Five metaphors for discovering your role in society — Preparing young people for life Part 1
“Neither the worker in the oil field nor the chemist nor the digger of graphite or clay nor any who mans or makes the ships or trains or trucks nor the one who runs the machine that does the knurling on my bit of metal nor the president of the company performs his singular task because he wants me. Each one wants me less, perhaps, than does a child in the first grade. Each of these millions sees that he can thus exchange his tiny know-how for the goods and services he needs or wants. I may or may not be among these items.”
— Leonard E Read, I, Pencil. 1958. An essay on the Invisible Hand and specialised labour from the perspective of the pencil.
As we support young adults to find their way in the world, we get wrapped in stories. Stories about knowing who you want to be when you grow up, stories about climbing a linear career ladder, and stories of following your passion are all tied up in ideologies about labour in society. These different narratives affect the way we coach and support young people to find their path.
From a young persons perspective, there are many tradeoffs around how to build yourself towards making a good contribution in society. How to broaden your world and also become a specialist at the same time? How to both participate in the economy as it is and live a critique of it?
We know each human needs to give their gifts to the world, and exchange their time/effort with others to get their needs met. How do we find our place?
I sent my little brother a popular new article about the semi-colon shaped person. We have been discussing the dilemma of the young adult today: how do you exit the conceptual train tracks of the modern world and build your own future? We got on the phone and talked through all the stereotypes of how career development is “supposed” to happen and named some new ones.
In this piece, let’s explore the T shaped person model (pretty well known metaphor for specialisation), the Semicolon shaped person, and then three new ones my bro and I came up with: Spiral, Pin and Lightning. Hopefully these new metaphors can give you new language for figuring out how to contribute to society. And maybe these metaphors can help you stop asking what people want to be when they grow up, and ask instead; “how do you want to grow up, alongside who, and in which directions?”
Where are we?
“Rational elites know everything there is to know about their self-contained technical of scientific worlds, but lack a broader perspective. They range from Marxist cadres to Jesuits, from Harvard MBAs to army staff officers… they have a common underlying concern: how to get their particular system to function. Meanwhile… civilisation becomes increasingly directionless and incomprehensible.” — John Ralston Saul
In the capitalist industrial era, education has prepared us for work. All kinds of work. From trading in dividends to breeding new types of wheat, there are coin slots of classrooms you can push yourself down depending on where you want to put your elbow grease. We get polished up and ready to generate value — not for those we love or our communities — mostly for the neo-aristocrats in the shareholder class now referred to as the 1%. Requiring young people to figure out their “one career” is tied up with the assumption: We will all be specialists! And how dare you not contribute to our economy?! What do you want to be when you grow up? We limit our sense of who we can become and what we need to learn based on stories about gold rush industries (e.g. tech) and a focus on ‘secure income earning careers’ (mostly as perceived by those who haven’t job-hunted in two decades).
Many people struggle to fit themselves into a box, but even more so right now. Right now — at a time when we need to be brilliant at cooperation beyond nation-state boundaries. Right now — at time when we need to take what we know about technology and apply it to biological design ethically. Right now — where we can meet each other in our unfathomable diversity as a human species across this interconnected earth instantly, on a computer or airplane. Right now — while young people are rejecting impossible expectations, as they inherit a story of “bigger, better, cheaper, mine” that no longer looks sustainable, happy or healthy.
This is not to say no one needs to be a specialist — I need mental health experts, dentists, ethnobotanists, lawyers, and musicians, just as much as we all do. We are an interconnected whole after all, and we need to find out place in it. But we do need more people who can reach across boundaries and disciplines to help with complex challenges. We need an education system that helps tomorrow’s politicians and engineers to invent systems to feed 9 billion humans on a climate changed planet. And we need a new way of valuing peoples’ time so that early childhood education is seen as one of the most important tasks in society, given it shapes human brains forever more….
The question is HOW do we navigate these enormous changes and the need to reinvent so many of our human systems AND support young adults into work at the same time? How do we support the young people in our lives to find their place? How, when we’re just figuring it out badly ourselves? How do we find a way to contribute our time to others and receive stability in return?
If I was the leader of a country, I would answer these questions with sweeping policy and economic decisions. But I’m not, I’m a leader of me and those who want to catalyse the future with me.
Right now my ideas are too radical to be voted into democratic seats of power, too experimental to be a blueprint for thousands. So as we figure out how to help young people find their path, we need to be appropriately pragmatic and appropriately visionary for our shifting world. We are prototyping the coming blueprint.
Figuring out how to contribute to society….
T Shaped
As soon as I left university, people started talking to me about becoming T shaped. It was idealised; a shape to grow towards, as if you would go to the gym to get that sweet T result.
Being T shaped is having a skill set within an industry. Audio file software engineering. Operations management within paint companies. CEOs of local government institutions. Business management of family run dentistry clinics. Professor of religious studies with expert knowledge of the Old Testament’s interpretations. People make 50 year careers out of these things, and if they change jobs, it is a small change to something similar.
“People who have a highly socialized, institutionalized, and territorial understanding of knowledge and work love the T-shaped-person idea. Academics particularly love it. You find your T, make friends and find collaborators along the bar, and dive deep along the stem. All the while staying harmoniously connected to your intellectual community oriented around a shared sense of “up” and directing your work “down” in the mines. So long as you stay in your digging lane indicated by the stem, you’ll also be a good citizen of a knowledge economy, respecting others’ expertise, and quietly proud of your own. T’s stack and overlap nicely. They can be used to build stable big structures, with good redundancy properties and natural paths of career development. T’s induce natural authority relationships. So to summarize. T for textbook, T for tenure, T for turf, T for territory, T for trust, T for talent. All good things. If you are T-shaped, or want to be T-shaped, more power to you. The world needs T’s.”
— Ribbonfarm Consulting, LLC, All rights reserved.
This idea has some value for young people today, but it’s not the whole picture. Isolating ourselves in a “digging lane” is intellectually fulfilling, and piles cash into the pockets of people who own your business or faculty. It’s easy to become a T — the shareholder class wants you to be like that. Interdisciplinary problem solving and cross-cultural bridge-building is the work we’ve needed to do for decades. Pursuing one hyperspecialisation reinforces “the right not to know” (as Lynn Twist puts it) about other work that society needs done. Yes we need to find our gifts and develop mastery, but there’s something more we need to do, and it’s in the T’s blindspot.
Semi Colon Shaped
In reference to the article I shared with my brother, I’ll let the author do the talking:
“The dot of the semi-colon represents the anchor community for your deep work. The curvy tail is the rhizomatic structure you explore to do something deep. It will sprawl untidily across a map built out of T’s. It will offend sensibilities and violate sacred beliefs about what goes where. The gap between the dot and the tail is what I call the Explorer’s Chasm. The chasm is crucial. It represents a sort of epistemic estrangement from the nearest socialized zone of knowledge. This is necessary for work that is not just deep, but has truly original elements. The chasm also symbolizes the possibility that a work of deep knowing and doing does not have a necessary, pre-determined and fixed connection to a locus of socialization that “owns” the work. This means the knowledge could be subversive and challenge institutional authority. Squint a little and the tail of the semicolon might appear attached to a different dot. And finally, a semicolon is both smaller and lower in a line of text than a T. I like to think this symbolizes its capacity for a) going deeper b) being efficient at a smaller scale. Paradoxically, because being semicolon-shaped means being less attached to a default social home locus, it requires you to be more agile, nomadic, alive, and active in relating to social context.” — Ribbonfarm Consulting, LLC, All rights reserved.
This is especially true for the Javascript developer community from which it originates, but also helps to explain anyone working in a niche alongside other pioneers. This is more relevant for our young people. The working culture of the gig economy we live in right now is simultaneously individualistic and connected — with thousands of autonomous labouring humans peering down a hole of their choosing, whilst connected to 10 Facebook groups and 30 mailing lists of people just like them. We are on the cusp of formalising new labour movements and normalising companies built of alliances, federations, shared costs and cooperative enterprise. Being semi-colon shaped is a way to be self-reliant whilst also contributing to the global community of practice you belong to. It is nimble — it is a learning shape. Does it resonate with you? If we were to encourage young people to develop like this, it would require a new focus on “finding your people” as an enquiry of the head and heart. Who do you want to grow with?
Pin Shaped
My little brother sat up late at night and wrote this idea down. He has been enraptured by the concept Ikigai, and realised that there could be more to it.
What is Ikigai?
- What you Love (your passion)
- What the World Needs (your mission)
- What you are Good at (your vocation)
- What you can get Paid for (your profession)The word ikigai, that space in the middle of these four elements, is seen as the source of value or what make one’s life truly worthwhile. In Okinawa, Japan, ikigai is thought of as “a reason to get up in the morning”. Interestingly, while certainly incorporating the financial aspects of life, the word is more often used to refer to the mental and spiritual state behind our circumstance as opposed to our current economic status alone. Even if we are moving through a dark or challenging time, if we are moving with purpose, if we are feeling called toward something or have a clear goal in mind, we may still experience ikigai. Often the behaviors that make us feel ikigai are not the ones we are forced to take based on the expectations of the world around us, but rather they are the natural actions and spontaneous responses that emerge from a deep and direct connection to life.” — Chip Richards
Some people see this as an impossible pursuit within the current economy. Especially creatives like artists and musicians. If you want to be a creator — and be professionally creative for your entire life, the “Vocation” part of this diagram can be a struggle. Can you write and sing movement songs which bring communities together and be supported financially to do so? What if you write music for no one but yourself, and yet it’s bringing joy to so many? As we co-create a new economy, we could use Ikigai to remind us that human beings desire to work at the intersection of passion, skills, and getting their needs reciprocally met.
My brother suggests there’s more to it than just these intersecting circles. It’s three dimensional, rather than two. It’s a “pin” shape, or a “tack” you might say in some countries. On it’s side it looks like a T, from above it looks like Ikigai. The metal rod of the pin is the strong deep and sharp point of difference. It is galvanised — just as you are when you’re in the flow of your Ikigai.
My friend Marc writes: “What I love is that this is possible not only at the individual level, but entire communities can learn from it, as well.” This is a beautiful idea. We can build economies which provide for artists and healers. We can enable community-scale Ikigai. Land based and indigenous cultures such as the Blackfoot nation have been practising similar ideas for a long time. Maslow’s hierarchy of needs was generated during his time studying with these communities, but he interpreted it through a western lens and put “self actualisation” at the top. This is not the original version. The Blackfoot Nation sees “cultural perpetuity” as the highest collective achievement. Survive and thrive together in the long term. See more on this controversy here. There are well trodden paths for us to follow and re-learn to discover healthy societal patterns for living and working together.
“Sitting in that college classroom more than 30 years ago, Maslow’s theory underscored to me how different my world view is from his concepts. Yes, I agree that basic needs must be fulfilled. [But] it’s more than that. It’s understanding one’s place in the world and acknowledging it. It’s realizing each day that I have been blessed with basic necessities and giving thanks for them. It’s doing my part to help my community and the greater good. Hopefully, these teachings practiced by my generation will inspire the next generation to take hold of them so they will endure.” — Karen Michel
If we were to help young people think this way, where would we begin? “Follow your passions” is a weak dilution of the bigger message here. I would suggest pursuing everything you’re interested in, even if it pulls you in different directions at first. Lean into life. We need to help young people be entrepreneurial enough to find the economic side of Ikigai, while embracing the inner journey of “does this light my soul up? Do I want to spent my life doing this craft?”
Spiral Shaped
“The trouble is that we are terrifyingly ignorant. The most learned of us are ignorant. The acquisition of knowledge always involves the revelation of ignorance — almost IS the revelation of ignorance. Our knowledge of the world instructs us first of all that the world is greater than our knowledge of it”.
— Wendell Berry
As my brother and I talked further, I realised that my own path towards specialisation/finding my gifts to give has come through iterating through various ideas in action. Not only changing my mind — but deeply DOING whatever I was thinking about. Seeking and revealing our path won’t happen in a classroom, but it can be supported by one. Iterating down into depth and uniqueness through a PUSH in a direction and then a considered pivot, over and over again.
It looks like a Spiral. Pushing in a direction, with occasional shifts in direction that add up to going down (or up) towards a central area over time.
It’s like a T shape, except you learn about 500x more, because you gain medium amounts of expertise in 20 more things than you would have if you just focussed on your specialization. The essence of the spiral is putting various different things into practice iteratively with significant dedication. People who do this for a few years will look like generalists, but if you do it long enough you will discover a very unique niche in the overlap of things you care about, while clarifying what your gifts are.
After much puzzling and changing of majors, I graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Environmental Studies from a left-leaning university. It is a general degree — one that allowed me to study indigenous rights, alongside soil chemistry, the physics of thorium reactors, the sociology of decision making and tree-ring CO2 proxy measurement. While I was at university, I was heavily engaged in entrepreneurial activism; starting movement style organisations to set new agendas and challenge existing ones nationwide. This virtuous cycle of reading articles about the sociology of leadership and parliamentary decision making in the morning and building campaign plans in the afternoon helped me actualise my learning. Looking back I think university was a space that inspired many hunches, but it wouldn’t have been useful if I hadn’t been metabolising all those academically-phrased readings into the real world. As I’ve experimented since then, I have found a semblance of specialization. There’s always about 6 months of pure confusion each time I make a change, and often they’re dramatic shifts, yet threads of consistency string it together. I’m a people person, I lead groups with facilitative leadership, I try radical innovative processes, I inspire people to take the design of our world into their own hands, I iterate through theories of change. The path zig-zags like a boat tacking in the wind towards north. I just wish I had been able to have that conversation when I was 17 and my career counsellor was sending me to a university open day of the dentistry department.
I know plenty of spiral shaped people. I believe it to be a learning shape. Encouraging young people to follow a spiral is encouraging a new attitude. You will find things that make you happy and things will change, you will feel lost and drawn to something you can’t describe and then it will reveal itself, you will dive in and get 200% excited about something and then several years later it will only be one line on your bio as you speak at a conference about something completely different. I’ve found that it’s empowering to say “alright I’m finished here, time for the next thing!” as well as empowering to say “well looks like I’m the same old me I always have been, how can I get better at being me?” at the spiral holds it all.
Lightening
“Either you will go through this door, or you will not go through. If you go through there is always the risk of remembering your name. Things look at you doubly and you must look back and let them happen.
If you do not go through it is possible to live worthily, to maintain your attitudes, to hold your position, to die bravely.
But much will evade you, at what cost?
The door itself makes no promises. It is only a door.”
- Adrienne Rich, “Prospective Immigrants Please Note”.
As young adults immigrate away from the warm bath of their childhood identities and out the linear tube of industrial-era education into the rest of their lives, there are a lot of choices to make. Making decisions at the beginning of the rest of your life can feel intense. You need to know what you want, and choose between what shows up and do it.
Initially, the work is to craft a clear intention out there of what you want: a paid job, a scholarship for research, a business cofounder, a roof over your head that isn’t your mum’s, cooking skills, an apprenticeship, a recording studio, a mentor etc etc etc. And then sharing that intent with others to try to gain access to the opportunities you want. This doesn’t always work, but it is extremely common for people to either find an opportunity informally through a friend or another adult, or via applying for opportunities formally. Both of which require knowing what you want.
When it rains it pours, and three opportunities come into your life at one time, after a long, depressing period of nothing. Finally — movement! But your dreams never manifest perfectly or linearly, so the options are just okay. These are the hardest decision making moments. You have to choose between a low paying job that’s 40 hours week and a part-time casual hours job that pays pretty well. You have to choose between a room that has no sunlight but is cheaper than most or a room that has sunlight but isn’t near a bus stop. Oh and and you’re in a new town and you don’t know anyone so you need to decide quickly. What are you going to choose?
The lightening model is the idea that you need to think about what you want and set your intentions in motion, but also be responsive and take what comes to you. The clouds represent your brain swirling, churning, pushing against itself. Thunder rumbles. It’s not comfortable. The city or landscape below the clouds of thought is the landscape of your opportunities. One day there will be a lightening strike, a key moment when you stop fretting, stop fussing, or have a bolt of insight about what to do. OR a moment when the landscape is close to the sky — a building is coming towards you, an opportunity that’s becoming an obvious choice given what you think you want. The lightening strikes the ground and your thinking is connected to a tangible action.
This metaphor is a reminder that is also a bit random. You don’t know what will get hit when — but it’s also magical. A transformation of the state of matter. Plasma. If you only stay in the clouds rumbling within yourself about what to do, nothing will happen. Let the spontaneous energy loose and pick something — or let it pick you.
Shaping the path forward
Are you T shaped? Are you a semi-colon?
Are you a Pin with ikigai in the middle?
Are you a Spiral person?
Or do you just let lightning strike?
As we support young people around us to figure out how to contribute to this moment in history, let’s get creative about what we encourage them to do. It’s not about just picking a well paid profession anymore, and there are many examples of other ways of contributing to the current economy. We also need to help young people become the future leaders we want them to be.
> How can we encourage them to Spiral in the direction of their life’s work by getting them into action on something they like now?
> How can we encourage them to both think about what they want but also get out of their own way and allow lightening to strike and follow what opportunities are presented to them?
> How much of a natural-born specialist are they, or have they just been taught to be that way?
We need to reinvent our energy system, political system, property rights structures and cultural norms. We need art and science fiction to inspire us to get there, so we need non-traditional careers left, right and center. We also all require our needs to be met. Hopefully these new shapes can help you think about your own path, and help you mindfully coach others along theirs as we navigate this complex moment in history and help our young people lead us into our future.
