the bonds of travel
Travel forms tight bonds among people. A passing thought crossed my mind recently: Â I became close (or much closer) with many of my really good friends because of a shared travel experience. It may seem like a pretty obvious thought. And I’ve been fortunate enough to travel to some pretty amazing places in my life. (The experience isn’t limited to friends. I also realized I became a lot closer with colleagues after traveling together, too.)
This yarn of thought then continued unraveling. I began to wonder about life 150 years ago, and what it was then that made people form tight bonds. If the whole escapade of flight and cross country/continent leisure travel wasn’t possible, what was it that formed lasting relationships?
Travel seems to work this way for a number of reasons:
- shared experience – doing anything together provides opportunity to reminisce forever
- prolonged experience – enduring 2+ days of nonstop anything will have an effect
- close quarters – it’s hard to disconnect / find alone time while traveling
- no privacy – it’s hard to pretend to be anything other than what you are when all of the above are happening
It’s hard to replicate these conditions in the average day-to-day, so how do we form the tight bonds (the incredible relationships) that are borne out of incredible adventure in our daily lives? Can we?
(footnote: this is a running theme for me – trying to connect the dots on why people become friends with some people and not with others. expect more on this subject later. also i looked briefly for other writing on the psychology of travel, but didn’t find anything compelling. let me know if you do.)
the road less traveled vs. the road to happiness
One of my recurring reads on the web is geekmba360.com… It’s a well-written blog about post-mba observations from the business & technology world. Recently a post appeared on the site entitled “Five alternative careers for MBAs.” Through it, the author shines a light on places MBAs don’t often surface (non-profits and public education, for example), but would likely benefit from the injection of managerial expertise/potential. (Please hold your “MBAs are responsible for the global financial collapse” comments for another time.)
This got me thinking, and comparing the notes of the author with those of my own, both from recent experience and recent conversation.
The author implies a respect for people who chose “alternative” career paths. At the end, s/he posits that soon, jobs in the federal government are not “alternative” any more because more and more MBAs are taking them. It is perhaps a tongue and cheek sentiment (there’s a smiley face at the end of it), but it’s worth tapping on this point.
My feeling is that pursuit of alternative career paths for the sake of being alternative is foolish. People should pursue things that they *want* to, hopefully because they are paths which are likely to lead them to roles of greatest influence – not merely because there aren’t many others that do.
One of the most positive outcomes of the current financial crisis is that many of my classmates ended up in jobs they might not have tried otherwise this summer. This was partially a function of there being fewer traditional jobs available (banking, consulting, etc.) but also a function of what I think was a re-evaluation of priorities that many people did when examining summer prospects.
It’s been my experience so far this summer that most of the people who are in banking and consulting are on a scale of unhappy to miserable, while those in other fields range from nonplussed to completely enthused by their jobs. This crisis has forced some people to take risks that might lead them to careers of more personal enjoyment and meaningful external impact than otherwise would have been possible.
And if that ultimately means that all 900 people in my class end up “herding” toward jobs in the federal government. Well – I could think of worse outcomes… for them and for the country.
reflecting on Michael Jackson
It’s been very interesting watching the reaction of people to the death of Michael Jackson this week. The world has clearly lost an incredible talent. I don’t think I realized the full scope of his (and his music’s) affect on people until I saw the aftermath of the news on Thursday. Bars all over New York have been playing more Michael Jackson than I’ve heard in the 8 years I lived here before. Cars driving around are blasting MJ. We listened to his music all day at the office on Friday.
When commenting on the role and power of US media/entertainment on international markets, I’ve often told the story of my first night in Tunis, the capital city of Tunisia, in October 2002. We had just finished dinner and were on a balcony overlooking a main boulevard. Shortly after dark, some men came out with a screen and a projector and began projecting Michael Jackson music videos – in the middle of the median. People streamed out from the surrounding storefronts and homes and began dancing in the street – to Michael Jackson.
This was my first time in a place like this – a place that could not have been any more foreign. And yet – here we were, watching people with whom I had almost nothing in common, dance through the streets to some of the very music I had grown up running around my house to, half a world away.
The power of distributed media/entertainment.
Many will spend these days debating the moral character of Michael Jackson – and I imagine history will temper most of these conversations. I’ve read a lot about him in the last few days, but I’m not sure anything struck me as much as this piece by Andrew Sullivan did (via @kydoh):
He was everything our culture worships; and yet he was obviously desperately unhappy, tortured, afraid and alone.
I grieve for him; but I also grieve for the culture that created and destroyed him. That culture is ours’ and it is a lethal and brutal one: with fame and celebrity as its core values, with money as its sole motive, it chewed this child up and spat him out.
I hope he has the peace now he never had in his life. And I pray that such genius will not be so abused again.
plotting a return
I realize it’s been a while. Partially this has been by design. Partially this has been out of laziness. I have my iPhone app back to functional again, so I can write remotely. Will try to do that more this week.
I’ll pose one thought that has been plaguing me lately:
It’s unfortunate that the times in life when we’re loving life the most seem to be the times that go by the fastest.
challenging entertainment
There has been a lot written about the Oscars in the last few days. Much of it critical of Hollywood. There seemed to be a clear expectation among observers that this year’s award ceremony would suffer the lowest ratings ever. A lot of the “disinterest” sentiment seems to be pointed at the nomination of “unpopular” movies this year… Movies like “Slumdog Millionaire” and “Milk” that may not have been blockbusters at the box office but were a triumph of storytelling or cinematic art nevertheless.
I have several problems with this. First, this sentiment seems to imply that filmmaking should in some way consider the sellability of the Oscars telecast when producing a movie. Haha. Wrong. Second, this would imply that the Academy should select/nominate films that would lead to good ratings on the Oscars telecast. Haha. Wrong.
There is a balance in this industry. One between art and entertainment. Were the industry to abandon the artistic aspects of filmmaking in favor of generating consistent mass appeal, the content would eventually devolve and the industry would implode. Similarly, if the industry abandoned the need to hold an audience for artistic zeal, it would lose its purpose, and thus, implode.
So, to the extent that the film industry can continue to produce challenging content – content that challenges the audience to undestand something, to exit the comfort zone, to experience something… more power to it. American audiences need to be challenged.
chugging along
It’s already mid-February. Whew. Not sure how that happened. Hell week came and went. The week after hell week came and went. I’m still working on the recruiting process, and will refrain from reporting my status until it’s all over.
For friends, on the whole, it was a pretty painful week. Lots of dings. I know a few people with offers already, but by and large the majority of my circle of friends is still looking. The summer search has shaped up to be much more competitive than I was expecting, and, it seems, a lot more competitive than most people were expecting.
The admissions office posted a blurb the other day saying that 77% of MBA2009 candidates who were looking for jobs have received offers already (for full-time). So it seems that there is light at the end of the tunnel, but it’s definitely an arduous process.
hell week
I’m staring hell week in the face right now. “Hell week” is not what the school calls it. There are various nicknames for the week ahead, but to the school, it is officially known as DIP – Dedicated Interview Period. The RC’s (first years) have been let out of class this week in order to interview for summer internships. Everyone corrals into area hotels and puts on their best “why me” and “why you” in the hopes of landing the perfect summer internship.
It’s hard to tell what the perfect summer internship is, though in this economy, and with the palpable sense of stress on campus, I’m quite certain it must be amazing.
I’m trying to take the week in stride. I’ve done lots of preparation, but at the end of the day, I’m pretty much at peace with the fact that a firm is either going to see me as a fit or not and if not then I don’t want to be at a place where I’d have to change myself to fit in. (This could also just be a defense mechanism kicking in.) About 45% of RC’s get job offers from interviews this week. That means more than half of us will still be looking come next weekend. I’m not sure which camp I’ll be in, but I do know I’m looking forward to getting in front of some really great opportunities this week and trying hard to land something.
Fingers crossed…
belize
Earlier this month I trekked to Belize with a few guys from my section. There were a few girlfriends with us as well as a few people in and out from other sections. We stayed in a condo on the beach on Ambergris Caye, which was about a 20 minute flight (in a 10 seat plane) from Belize City. Ambergris Caye is home to San Pedro Town which may better be known as “Last night I dreamt of San Pedro…” from the Madonna song “La Isla Bonita.”
The town is cool, very “island” and what seemed to me to be mix between Miami and New Orleans, only tiny. There are few cars and fewer paved roads on the island. Most people get around in golf carts. For better or worse, I was made “driver” for most of the trip. Most of my pictures are posted on Flickr (link) and I think they tell most of the story, but I’ll fill in with a few highlights. (I was also traveling with a new HD Flip camera, and am waiting for the new iLife to arrive so I can cut down a video of the trip…)
First of all, the food on the island was fantastic – mostly, I suspect, because it was all prepared fresh (not a lot of frozen/processed food on a remote island, it turns out).
Belize is a place for activity. The beaches are not actually the greatest in the world, so the motivation to sit around and do nothing (while still great) is not as I’d imagined. Of the things we did:
Snorkeling – The waters off Belize are home to the second largest barrier reef in the world. I am not a certified diver, but it turns out you can have almost as good an experience just by sticking your face in the water. We did two drops for snorkeling, the first at Hol Chan, where we swam for about an hour observing a ton of different fish and two huge rays (a leopard and an eagle). Awesome.
Then we went to Shark Ray Alley where our guide summoned several nurse sharks over (in the range of 4-5 feet each) and we were able to touch and hold them. Not sure this was the best idea, but in the moment it was pretty exciting.
Zip lining- We took a day trip to the mainland and did some zip lining through the rainforest. This is where you climb up into the tree tops and, sitting in a harness, go gliding across lines from platform to platform. Truly exciting and at times a little nervewracking.
Cave tubing – I’d never even heard of this before Belize. There are miles of cave systems in Belize with rivers running through them. We got into one such river on innertubes and took it through about a mile of cave. It was pretty cool. The darkest natural dark I’ve ever experienced. Also bats. It’s sort of like the lazy river at the waterpark, except the opposite. Exciting, natural, and spooky.
The nights were filled with entertainment at bars, clubs, or at the condo. Stories that will likely persist for quite some time.
A great trip for me, and a highly recommended destination for you…
readjusting
The readjustment to life at school post winter break has been a little rougher than I’d expected. My calendar has been filled wall to wall for the past week, and while I can’t say it’s bad, it’s definitely exhausting.
Going from spending four weeks being lazy to running life at 100 mph while applying for jobs, reconnecting with friends, adjusting to new professors and course content, and otherwise trying to stay on top of things is a bit of a stretch. Already the summer seems to be fast approaching which means the job pressure has been ratcheted up high, and with the economy the way it is, lots of people seem to be on edge. (Although, on the flip side of that, many of my friends have decided to forgo the typical recruiting circus and are doing more relaxed network job searches).
I’m planning to write more here about my new classes and other things going on this semester in the coming days. Apologies for the relative silence of late.
(PS – if you’re an R1 admit from this year, congrats… have talked to a few of you on twitter already. If you’re weighing whether or not to attend your admit weekend, I’d strongly encourage you to do so. I made many good friends that weekend)
the palatability of hard news
Watching all the coverage of the inauguration of Barack Obama today, I couldn’t help but wonder about something.
When I left television, the ability to lure advertisers into buying time in hard news was rapidly diminishing. Now that we seem to have a rock star type personality (as in, people can’t stop watching him) in the White House, I wonder if hard news and politics will see any sort of bump in attractiveness to advertisers.
Just a curiosity.
Apologies for not posting for several days. Am finally back into a groove at school (though I expect to be back to the usual overwhelmed holding state by this weekend).
Wishing best to the R1 applicants who are getting decisions tomorrow. I have to call a few admitted students to congratulate them once decisions are released – looking forward to that – and strange to think there’s a new class waiting in the wings already.
