Old-school

Welcome to this week's Reno News & Review.

Last week, I got to go down to Silicon Valley on a field trip with my Participatory Journalism class. We visited various journalism and tech-related outfits, including the Center for Investigative Reporting, the Stanford University d.School, Google and Ideo. I felt a little ambivalent to be honest. While almost all my fellow students were picturing themselves working for these places, I don't ever see myself doing that sort of work or dragging myself to work at those places. OK, maybe I could picture myself at the Center for Investigative Reporting, a little bit, if I could freelance or telecommute. And maybe if I knew then what I know now, I might have made my way to Stanford, but … you know, probably not.

I think my attitude toward monolithic corporate or educational entities must go back to the '70s, growing up listening to punk rock music and living a punk rock lifestyle. The whole DIY philosophy was anticorporate. While I had no musical talent, I adopted the ideals of doing things for myself. For example, I worked on my own cars, most of the “art” that is around my house I did myself. Even today, when I want to do something that requires a skill I don't have, when I can, I learn it.

This whole local food, buy local, support local stuff movement seems to me as though it sprang from punk rock, and it seems as necessary in the 21st century as it was back in the mid-20th. Just because something is bigger does not make it better.

But I do find some of the concepts that I took away intriguing, and I'll figure out how to bring them into my own life. For example, that idea of “design thinking”—bringing diverse skill sets and philosophies together to come up with new ways to solve problems—that I saw at both the d.School and Ideo is something that I'll figure out how to take advantage of. I'm sure it won't be long before you see an example here on these pages.