I have thought about writing this post for about a year. I have thought about how to put it, what words to use, what to actually say. What is it that I am feeling? Why am I mad?
I am studying at one of the largest universities in Sweden at a programme for engineers and all I feel is: The people that are studying this programme are not here to do what they love, they are here because they don’t know what else to do. I think that this is a great problem for the technical industry and the subject of techonlogy.
Many of my classmates have really good grades and one of the most popular reasons for why they’ve decided to study is because they think that it will lead to a good job. As if it would pay well, or lead to them being able to change the world, or (worst of all) make them famous. The whole thing is so utterly non-genuine I feel physically ill.
At the same time I know some people that have this undying desire to know more, to learn and to develop their abilities within the technological field. These are the people you might find reading this weird manual about microcontrollers, googling something about who came up with the definition of derivation or researching the track width of railroads. These are the people who are interested in the technical solutions, in the technology itself. These people stand in stark contrast to the toxic, money-hungry, corporate climbers that occupy a way too large part of technical education.
I have sometimes thought of these technically interested people as rare but I don’t think that’s the case anymore. I think that there are many people who find a joy in learning something as specific as the way different materials in capacitors affect their parasitic inductance and also their equivalent series resistance. They are out there, in far greater numbers than one might think, but not in the prescence of the people that take pride in being the loudest, the fastest, the one’s with the highest grades.
I dream that one day, the technical education of this country will be aimed towards those with genuine interest, and thus create the makers that we need. Imagine, when the ones that have the greatest potential within a subject get the best education, that’s when we achieve progress. That’s where inventor’s are made. That’s where we find the solutions that can save the world.
Makers. We need more Makers.