Themography

Some people say “next-gen” referencing a specific, named, defined, or bounded Generation. Other people say “next-gen” to describe something they think is on the cutting edge, representative of what is to come.

I stumbled upon the observations above while reading this HBR artilce: http://blogs.hbr.org/haque/2010/03/twitter_sxsw_and_building_a_21.html. It is an author-cum-interviewer humbling himself before the audience, whose power he realized after underwhelming them with his interview of Evan Williams, @ev, Twitter Founder.

Haque says, “That’s how next-gen organizations take on the challenge…” It seems you could interpret this as Haque declaring there is a Generation for Organizations – either somewhat here, on the cusp, which he defines here; or, already defined. Alternatively, you could interpret this as Haque putting chrome finish on another part of the vehicle he’s driving to make a point. I think he means it casually, but he might be using the latter, buzz-word, form.

Just like neuroscientists learn from studying brains that “don’t work like others”, so to speak, I learn from studying statements that don’t work like the others. This isn’t simply picking on a buzz-word used by an HBR author. It is the prelude to the curiosity of what I wondered next.

The broken-ness is that a Generation – Baby Boom, Gen-X – is something that lasts tens of years, but technology and technology companies cycle through generations at a much faster rate. So, does the firmness, the authenticity we assign to social or cultural Generations, translate to an equivalent sign of foundational sturdiness for web- and technology-related Generations?

Is “next-gen” simply a simulacrum for our ability to define a unit of adaptation to something that is beyond us?

I think it is. I think this shows that we drift in a space without orientation. And, I think the point at which we become oriented is a singularity. A singularity is not when life as we know it is obliterated. It is the point at which we can declare the coordinates for a new space. It is when we can describe boundaries of a new mental space.

You can fit this model to the two social groups referenced earlier – the passively-aware observer, and the actively-engineering pioneer. Those actively-engineering pioneers, like @ev, will sail through that space, mapping an equation for the mental space which shows us how to define a Generation. The passively-aware observer can see, perceive, describe, or offer conjecture about the pioneer and his/her movements or direction. But, the observer has not material mental experience in the new mental space.

Only a few are pioneers. They pioneer the boundaries of their field, a mental space. But everywhere is a new mental space, and so many are pioneering simultaneously in many directions and dimensions.

I seek, I strive to pioneer. Saluting Haque’s case for Principles, which is authentically valuable observation and education, I see pioneering as a Principle to guide me.

When I believe in myself, I am confident that I press on edges to explore new mental spaces. When I am hitched to another’s yoke, however, I wilt and slow to a speed of spirit where I am easily distracted by the shiny simulacra.

I enjoy finding novel challenges, puzzles, or dark parts in the mental spaces I explore.

My favorite mental space is woven into this article. It rests on this foundation:

- That each individual behavior, belief, practice, intelligence describes a mental space. Each individual thing we can perceive is described by a mental space.

- That each mental space is multidimensional.

- That humans encounter mental spaces by perceiving and experiencing, by realizing and understanding them.

- That we encounter a singularity each time we discover a new mental space. Since, by passing through that point of realization exceeds the dimensionality of our previous existence.

- That the collection of mental spaces is a latticework of mental spaces, which I refer to as a chromatic lattice. The chromatic descriptive hints at something like the flavor and spin associated with fundamental particles.

I drafted a description of this in a previous treatise: http://www.themography.com/2009/11/13/something-akin-to-my-treatise-on-mental-spaces/.

I enjoy the practice of thinking through and writing about the perspectives that work like a prism to reveal the color of mental spaces.