Right now I'm doing an independent study that critiques Universities in America.
Part of the inspiration for it is my own, poor, experience at University.
So I figured I could learn about it and try to think of ways to fix it.
However, I've become much more sympathetic to the people who run universities in my study of them.
It is extremely difficult to enact any sort of change in the system. Each college is a tiny bureaucracy inside the large bureaucracy of accrediting bodies, government and curriculum standards.
The task is dizzying. And no one is more critical of higher education than those involved in it. Seriously, take a look at the chronicle of higher education. It's all fire and brimstone from where they're sitting.
It actually reminds me a great deal of the advertising industry.
There is, however, a point of contention about college that most students agree on. Many professors agree on this as well.
The primary flaw of higher education stems from the idea of knowledge acquisition for acquisition's sake. Learning and learning and learning - without any application.
It's frustrating to say the least.
And I think a lot of ad students fall into this same trap.
We learn and discuss all sorts of ideas. We watch the great ads of the past and the new stuff that comes out constantly. We read books about writing copy and pour through books about design. We pile knowledge on top of knowlege and can get stuck there.
Because everything is so interesting. Because the internet is so huge and there is so much to learn out there.
But that's not really helpful.
Your brain can be soaked with all of these great ideas but the ideas themselves have no value. (Makin' Ads actually just had a post about this.) You have to show up with something. Make something or do something.
This is why I love something The University of Oregon communications program did recently. They 'created' the hastag #buildshit.
Their belief is that you ideas are pretty worthless unless you act on them. Unless you start making things.
And making something can make you feel tremendously confident. You look back at your days or weeks of work and can smile.
You have something tangible to show, you have made something. Most importantly you've applied what you've learned to something uniquely yours. You have something to talk about and to show off.
And you understand that making something rocket science, unless you're making a rocket, it's just sweat.
Ideas are awesome but at some point you need to take them and make something of it. Impress yourself with what you've done.
NOTE: Sorry for the gap between posts. I've been very busy lately and blogging fell by the wayside. I'm probably the person most upset by this.