I came across a
NY Times article for Likemind, which is networking for creative professionals who gag at the word "networking."
Likemind was created by two guys - Noah is the head of strategic planning at an internet marketing company and Piers runs a trend consulting business. Both career paths are heavily dependent on introductions. If Noah were
on the line at an assembly plant and Piers a registered nurse, I might
trust the "just a gathering" label, but I can't. The people who go to the coffee-infused social gatherings abhor the suity, stuffy concept of networking, except that seems to be exactly what they are doing. Networking while acting too pretentious to be network makes me want to, well, like gag. Saying one thing while doing the opposite wasn't invented during the last eight years, but has it always been so prevalent? Forget technology, our best export product during the next decade should be our marketing skills. Who needs math when we can relabel, repurpose, reexist, respin anything, as is evident from the new Urban Outfitters catalog. I'd take the Silence & Noise band jacket any day because who wouldn't want to be visually connected with George Harrison (except for, maybe, his ex-wife), but the rest of the catalog is so my high school it is scary. It is all the same dusty browns, blues, and greys, the same shapeless plaids, only cut a little shorter and a little lower and worn by lithe, pouty teens instead of the wholesome Sears book models. But, again, the result is transparent, and not in a good way. We suffered in that stuff thirty years ago, and if the shopper would think long enough before getting sucked into the
Midsummer Nights Dream escapism of the spreads, you see that it doesn't do much for these models, either. Throw a t-shirt or turtle over that bare breast, and it's still a big 'ol sweater from 1974 (that has most of the white across the tummy and hips, please). Even the furniture is a redo by any other name.
on the line at an assembly plant and Piers a registered nurse, I might
trust the "just a gathering" label, but I can't. The people who go to the coffee-infused social gatherings abhor the suity, stuffy concept of networking, except that seems to be exactly what they are doing. Networking while acting too pretentious to be network makes me want to, well, like gag. Saying one thing while doing the opposite wasn't invented during the last eight years, but has it always been so prevalent? Forget technology, our best export product during the next decade should be our marketing skills. Who needs math when we can relabel, repurpose, reexist, respin anything, as is evident from the new Urban Outfitters catalog. I'd take the Silence & Noise band jacket any day because who wouldn't want to be visually connected with George Harrison (except for, maybe, his ex-wife), but the rest of the catalog is so my high school it is scary. It is all the same dusty browns, blues, and greys, the same shapeless plaids, only cut a little shorter and a little lower and worn by lithe, pouty teens instead of the wholesome Sears book models. But, again, the result is transparent, and not in a good way. We suffered in that stuff thirty years ago, and if the shopper would think long enough before getting sucked into the Midsummer Nights Dream escapism of the spreads, you see that it doesn't do much for these models, either. Throw a t-shirt or turtle over that bare breast, and it's still a big 'ol sweater from 1974 (that has most of the white across the tummy and hips, please). Even the furniture is a redo by any other name.
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