(2004-06-23) Rushkoff Free Agent

Douglas Rushkoff does the Free Agent/Brand You thing. The few institutions with whom I've attempted to engage have seemed corrupt to the core. Not corrupt in the Republicans-rigging-elections sense, but in the sense that they no longer stand for whatever it was they were supposed to stand for, they stand for themselves. Even the non-profit foundations I've been invited to participate with have seemed more concerned with themselves and their reputations than their missions. Corporations (BigCo), well, the problem with working for one is that they treat people like cogs rather than autonomous being. Even though corporations are not real - they are agreements, almost like computer programs - they are treated as more important than the people in them... Investing one's time an energy into a single corporation isn't necessarily less creative - but it is, ironically, less secure. Corporations just let people go. They give severance and all, but then it's over - and all you can say is what you did for that company. You don't have things out there with your own name on them. And because all of your income came from that single source, once it's gone - it's gone. You are back on the street. What I've come to realize is that the street is the safest place to be. There's no fear, here, because you're already here. (It's where you are, anyway, even if some company has given you cubicle space - but that's a bit existential for spring.) Your employment is as diversified as your ability to multitask. And the more different kinds of work you take on, the more media in which you can play. It's not a jack-of-all-trades (Generalist) problem, at all, since the more different arenas in which you work, the more clear it gets what you bring to each one of them.