Jacob: being from Europe myself, I’ve always wondered what country you’re originally from, and your secrecy regarding the matter wasn’t the best cure Anyway, thanks for the hint (it suffices for me to make an educated guess).

Anyway, I think you should immediately watch the past five seasons of Deadliest Catch and then get thee to Dutch Harbor Alaska and get thee hired on a Crab Fishing Boat. That’ll test your mettle!

Good Luck, and I look forward to watching your Greenhorn adventurs next summer on Discovery.

And I think there’s a similar thing that can be said about the “circle of jobs.” If we keep making more people who are going to school and then going to work, we need the people already working to retire at some point.

Actually, if everyone were super frugal and retired early and/or worked half-time, unemployment would almost disappear. You would be able to double the number of jobs if people could live on 20 hours a week, instead of 40. And if a person retires after 10 or 20 years of work, that opens up jobs for others.

Is it better to have one person working full-time and one unemployed person, or two people working half-time?

Every system no matter how complex can be broken down into solvable simple problems.

Modern public schooling was instituted along with the industrial revolution to be able to churn out people with a minimal amount of skills and the ability to follow orders without thought. What else did you need for a factory worker in the early days? Someone with basic reading skills, basic math skills and an willingness to follow rote directions for a long period of time.

Today’s society has changed a lot but the majority of people still fit into that category.. and always well. I read a book many years ago called The Bell Curve ( I think ). It covers why people fall into the categories they do and why it won’t change.

It makes a lot of sense. And it doesn’t necessarily apply to every single occupation, b/c some of them do need advanced training, but when the population increases (and people are being kept alive longer), why does the requirement for a basic job that doesn’t need any advanced training go from high school diploma to bachelor’s degree? It’s to keep people in school longer, hoping the people already working will retire or die, which is one reason I am pissed off at a coworker who won’t retire at 71. She’ll work until she’s physically unable to, and this is keeping some new med tech graduate from a job.

More than anything, learning something new is about 1–realizing you don’t know something you need to know, 2–having the problem solving skills to learn what you need. 3–being willing to take advice and find mentors and 4–sticking to it until you’ve mastered the skill.

The US top-ranked high schools are turning out lots of people incapable of doing the above, but who are good at cramming lots of info into their heads. It’s frightening. If that’s what our Universities are recruiting now, we are in trouble. There are going to be a lot of useless degrees out there with people that don’t have the gumption to run their own business and are, frankly, unemployable.

Jacob: Here’s another link to a red cross site with a phone # and a zip code locator. Check with the chapters closest to where you live–I would be surprised if the classes weren’t offered close to you because you live in a pretty populated area.

http://www.redcross.org/portal/site/en/menuitem.d8aaecf214c576bf971e4cfe43181aa0/?vgnextoid=46de1a53f1c37110VgnVCM1000003481a10aRCRD&vgnextfmt=default

Many came in with the attitude that they were much smarter than the production workers or supervisors who have spent their life in the factory. These were often the ones who failed miserably.

Knowing how to work, being self motivated, understanding how to accomplish things is something that every one needs to learn. Confidence allows us to face the unknown and grow.

Good luck on finding the places to develop the skills you are looking for. They will definitely benefit you in the future.

Cisco Academy has a CCNA & CCNP, on-line training. These are in demand certs. With your back ground you could zip through & take the certs & probablely work full or part time.

I worked for the Cisco Academies for several years. Email me if I can answer any questions.

You’re doing wilderness first aid too! How fun. I took that course, (not through Red Cross though) and had a blast . . .which is maybe weird, but I don’t care. Have fun playing with the dummies . . .oh, and maybe you’ll get to learn to reset a dislocated jaw. That one cracked me up.

In case one of these works, here’s the list of courses offered in the Silicon Valley with a contact number (uh, I think that’s where you are, but don’t actually know):
http://siliconvalley-redcross.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=222&Itemid=182

Anyhow, I think you’ll find it eventually.