Disruptive Education

I encourage entrepreneurs to look at industries that haven't changed much in decades to find ripe opportunities for new, more sustainable approaches. Our education system certainly qualifies. What are the skills and experiences that our citizens will need to survive and prosper in this world? Innovation, Languages, Creativity, Cultural awareness... Was our public education system designed to deliver these skills? No. It was designed to make sure farmers could read. Then modified after WWII to teach math, science and engineering. Now, I am not really sure what it is designed to do (but will observe we need to import students to actually do upper level math, science and engineering).

So, I'd encourage students to take responsibility for the content of their education. In the immortal words of Mark Twain, "never let your schooling interfere with your education." Pay attention to the advice of mentors and professors whom you trust, but understand that the curricula which shape your education didn't come engraved in stone. You probably have a better sense of what you need to know than the professional educational establishment does.

In other posts, I have discussed the book Medici Effect, which does an excellent job of discussing how innovation is fostered by intersections of cultures and disciplines. These can be random or intentional. This is what at least part of your education should be about. Sure, you need to build some expertise in a discipline, but don't confine yourself. Seek out the random intersections. Go to those seminars that don't have much to do with your field. Put your mind on "open" and see what occurs to you. This is what is going to lead to the disruptive innovations that will change the world. Innovation comes from inspiration and perspiration, but also combination.

What got me going on this? Well, I saw a few students skipping class today to attend the Focus the Nation events at Colorado State. And last week I encouraged a student to attend a session with Susanne Jalbert about entrepreneurs in Iraq, in lieu of her regularly scheduled classroom activity. I'd encourage students not to feel guilty when they do this- don't think of such activity as "skipping" a class, but rather as "leapfrogging' a class. Right DC and Chex?

Focus People!

By now, I am sure you have heard about the Focus the Nation "Teach In" on January 31. The purpose is to focus attention on climate change, and engage and educate the community on the topic.

The organizers at Colorado State University (CSU) have done an amazing job, so much so that they turned it into a 2 day event, starting today. Here is the schedule. Too lazy to click? Here are my suggestions:

Today:
9 AM "Show me the Money"
11AM Ethics of Climate Change with Univ. Distinguished Prof Holmes Rolston.
2 PM Green Beer, Green Business. New Belgiumites tell of their journey.
3PM Engines for Change. Envirofit's story and current activities.
6 PM Webcast (go to FTN website): 2% Solution with Hunter Lovins, Van Jones and Edward Norton.

Tomorrow:
9:30 Green Clean Living. Brian Dunbar of our Institute for the Built Environment
11:00 Independence Day: Alternative Energies
12:30 Talking with the Unconvinced

Hope to see you there!

Did You Feel Your World Shake?

The announcement yesterday in Science, that Dr. Craig Venter's team has built an entire genome for a bacterium from scratch, shakes my world. While they have not gotten their creation to function, this is a step in that direction.

Their hope is that they can eventually program this simple critter to make stuff: drugs, fuels, food. If they pursue a drug, there will be many levels of public review. But biofuels aren't subject to FDA. It will be interesting to see the debates on this one. I suppose we will get to see which journalists and politicians understand biology (most of our presidential candidates, if they took biology, took it long before the biotech revolution).

They use stealthy terms like "synthetic biology," but break it down: synthetic is "man made" and biology is "the study of living organisms." What is going on here is one of the boldest acts in history: to create a living organism from scratch. This is stunning... in every sense of the word.

I am excited about the possibilities, yet uneasy that our science is proceeding faster than our ethics. Should there ever be limits to the pursuit of knowledge? Those tricky "unintended consequences" tend to show up after these bold breakthroughs. On one level, it is easy to understand what these scientists are attempting to do; on other levels, it is incomprehensible. We will not know for years what changes this will unleash.