#competitivity

Day 2: 7,045/50,000

Percent complete: 14%      Words left: 42955     Days left: 29

That means, I wrote 4,400 words. In a day. I'm really happy with the result, and I think a big part of the reason I could write that much is that I have an outline. I had never used outlines before, and I guess that's why I always got stuck and couldn't write more than 700 words a day (on damned good days).

I recommend to every writer to make an outline (it can be really vague, it's just a guide) and to make your own challenge, like my LuciaWritingChallenge. I had the idea of the 50K words because November isn't a good month for me, but the whole NaNoWriMo challenge spirit is great. I'm really competitive and I always want to excel in everything (not that I always do, though, but at least I try!). So I moved the idea of NaNo to December and now I post my progress online so I share it exactly as in NaNoWriMo.

So, I invite you to join me. You can use the #LuciaWritingChallenge tag on your first post and then put your own name on the tag (yep, Lucia is my name, if you hadn't already figured that out).

As my tumblr suggests, I'm a (far-)leftist (what, exactly, I shall never know). But if there is a sentiment among others I do not share with most of leftists (from Switzerland and France - the countries I know the most, obviously) is the following: giving all the credits, love and power to this institution called School (and scholar education), thinking the economy and the world we live in would work better with long studies and Brains.

To me, things would become more stable, economically, if more young people were introduced to the working world, instead of telling them to study until they cannot more. The fact of giving young people the opportunity to know a job early is a chance for the person to have a job early, and have a chance to survive in this world of extreme competitiveness (sadly, we agree). You could say all you want, but never, I say NEVER, a CEO would reconsider giving a job to a student who went far into studies, than a person who has been working in it for a long time, and has had real-time experience - and not just theories formulated in his mind and learnt by heart. Especially these days.

Knowing most of the jobs don't necessarily need high-level degrees, why would you waste your time studying - pleasure of learning things, knowledge aside - instead of contributing the earliest possible to the society?

/-\

Parents and governments keep on telling young people they need to go far in their studies so they can live "the good life." They rarely propose alternatives, fearing they will never get paid as much as people studying until their mid 20s. And that's sad. Young people feel stupid and worthless if they don't succeed at school and end up doing absolutely nothing.

The attitude also allows some pretentious twats to feel superior and THINK they actually can do better knowing THEORIES than not:

A friend of mine called Denis is a nursing auxilary, but has never been into a school to learn the job. He left school when he was 15, tried to be a Cook for 3-4 years and left because he didn't like it. So he went for a social job and brazened it out and sent CVs and cover letters, and only had Ambition to offer. And there he was hired as a nursing auxilary. He has now made various institutions.

Denis also has this female cousin which is 22 and still studying for the same job. As real French/Bourgeois-Bohème socialists (add this subtle superior and cold stare, typical of the French bobos), her parents and her entourage always keep on congratulating her for "doing faaaantastic in her studies, you'll go far gurrrrl" and people around her show real interest in what she does, - not that she is a brilliant speaker! - but when Denis comes and talks about his job, people quickly show disinterest.. They sometimes even debate with Denis and actually say that there is a possibility he might not know everything and every aspect of the job, while when you study, it is oooobvious you will know it all. The truth, if you dig deeper, is that when they Denis and this cousin talk about the job, you clearly see who is the one actually knowing it - and it's Denis, of course. Because HE does it every day, for real.

How does that happen? How come people with high level of studies are allowed to feel superior? I think France and Switzerland, as a whole, are remarkably torn between social ambition and toxic/misplaced conservatism (yes, both aspects in both countries - with different levels) and never seem to find the right consensus