My 15 Min Morning Train Ride Thought

Long before Randy Pausch popularized the notion of CMU as a breeding ground for innovative thinking and knocking down brick walls, a young starry eyed class of 2005 sat in Gesling (that's the stadium for all you people who, like myself, never, ever dared venture to a CMU football game given the horror of it all) listening in on another grey-haired fellow imparting some droplets of wisdom. No, it wasn't our keynote speaker, who's name I forget but speech I regretfully remember as a mesh of timed pauses, 24, jack bauer and something about 'squares'.... But rather our illustrious president, Jared Cohen who spoke to Tim Friedman's concept: Globalization 3.0. Back in May 2005, he said something which always stuck with me for it's improbability, it's increduality: "this class in front of me, on average you will changes jobs seven different times and work in seven different countries"*

Yet now, nearly four years later...his predictions are surprisingly on track! As I leave my apt every morning for work, I pass by my half-sized fridge every morning out the door, on which is tacked a photo of five girls cheesing for some unknown cameraman (actually, it's most likely Llama). This morning, I actually stopped to take stock of the photo. From these five in nearly four years, have resulted seven different jobs with three distinct job changes and four different geographies: Los Angeles, New York, Tokyo & most recently Taipei... Hm. Looks like Cohen was on to something there.

Side note: So then people, if that is the case. We must prep and need on Globalization 3.0's strong infrastructure - get on skype!! Also, for those of you in need of a good webcam: I highly recommend (kick-arse Logitech 900 webcam).