you had just made yourself look pretty silly. However, I guess mimi is reading this, so I’ll have to painfully refute your post like a kid pulling the wings off a helpless fly.

> “_well, im sorry we live in america and not austrailia or whatever._”

We have McDonalds, TV, Australian Idol, stupid people, and an overweight population too - we’re not that different.

> “_we live on two opposite sides of the globe and in two completely different enviroments, in american majority of people go to college for the sports, education is just a side factor, a back up plan just incase they cant go pro or they arent good enough to make money_”

1) Just because “most” people do something, doesn’t mean it’s the best thing to do.
2) To clarify, there is nothing wrong with trying to aim high in sports. My original post to mimi was trying to highlight the importance of education.
3) Very few people turn pro. Out of the ones that turn pro, swimmers are not the ones raking in the big money.
4) Education should not just be a back up plan because a) you are unlikely to turn pro in the first place, b) turning pro may not mean you make much money anyway, c) if you turn pro and make good money, then you will eventually retire (perhaps by injury) at the ripe old age of 30 (give or take a decade) and then do what with the next 40+ years of your life?

> “_i admit, i am personally thinking of attending college, but only one with a good swim team._”

So long as you’re not sacrificing your education, I have no issue with that.

> “_i would like to go into premed or go into religion and attend law school._”

Good!

> “_you are mimis family, there is one thing in america we do, and thats stick behind our friends and family no matter what._”

Believe it or not, that’s a fairly universal human trait. I’m still with her, no matter what decision mimi makes.

> “_so instead of critising her decisions, try to look at things from her point of view, not the austrailian view._”

There is nothing wrong with criticism. You’re swim coach would criticize your swim stroke - so that you can improve. I’ve provided mimi with an independent perspective that I don’t think she was aware of - so that she can make a more informed decision. Unlike mimi and yourself, I have the advantage of hindsight and have seen promising athletes go no where more times than I can count.

Secondly, the whole “your Australian” thing is dumb. Stop it. America has had such an influence over the western world that Australia is not that far off being a baby America, for better or worse. We don’t offer such lofty scholarships for sports people though, we generally just pilfer them straight out of school luring them with high expectations and no education.

Finally, I understand mimi’s position because I’ve been there. I hated school, and I had the potential as a pro athlete. I competed in underage Australian national championships, and in Singapore, and Malaysia. I have had the honour of training, or being associated with, some great athletes of Commonwealth and Olympic standard. Out of all those people I have been associated with: two are now playing sport as their sole source of income, a few are still training and competing for the passion while they work, and the hundreds of others are working a day job while supporting their children and pursuing other passions like travel.

Anyway, I think I’ve offered enough facts for Mimi and yourself to make an informed decision. Just be true to yourself and you’ll find it hard to go wrong.

My cousin is a couple years out of finishing school and is a little disgruntled with the whole ‘education’ thing. She has seen educated people live normal lives while those without an education have appeared to propser. I’m not close with my cousin as I live in Australia and she lives in Ohio in the states, but from what I have been told she goes to school during the day and has to work pretty hard as a waitress around school hours. I sent my aunt an email to pass on to my cousin with the hope of clearing up a couple of misconceptions. Here’s the email in the hope that it helps you or someone you know. If you do know someone in a similar situation, please consider passing this article on - I would have loved to have this perspective when I was in school.

– — – — – — – — – — – — – — – — – — – — – — – — –

Mum said that my cousin doesn’t think education is important because you don’t necessarily need an education to make money. I think she is right in some respects, but she is only seeing one side.

The problem is that there is a phenomenon called the “survivor bias”. The reality is that you often only hear about the success stories - like Bill Gates who dropped out of Harvard Law, or Richard Branson who started Virgin with a bunch of hippies and no tertiary education. What you don’t hear about are all the people that never make it - of which there are far far more!

I think she is right however, in that education doesn’t necessarily mean you’re going to be wealthy financially. What an education does provide you is a lower bound on your income. An education gives you a competitive advantage over those without an education, which means you are more likely to pull through in times of hardship. For many people, including myself, education provides enrichment, and that helps me lead a more complete life.

All that said, I hated school too. I started primary school with A grades, and finished high school with a B/C average. Once I got in to uni I had a great time. I spent more time in the food halls and tavern than I did in class, and believe it or not, I’m the better for that now. During university, I even experienced some education that I was genuinely interested in.

Anyway, I think school really does suck, and the education system is incredibly boring for most people. Unfortunately, it’s also the price you have to pay for opening far more doors in your future than you realise. If you want to become wealthy, then your education will allow you to see what those people without an education can’t see. The trick to becomming very wealth I believe, is to take something that you know very well, and use that knowledge to help as many people as possible. Education will give you the ability to know something very well, but only an entrepreneur can take that knowledge and help many people with it.

Take the iPod for example, Apple know consumer technology very well, they understand supply chains, interface design, hardware, software, and so forth. They use their expertise for the benefit of the masses.

I hope this helps you understand a bit more. Your education is important, but you’re allowed to not like it. I assure you things will get better! Hang in there.

Hrm, “Google”:http://www.google.com have justed purchased “MeasureMap”:http://www.measuremap.com/ , a tool to track your blog traffic, and it was still in private beta!

What the heck is Google up too? To me they are looking more and more like a company without vision.

Google has bought MeasureMap, which will sit beside their purchase of Urchin which tracks normal web site traffic. Why couldn’t they just make some mods to their Urchin softare they now own? Maybe Google bought MeasureMap at a bargain basement private beta price? Google’s one liner is something like, “To make information accessible“, which is a grand and noble vision but why can’t I do this all through Google’s search box?

# Alex: “Search for Alex Pooley blog statistics”
# Google: “Password:”
# Alex: “——”
# Google: “You had 2 visitors yesterday”

See what I’m getting at? Google are a fragmented set of cool search services.

Here’s the way I see the Internet right now…

It’s a Sea Urchin (yes, the irony). The round body is the Internet core: TCP/IP, Ethernet, NIC’s, etc… all that well established stuff. The spiny parts represent the functionality that we have been pumping on to the Internet. Notice how they don’t connect except at the core? Notice all the room between the spines? That’s opportunity. Everyone else is looking beyond the end of the spines, while the easy money is between them!

I am 99% sure that consolidation is the next big major trend, and
this is really not Google right now. Not that I really care what Google are doing, but they’ve made a good point for me by purchasing both web site analysis software, and blog analysis software. These two purchases represent the fragmentation of the world we are in. Each analysis package is a seperate spine on our Sea Urchin. Do you think Google are going to integrate them or leave them as they are? My money is on them leaving them as they are.

Whatever the case, there’s opportunity in those gaps.