University education has a time stamp added to it. Before that date, you are but a student, and after that time, graduation,  you are, say a lawyer, an architect, an MD, an engineer, a computer scientist. But we all know that that is not true.  That this is arbitrary.  That learning is a lifelong endeavor. That there was nothing truly differentiating after that date.  Indeed, the same degrees require different amounts of time in different countries. And whatever degree you get it will lose validity over time.

So here is an idea. Universities should protect you from “degree obsolescence”.  How?  Well, universities are always asking money from alumni. Basically what they do is they promote reunions and ask for donations.  But how about doing something more productive with reunions? For example, when your 10th reunion comes up yes, you are hit with a request for donations, but you are also offered say a month long update of your degree. Something you can do after work, say from 5 to 8pm for a month or two.  With your university buddies. So graduates, after say 10 years of getting their medical degree,  would get a very good one month update of everything that has been developed in those 10 years in medicine. It would be like a software update, a firmware upgrade, an app update.   Universities would give you a lifetime guarantee of the value of your degree.  And you would likely be a happier donor.

(Photo credit: Ajira Blog)

Dad, what do you do? I am an entrepreneur Leo, I build companies. And what is a company? A company is a group of people who get together to accomplish something. And what is your company? Fon. And what does Fon do? We give WiFi connectivity to everyone, so for example, your iPad and everyone else’s iPad, can have games, movies, music.

Leo was pleased with the explanation. Happy with what I do.

And I was happy that I wasn’t a hedge fund manager.

I am a father of six children, not a child psychologist. So what I am about to say comes from experience not academia. But still I think it’s valid. And it refers to a question that somebody asked me that went like this. Why should you expose a two year-old to awesome experiences if she will not remember them. So this is what I think: yes you should expose them to awesome experiences and no they won’t remember them. And this is not contradictory. Allow me to explain.

Why should you, for example, take your two year old to meet the princesses in Disney World, or any other great child-oriented vacation? Because in my view, children are made of a very unique parental clay that somehow solidifies at the end of their childhood. Yes they have their own scaffolding or structure, but over this structure, every day of your parenting, you add some love clay. Yes, every day. And what should concern you as a parent is that on a poor day of parenting, say of parental neglect, you also added clay, but of a poor quality, with very little love in it. And that was your chance, that was your opportunity to build your own child that day, and you did a poor job. And it will remain. Maybe another day you were an artist of a parent, you were inspired, you connected to your two year-old in a very special way, and that day your child got a lot of love clay. And that clay also stayed for good, and that was personality building. Yes children are like that. It’s not what they remember that matters, it’s how they are built, by you. Day after day. So now you understand why it is great to take a two year-old to a great event that she or he won’t remember. Because that day you will be a better artist, a better parent, and that day will build your child in a positive way, forever. And many of those days make you a good parent. At Disney World or at the park near your home.