Why take a Job

Today I’d like to talk about some of the notions in our society which are misleading our young people and causing a lot of unnecessary misery. Firstly, the idea that you must earn a living. Within the notion of “having to earn a living” is the assumption that you don’t automatically deserve to be alive. For some reason this tends to make people feel somewhat depressed. I have it on the highest authority, however, that the only way to really earn a living, once and for all, is by being born (and I’m talking here about physical birth, not any religious metaphorical mumbo-jumbo). After that you deserve to relax.

Another misguided concept that I’d like to shoot down is the belief that you should be responsible. This whole idea puts people under tremendous strain, because you end up feeling responsible for all your imperfections. Society holds us accountable if we don’t comply with its definition of our responsibilities. You don’t choose your genetic make-up or the conditions in which you grow up, yet all the unfortunate things that happen are your fault. It’s time we let go of this burden of false responsibility.

What we are really talking about here is that strange phenomenon called masochism. It is my belief that we are a deeply masochistic society. A prominent politician recently said “if it isn’t hurting, it isn’t working”. This statement was calculated to appeal to our need for the type of dogma that insists we must suffer. Any belief which maintains that it’s our duty to endure pain, is guaranteed to be popular.

All of this is against the natural order of things. If God wanted us to have a hard time, why did he give us such an enormous capacity for pleasure – our brains are juicy pleasure organs, not guilt machines. The divine doesn’t talk to us in terms of duty and effort – it whispers peacefully to us of fulfilling our deepest longings and desires.

Why Google needs Orkut

In all the discussion of Orkut I've seen so far, most folks are busy comparing Orkut to every other social networking web site around, typically they mention Friendster ("it's so much faster!"), but as we all know these sites are a dime a dozen these days. At least it seems that way.

What surprises me is that nobody has looked at it the other way around: What problems might Orkut solve that Google would otherwise find significantly more challenging?

Those that do seem to speculate about "applying your social network to search" and other exotic stuff, but I'm thinking of something far more basic than that: users.

That's right, users.

Now, I know what you're thinking. "Google has millions of users!" Of course they do. How much do they really know about those users? Do they really have a user database from which they can mine interesting data? If they have one, it must pale in comparison to what Yahoo, AOL, and MSN have.

Rather than try to convince users to start "registering" for Google, why not piggyback on one of the most viral fads going around: a social network application? And, for added effect, make it an invite only system so that you feel special once you're invited.

Just think about it for a few minutes. If you've been thru the Orkut registration process, you know that it attempts to collect a ton of data about you. The kind of demographic data that marketing folks drool over. And right now there are lots of folks dying to get that special invite and begin the sign-up process.

Still with me? Good.

Let's assume that Google internationalizes Orkut and lets it run to the point that it has millions of users registered and active. That's not an unreasonable thing to expect. Then, one day down the road, they quietly decide to "better integrate" Orkut with Google and start redirecting all Orkut requests to orkut.google.com.

Bingo!

Suddenly they're able to set a *.google.com cookie that contains a bit of identifying data (such as your Orkut id) and that would greatly enhance their ability to mine useful and profitable data from the combination of your profile and daily searches.

Of course, we know that the "big three" already do this sort of thing to some degree or another. But Google's lack of intimate knowledge of their users is surely holding them back from doing some of the things they'd love to do. Many folks think it's just a matter of time before they try to get "real" users signed up.

Could this be the start of that?

The Creator

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Friend, O Friend;
Come to me when you are dumped;
When life is heavy,
When times are not so high,
When luck ain’t steady,
When you need a sigh;
Come to me Friend;
Friend, O Friend.

Friend, O Friend;
Come to me when you are dumped;
When wife cheats,
When sons lie,
When daughters freak,
When you need a sigh;
Come to me Friend;
Friend, O Friend.

Friend, O Friend;
Can You think who I am?
Pondering why I need You?
But. I am the selfless one;
I am … THE ONE;
Just a Friend, Just a Parent.

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