'Making' a Disconcerting Interpretation

Today on Slashdot there's some news that deeply troubles me. According to the New York Times, IBM is hiring 14,000 India-based employees, coincident with the layoffs of 13,000 U.S. and European workers. Free market advocates among you may claim that this is a perfectly understandable and fiscally appropriate example of the recurring labor-to-the-lowest-bidder cost adjustments necessary for companies to continue effectively competing in the increasingly aggressive international business world. And if I went through this world making decisions only with my head, I'd tend to agree with them. But my heart also factors heavily in the equation of my life, and it goes out to all the people involved in decisions like this one.

It certainly goes out to the folks who are losing their jobs, along with best wishes for a speedy return to meaningful and financially sufficient employment. It goes out to those who are gaining jobs too, actually, because although their standard of living may be temporarily increasing as measured by the money in their purses and wallets, I've read plenty of horror stories about 'India high-tech sweat shops'. I'm not so deluded as to think these folks' overall quality of life will get much of a boost….and they've got to be looking over their shoulders all the time, too, wondering what country's workforce is going to gobble up their jobs, and when. Finally, my heart goes out to the folks who had to make this decision, and who have to hand out the pink slips. No matter how much they may seem to isolate themselves from the 'human' side of the business world, and no matter to what degree they consciously realize it, such a situation must tear a person up inside. Not to mention the karmic angle.

Ironically, a few weeks back I got and perused issue 2 of O'Reilly's Make magazine (I mentioned Make's premiere edition in a prior blog post). As with its predecessor, it's quite an enjoyable read, filled with lots of intriguing projects and products. As I'm re-looking at it now, I see that I've got about 30 pages dog-eared; Linux on an iPod, anyone? What about making a podcast, including capturing audio from incoming telephone callers? Orb Networks looks cool; so does iStopMotion. Squeeze a PC in an Atari 2600 game console shell, or hack the C64 DTV Commodore-in-a-joystick. Or how about a do-it-yourself R2-D2? I also recommend subscribing to Make's RSS feed.

You know, though, if I were to go dig up my copy of Make's premiere issue, I bet I'd find about 30 pages' worth of projects dog-eared in it, too. And I bet I only need one hand's fingers, or maybe only one finger, to count the number of projects I've actually pursued to any significant degree (the some-assembly-required video camera stabilizer I bought, for example, is still in pieces in a box on my office floor….and I didn't even attempt the completely-build-your-own version)! Who's got the time to do all these hack-your-own projects, I keep wondering every time I see one in Make, or at places like Slashdot or Engadget or Gizmodo or Wired….or worse yet to come up with them in the first place? You guessed it. Out-of-work engineers, I bet. A sign of the times….