Friday, May 12, 2006
In-der-Blog-sein
Nicholas Carr, who goes around popping Web 2.0 hype ballons, notes the recent The Atlantic article pricking management theory; philosophy is so much more practical.
I've been thinking about the article's real-thinkers-do-philosophy-because-management-is-a-fraud meme, and it occured to me that the premise could be reversed. Every century or so, someone comes along with genuine new insight (e.g. Peter Drucker or Heidegger) and stands out from the riff-raff, but the rank-and-file can be pretty uninspiring, and if you're lucky, genuinely silly. For every hack with her management slogans, aren't there just as many theorists spouting Baudrillard-isms, wack cac they picked up from some psychiatrists, and going on about Hegemony this and Empire that.
I also expect the academy fosters this tendency, as good managers would be out in the world getting rich via the more direct routes. Sadly, for philosophy majors, there doesn't seem to be any future but teaching the next generation. But they could minor in C#, or some such marketable know-how, but not management--one theory discipline is enough for one life time. Perhaps society needs more Diogenes types, wandering about downtown with their dissertations in their carrier bags, looking for one amenable publisher. ¶ 7:24 AM
Nicholas Carr, who goes around popping Web 2.0 hype ballons, notes the recent The Atlantic article pricking management theory; philosophy is so much more practical.
I've been thinking about the article's real-thinkers-do-philosophy-because-management-is-a-fraud meme, and it occured to me that the premise could be reversed. Every century or so, someone comes along with genuine new insight (e.g. Peter Drucker or Heidegger) and stands out from the riff-raff, but the rank-and-file can be pretty uninspiring, and if you're lucky, genuinely silly. For every hack with her management slogans, aren't there just as many theorists spouting Baudrillard-isms, wack cac they picked up from some psychiatrists, and going on about Hegemony this and Empire that.
I also expect the academy fosters this tendency, as good managers would be out in the world getting rich via the more direct routes. Sadly, for philosophy majors, there doesn't seem to be any future but teaching the next generation. But they could minor in C#, or some such marketable know-how, but not management--one theory discipline is enough for one life time. Perhaps society needs more Diogenes types, wandering about downtown with their dissertations in their carrier bags, looking for one amenable publisher. ¶ 7:24 AM
