True confession: I have spent the past few years looking on the dark side of things. I used to describe myself as optimistic on a personal level but pessimistic about the state of the world but more and more the pessimism was winning on all fronts.
That's undergoing a change; I am sick of being depressed. It's boring for me and not much fun for others, so I'm gonna brightside my outlook in general.
Late January during this horrible winter may not be the best time to try to lift my spirits; luckily we live in an age when we can travel and explore beyond our frozen backyards with the click of a mouse. In looking for things to be upbeat about, I've reawakened to the power of human innovation. Our species has been around for thousands of years but still manages to come up with new ideas, and some of them are even good!
You can read about some of the latest at Springwise. Every week they collect some of the most creative new inventions around. Half of them I don't understand (I don't even have a cell phone, let alone a smartphone, so apps and that ilk don't mean squat in my world) and lots will die without being developed, but the breadth of thought is wonderful.
And speaking of new paths, look at ways people make a living. When I was in high school, we had guidance counselors who tried to steer you towards a career based on your grades and so-called talents (do they even have guidance counselors anymore?). I'm guessing that at least 90% of money-earning activities that you hear of now didn't even exist then--I know for a fact that no one was hiring Major League Baseball iOS developers in 1971. And many people are combining seemingly disparate interests into careers. A good example is Jenna Woginrich at Cold Antler Farm. Jenna is a writer who is making her way on a small farm by blogging and writing books and holding workshops and raising sheep and teaching and... She always has a new project and definitely thinks outside the farm box.
Now for my eggface. In a previous post--Blog of the Century!--I disparaged the nerd term DFTBA (don't forget to be awesome). I had read it somewhere but didn't bother to learn more. Well, I have since followed up and I admit to being too quick to judge..
DFTBA is the brainchild of two of the most innovative young guys on the web, Hank and John Green, a.k.a Nerdfighters, a.k.a. Vlogbrothers, a.k.a too many other terms to list here. Their projects range from videoblogging to English football teams to best-selling books to raising thousands of dollars for charities. Check them out; this might be one of the few times when "awesome" is appropriate.
My toes may be frozen from trips out to care for the animals and I may be so sick of winter that I could scream BUT human innovation is a reason to look up beyond the icy mud. That and the fact that there are birds in my yard and they're singing!
Don't you feel better now? I do.
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