Thank goodness for breakroom magazines and the people who bring them in. I don't know what I would do for entertainment without them, you know, apart from making fun of my coworkers.
Along the same vein as Newsweek's list-o-cool-things earlier this year, Time has come out with their shorter though slightly more in-depth list of 10 things changing the world. Unlike every other "coolest things ever" list, Twitter was not even mentioned (gasp!) but there were a few cool ideas in this article.
The number one idea changing the world according to Time is "Jobs Are The New Assets". Here is the opening paragraph to set the scene:
Remember when jobs weren't worth your small talk? Think back a year or two. Picture yourself at a cocktail party or maybe picking up the kids from soccer. How did the conversation go? You talked about your house. A new deck! You talked about your portfolio. Gotta go small cap. Did you mention how much pleasure you derived from bringing home a steady paycheck? Probably not. "Land was valuable, and capital was valuable, and labor — who cared?" says David Ellison, a Boston-based money manager. "The attitude was, As long as I buy a few homes and invest in a hedge fund, I'm done. I can sit in my chair and watch football games."
In short, people now have to work for their money. I'm not really sure what world Time has been living in (probably an upper middle class, slightly Republican one maybe) but I think a lot of people already know this and have known the joy and need of a paycheck for awhile. Our jobs are not necessarily who we are, which I think a lot of us can attest to, but they have been a necessary evil all this time, if only for the health insurance and to keep us from watching too much television all day. (See yesterday's post about not knowing what your friends do for work if you think our jobs are really critical to who we are.) But in general people are much less likely now to whine about or leave their jobs then they might have a few years ago.
The most interesting and hopeful point on this list to me was actually number two "Recycling the Suburbs". Rather than creating whole new structures, repurposing abandoned malls and superstores make so much more sense. Not only is it more environmentally friendly, but the malls and superstores are already located near where many people live, and making use of space near where people already live makes sense. I mean, anyone who has the vision to turn an old Kmart into a Spam Museum is pretty fantastic in my book.
So, heck with Time, what's changing your world right now?