Two sides of the river

On the north side of the river, people stay up all night working to invent things. On the south side of the river, people wake up in the morning thinking how to change things. They are just as smart and interesting, and really good at what they do. They too push boundaries, break down needless conventions, and defy expectations.

On the south side, they don’t run a model railroad club that meets on Saturday nights, or have a cappella group called the loga-rhythms. But they do have subversive knitters whose software people use all around the world to protest sweatshop labor.

On the north side of the river, people closely watch the fate of commercial ventures like A123Systems, which manufactures high-power lithium ion batteries. They excel at private entrepreneurship, but try really hard to be socially responsible. Their commencement speaker last year was Muhammad Yunus, a pioneer in the microlending movement.

On the south side of the river, people closely watch the fate of social ventures like the Entrepreneurs for Peace, a training program for Arab-Israeli ventures. They excel at creating value for society as a whole, but are trying hard at private entrepreneurship. Their commencement speaker, two years ago, was Barack Obama.

On the north side of the river, they are trying to de-nerdify their reputation. Going to great lengths to do so, such as producing calendars featuring scantily clad students in the arts to show how well-rounded they are. On the south side of the river, they are trying to attract nerds, the really hardcore math/science types. And going to great lengths to do so, such as building a venture center.

Frankly, I don’t see the attempts to totally normalize either the north or south will get all that far. Nor should they. Well-rounded people don’t push the human race forward.