Ok, sure-- Academia has many strong points. If you're seriously thinking about it as your long-term goal, I advise you to become close enough friends with a PhD student that they tell you exactly how they feel about it, though. If you're still enthused-- go for it! A degree can't hurt you in the job hunt if you decide to leave the ivory later.
But-- if you *really* know your computer history, you'll have enough technical know-how to get a foot in industry (to keep bread on the table in the early years), and you could do something very exciting and far-reaching by presenting yourself as a project planner/consultant with enough perspective on tech progress and business to avoid the historical pitfalls and catch the long-term trends. This route would require more savvy with the tech itself, but you could have a real impact on the actual trajectory of computer history rather than just watching from afar.
I think it's a great career interest. Think big. Be creative. Most importantly-- do what you want.
"Products without central hosts and distribution are not new in business. They're old in business. The centralized, one-corporation economy is what's new. In the past, there was competition. Everything was not run by central planners of big corporations."
--So, the fate of unchecked Capitalism may very well be Communism?;}
Single monopolies and oligarcies come to dominate each major industry through the lack of wise controls on capitalism; along the way, the growing corporation shifts its mindset from business to institutional preservation and propaganda; they come to own the governmental representatives, "regulatory" agencies and media outlets; then goods and services become centrally planned and distributed by corporate power through manipulatable political parties and media. How far is the distance, really, from monopolistic control of government and media to government central planning and distribution?
How funny that Ronald Reagan's straw-man "Evil Empire" could be the very end-point of his cherished "laissez-faire" free market...
The internet, the free software movement, and the freedom of information issue are emergent de-centralizing checks on the crystalization of monopolistic power. We're focusing now on the freedom of information in music and the arts industry because that's an arena where the legal battles are getting press (hmm--corporate owned media interested in information ownership...). But could B2B solutions save the small family farmer as well as internet distribution can save the small alternative rock band?
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Ok, sure-- Academia has many strong points. If you're seriously thinking about it as your long-term goal, I advise you to become close enough friends with a PhD student that they tell you exactly how they feel about it, though. If you're still enthused-- go for it! A degree can't hurt you in the job hunt if you decide to leave the ivory later.
But-- if you *really* know your computer history, you'll have enough technical know-how to get a foot in industry (to keep bread on the table in the early years), and you could do something very exciting and far-reaching by presenting yourself as a project planner/consultant with enough perspective on tech progress and business to avoid the historical pitfalls and catch the long-term trends. This route would require more savvy with the tech itself, but you could have a real impact on the actual trajectory of computer history rather than just watching from afar.
I think it's a great career interest. Think big. Be creative. Most importantly-- do what you want.
"Products without central hosts and distribution are not new in business. They're old in business. The centralized, one-corporation economy is what's new. In the past, there was competition. Everything was not run by central planners of big corporations."
;}
--So, the fate of unchecked Capitalism may very well be Communism?
Single monopolies and oligarcies come to dominate each major industry through the lack of wise controls on capitalism; along the way, the growing corporation shifts its mindset from business to institutional preservation and propaganda; they come to own the governmental representatives, "regulatory" agencies and media outlets; then goods and services become centrally planned and distributed by corporate power through manipulatable political parties and media. How far is the distance, really, from monopolistic control of government and media to government central planning and distribution?
How funny that Ronald Reagan's straw-man "Evil Empire" could be the very end-point of his cherished "laissez-faire" free market...
The internet, the free software movement, and the freedom of information issue are emergent de-centralizing checks on the crystalization of monopolistic power. We're focusing now on the freedom of information in music and the arts industry because that's an arena where the legal battles are getting press (hmm--corporate owned media interested in information ownership...). But could B2B solutions save the small family farmer as well as internet distribution can save the small alternative rock band?