I’m in Like with Law – I’m in Love with Web 2.0
The New York Times published an article entitled, “The Falling Down Professions,” in its Fashion & Style section today that resonated with me, and the path I started on a year and a half ago when I went to Seattle after my first year of law school.
Then, I had no way of knowing that my decision to get on the plane with a one-way ticket would bring me to a tech startup in Pioneer Square. The original intention was to live in Seattle for the summer, do a public interest legal internship, and head back to law school. The path was clear, but sometime that summer, my dreams changed. Thus I left law school, a decision that put me in the Web 2.0 space.
I’m in Like with Law
I thought I would be a lawyer since I was twelve. I love to read, learn, research, and reason.* My father would express concern about my chosen course of study, Sociology/Anthropology, asking what I would do with that and I would reassure him I would go to law school, become a lawyer, and be happy, which in turn, would make my parents happy. I was accepted to a great law school, and seemed well on my way. Something wasn’t quite right though, much like a relationship with someone whom everyone else loves but you.
I’m in Love with Web 2.0
The last year and some odd months, I have had amazing opportunities I was not aware of as a cloistered undergraduate. I am learning search engine optimization skills and a new way of looking at and thinking about search and information retrieval. I continue to think about internet content, development of, and user interactions with as I develop myself professionally and explore the possibilities offered by Web 2.0.
The social, professional, and interpersonal interaction possibilities made possible by social networking and social media platforms and applications represent a paradigmatic shift in how we interact with the world and each other. Anecdotal evidence includes YouTube compatible cameras and leaders such as Danah Boyd develop bodies of research.
However, is there too much emphasis on the outliers? The New York Times article compares the shift/decline in social status and prestige associated with the professions of law and medicine, to what young people are seeking now to fulfill professional goals.
“There’s a sexiness to starting something cool,” she said. “Now we have people trying to start a Facebook or a MySpace. You might be working like a maniac, but it’s going to pay off in status. You’re going to be famous, providing something people are going to know and use all over the world.” – Trudy Steinfeld, Executive Director of the Wasserman Center for Career Development at New York University from The New York Times, “The Falling Down Professions”
Of course starting Facebook or MySpace is sexy. Being great is sexy. How many people get through the hard part, The Dip, and truly realize this dream? Why not work like a maniac because you’re driven by the passion for the work itself? In his closing lecture during my first semester, first year law school contracts class, Professor Jason Johnston stated: “It’s about the process. The moment you start thinking about the outcome, it’s over. You’re done. Go home. The process is what’s important.”
Be it law or Web 2.0, the passion for the work and the daily process will sustain you. Creating something that changes the way the world interacts or engages with others would be the pinnacle, but thinking of that particular possible outcome as a forgone conclusion may pose a problem for those who do not truly love what they do.
*I still do, and enjoy these things.
Tags: New York Times, Web 2.0