PhDs and the Future

I just finished reading an interesting book on the founding of Google, called The Gooogle Story. Although it´s mostly a celebratory account (and maybe there are mostly good things to say about the search engine giant) I came away with one strong impression.

The age of the MBAs is over. The age of the PhDs is here.

Google founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page were both doctoral students at Stanford when they began working on their search engine. They ultimately took leaves of absences as their project became all consuming. But they are academically grounded through and through. And they hired many people with doctorates in their fields. They wanted the best in their fields in terms of knowledge, a questioning attitude, the ability to focus, a sense of vision, and on and on.

People who exploited other people´s ideas, even in a good way, just weren´t enough. When Google went public, Brin and Page stiffed the big Wall Street firms and did it their way, slashing fees paid to firms to handle the IPO, making the stock available to small investors, and so on.

Google continues to search for the best talent it can find, even if that means going into Microsoft´s back yard. The two giants even went to court over whether Google could hire someone away from Microsoft. Imagine, big corporations fighting over people with PhDs, once derided as people who deal only with abstractions and can´t do anything in the socalled real world, except create a whole new economy built around the Internet.

To add even further insult, Google makes a point of saying it runs its company like a university rather than a business. That includes giving employees 20 percent time, one day a week to work on whatever they find interesting.

What all this adds up to is the importance of higher education, and the importance of contininuing to invest in it even in tough economic times.

Michigan Film Credt Critics Foiled Again

More bad news for those who love to hate the Michigan film credit program.

ABC will begin filming a weekly crime drama in Detroit, "Detroit 1-8-7." Producers say the series, which focuses on the officers in a homicide unit, will bring millions of dollars and hundreds of jobs to the city. A studio and stage sets are being constructed in Highland Park.

The Detroit Free Press has the details. And ABC has scenes and more info on its website.

Good news for our struggling economy. Bad news for those who love to hate the film credit program. Anyone heard from Nancy Cassis?

Come Hear Jobs with Justice Speaker Thursday

People who work for a living deserve fairness. Democrats firmly believe that. And on Thursday (August 13, 2009) Livingston County Democrats will host a special talk on justice for workers.

William Bryce, an Organizer for Southeast Michigan Jobs with Justice, will speak at 7p.m. at party headquarters, 10321 E. Grand River, Suite 600, Brighton, about the coalition's efforts to defend workers' rights at work and to fight for health care reform, corporate accountability, and other social justice issues. You can read more about Jobs with Justice here.

This event is sponsored by the Livingston County Democrats' union relations committee chaired by Greg Stoey and is open to all. There is no charge, but please bring an item for the Gleaners Community Food Bank if you are able.

McCain Changes His Tune About Michigan Jobs

Funny how things change in just a few months.

Back in January, John McCain was pessimistic about the future of Michigan jobs. Maybe it was the effect of Michigan winter weather on this guy from the Valley of the Sun, but prior to the Michigan primary in January, McCain said the Michigan auto worker jobs were gone forever.

But now that he hopes to carry Michigan in November, McCain is much more optimistic about Michigan's future. At a campaign stop on Wednesday (May 7, 2008),instead of telling people basically to suck it up, McCain was full of ideas about how to create jobs in the auto industry, according to the Detroit News.

The newspaper reported:

"'You have to care for displaced workers, give them education and training that works so they have another chance to be part of the economy,'" McCain said.

"'And you invest in the cradle of the auto industry, new technologies, such as the battery that lets you take a car 100 miles before you have to plug it in. We have to provide all the incentives, for investment in pure R&D as well as R&D tax breaks, worker retraining and education and reduction in any taxes that may give other areas an unfair advantage.'"

What changed from January to May, besides the fact that now McCain is competing not for the the narrow Republican primary vote, but in the field of the much broader electorate which includes many blue collar workers?