The Mendicant Bug

Seth Godin suggests that all these unemployed college grads put themselves to good purpose this year and spend some time really enriching themselves (ht to @johndcook for the link).  The laundry list of to-do items includes:

• Spend twenty hours a week running a project for a non-profit.
• Teach yourself Java, HTML, Flash, PHP and SQL.
• Volunteer to coach or assistant coach a kids sports team.
• Start, run and grow an online community.
• …

And some other stuff you should visit his site to read for yourselves.  I like his picture.  It makes me think of posthumans.  John’s tweet about Seth’s post inspired the following exchange (reverse chronological order):

Twitter exchange between @johndcook and @gappy3000.

Regardless of whether Seth Godin can be taken seriously in this case, though I see nothing wrong with the spirit of his post, John made a very good point in reply and reminded me of what good music means to me.  When I find a song I really like, I listen to it again and again until I can no longer hear the words.  Instead the music makes me daydream and I find a lot of inspiration there.  Good times.

Having just come out of grad school, I encourage recent grads to consider Seth’s suggestion, assuming you have someone who can float you for a year.  Those student loans start nagging you around the six month marker, too.