Smaaaart kids
I had the most enlightening pizza dinner in a long time. On Friday night, outside of Harvard Square in Boston. Cambridge 1. The pizza was great. The conversation and company were even better. I met my friend Tango – known this guy since junior high – for a tour of the mensa section of Boston. Tango is smarter than I. Much. His resume is impressive. His network reads like a Vanity Fair-married-Fast Company family reunion. After about ten minutes with this guy, I realized he’s going to change the world. Soon.
Tango led me on a tour of Harvard, most notably taking me into his old design building haunt. This place could make a 2x4 creative.
We talked about ideas. Products. Business models. People. Social trends. Cultural influences on the success or failure of products and services. Junior high. We ordered more pizza. We drank the darn-finest beer I’ve had in a long time. Check it out. Dogfish Head. We went to John Harvard’s for beers and the disappointing end of the BC/Villanova game. Then I got on the wrong subway and had a hell of a lot of time to think before getting to my hotel. It was good for me.
Some thoughts from the subway:
1) There is nothing wrong with idealism.
2) I am consistently restless. But that might just be my best quality.
3) I miss riding public transportation.
4) I wish I heard more languages I don’t understand.
5) I hate text messaging.
6) I miss writing. A lot.
7) The disparity that exists in American education is possibly our country’s worst homeland security threat.
8) The fact that I’m not very book smart isn’t the reason I didn’t get into Harvard. Or Stanford.
9) I believe there’s a direct correlation between the presence of mountains and happiness.
10) There's an even more powerful correlation between risk and reward.
11) Coldplay makes the Beatles sound like a garage band. A no-talent garage band.
12) The American dream is getting harder to realize.
13) Pursuing the American dream now means doing exactly the opposite of what your father did.
14) I have a favorite sweater that I look really good in. The problem is I wear it too much. The upside: logic would yield that I look good a lot. (Out of pure coincidence, the majority of photos of me on this blog are taken when I’m wearing said sweater.)
(Harvard design building, student workspace)
Tango led me on a tour of Harvard, most notably taking me into his old design building haunt. This place could make a 2x4 creative.
We talked about ideas. Products. Business models. People. Social trends. Cultural influences on the success or failure of products and services. Junior high. We ordered more pizza. We drank the darn-finest beer I’ve had in a long time. Check it out. Dogfish Head. We went to John Harvard’s for beers and the disappointing end of the BC/Villanova game. Then I got on the wrong subway and had a hell of a lot of time to think before getting to my hotel. It was good for me.
Some thoughts from the subway:
1) There is nothing wrong with idealism.
2) I am consistently restless. But that might just be my best quality.
3) I miss riding public transportation.
4) I wish I heard more languages I don’t understand.
5) I hate text messaging.
6) I miss writing. A lot.
7) The disparity that exists in American education is possibly our country’s worst homeland security threat.
8) The fact that I’m not very book smart isn’t the reason I didn’t get into Harvard. Or Stanford.
9) I believe there’s a direct correlation between the presence of mountains and happiness.
10) There's an even more powerful correlation between risk and reward.
11) Coldplay makes the Beatles sound like a garage band. A no-talent garage band.
12) The American dream is getting harder to realize.
13) Pursuing the American dream now means doing exactly the opposite of what your father did.
14) I have a favorite sweater that I look really good in. The problem is I wear it too much. The upside: logic would yield that I look good a lot. (Out of pure coincidence, the majority of photos of me on this blog are taken when I’m wearing said sweater.)
(Harvard design building, student workspace)
(Tango and me before I got lost)
posted by Andy Woolard at 7:59 AM
1 Comments:
Great post. Two questions: one, regarding the disparity in American education - do you mean disparity between communities within America, or disparity between the American education system and other countries? Two, what is the American Dream?
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