I’m pretty well known for taking some strong positions on… well, on almost everything. Historically these positions have resulted in me burning the odd bridge. In my defence, I’m more than happy to change position. As a former colleague used to say, I have strong opinions, but those opinions can be loosely held.

Recently I was thinking of these strong positions, and the ability to change them. This cogitating was a result of a lengthy exchange I witnessed on LinkedIn. Now LinkedIn is, of course, the Facebook or Instagram for work. Much like Facebook, it is the place where people make grandiose claims and is the site of much self-aggrandisement. But whereas on Facebook and Instagram, these claims generally revolve around physical appearance, sexual prowess and the epicness of one’s vacations, on LinkedIn it is all around careers and professional pursuits.

Anyway, this particular exchange on LinkedIn came from a chap who was introducing his latest employee. Said employee had, apparently, never held down a “real” job but had over a dozen tertiary degrees – from Harvard, Princeton, Stanford and Oxford and including a bunch of well-known scholarships including a Rhodes. The point that the correspondent was making was that different people have different attributes to bring to the world and that we shouldn’t judge someone by their work history. Of course, the inference that most would have taken from the post was that work experience counts for little and the hustle of academic epicness should be the ultimate test.

As is often the case on these sort of posts, there followed a deluge of comments and counter-comments. Those who questioned the authenticity of the post, those who suggested that only work experience can be an indicator for vocational ability, those who went down rabbit holes questioning how a twenty-something-year-old individual could possibly have done so much study.

Many picked up the fact that the post was in fact about Jamie Beaton, a New Zealand wunderkind and founder of tech educational company Crimson. Now Jamie and I have obviously had the odd set-to in the past, I’ve been historically a little questioning of Crimson and it’s fair to say the jury is out on where that particular corporate journey will end up.

What I’ve never questioned, however, is that Beaton is an exceptionally intelligent individual, who has executed his particular brand of business with aplomb. There is no questioning that undertaking significant international study, all the while engineering a high-growth business like Crimson take some very real skill. When it comes to Beaton, the proof is in the pudding, and while the ultimate pudding is yet to exit the oven, thus far it’s looking pretty tasty. Mashed metaphors notwithstanding.

But here is where the complexity lies. Does Beaton’s journey mean that we should be similarly confident of another example of a child prodigy who has advanced tertiary qualifications at a young age? Does it suggest that all of a sudden, experience of the vocational kind means little and should be dismissed of being no consequence?

No on both counts. Whether Beaton is an outlier (as I suspect) or one of a large cohort, the fact is that people, by their very nature, are complex. Every individual’s context is made up of a myriad of different factors and what might be an indicator of incredible value in one individual (Beaton and his plethora of post-nominals, for example) might be a disaster in another (I suspect there are some perennial students who fill that role precisely because they have little to offer in the non-academic world. Those folks wouldn’t be a good bet for a recruitment manager.)

The problem with social media, be it of the vocational kind, like LinkedIn, or non-vocational, such as Instagram, Facebook or TikTok, is that they encourage the conflation of a single example into a proxy for the norm. Just because someone on Instagram appears fit and beautiful, vacations at the most picturesque locations and is always coiffeured impeccably, doesn’t mean that everyone else is, or even should, be.

And while Beatson has done a stellar job of attracting capital, making acquisitions and growing the profile of his business, it doesn’t mean that every multiple-degree recipient can do so.

Life, people and, yes, opinions are nuanced. And that’s a good thing. Be aware of anyone who comes to you suggesting formulas in life, love or hiring initiatives.

Ben Kepes

Ben Kepes is a technology evangelist, an investor, a commentator and a business adviser. Ben covers the convergence of technology, mobile, ubiquity and agility, all enabled by the Cloud. His areas of interest extend to enterprise software, software integration, financial/accounting software, platforms and infrastructure as well as articulating technology simply for everyday users.

1 Comment
  • As Chris Williamson said in his podcast with Dr Robert Glover (Paraphrased) “Nuance is the real N word we are afraid to say in this age”

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