Re: Society on the Future
 

I couldn't agree with this more. I think for a team to work smoothly, it needs leaders and followers. But every leader should sit back sometimes and every follower should take charge sometimes. It's all about respect, responsibility and maturity.

Offshooting, I find it a personal pet peeve to find people where I ask them "so why are you doing this" and they say "i don't know." Clearly no one should do something without knowing why! Even if it's "well I have a feeling that I might enjoy this" would work. But how can people live their lives without realizing the purpose behind their actions? If everything happens for a reason, then taking out the "purpose" behind an action just complicates the causes and effects.
YES, Thomas Alva Edison is a great example of that. It wasn't those 100 errors he made but those 100 steps it took to get to his final invention. (I don't remember HOW many times he tried the experiment...i'm only saying 100 because I don't remember)
Yes, there are consequences for standing out and for not standing out -- but sometimes, these "flames" are just a test. As I mentioned before, I'm a strong believer of karma and reason. I see these "flames" as more of a reason to become "fireproof"

Re: Society on the Future
 

I'll just start with what Ashley started with. It all comes down to people being considerate. Considerate of the real world, considerate of what consequences, good and bad, result from their actions, and other things to consider as well. Not only that, but what does the person do when he/she considers, and after he/she thinks about it; in other words, the product.

You really can't. You can try, it may work, but leaders are called to be that way. It's also the same with 'lazy' people strangely. They are called to be lazy and inconsiderate on purpose. By who? God, some event, something makes their brain that way.

I'll take myself for example. I was called to lead the LEGO League team at the Middle Shcool because it would've died if I hadn't bugged that teacher to be an advisor to the program and stood up when the team got going. Now, I am called to lead the robotics team because I want to make it better overall. There are many barriers to doing that that I wish to crush, and that others say are impossible to. I don't think that way. I think: if there's a problem, fix it, no matter what (not to the demise of the team, of course). Am I leader yet? No, but I'm getting ever closer to doing so because I know I have to. (I made a mistake in the election of the co-leaders the previous year, so I learned something)

Very very tough to say that, but I agree with it 100%. It would've made me a better person by a conderable margin in my opinion. The only reason why this is happening is because people want to make money off of the littlest things. As a real soft and off the subject example in comparison: EBay. But in the real world, people complain about sidewalks being a little off kilter, playgounds having dangerous but really fun equipment (ahh, remember those days), etc.

In short, this world has ran off of problems since its beginning, when Adam decided to eat the apple, and a whole series of events followed. To be perfectly real, there is absolutely no such thing as the perfect solution to big world problems. If somebody claims they have found one, they must me somewhat out of line. Therefor we have leaders to lead the lazy, engineers to help the leaders, and teachers to teach the engineers and leaders, and it just goes on.

And what about purpose to life. We cannot state a real purpose or a lack of, because the amount of knowledge we don't know is too much that makes it impossible to make such a statement. Not to stir something up, but that's why we have something called religion, because without purpose, everything just dies due to a lack of reason to live. The plants live to feed us and other living things, who live for other purposes, etc. Water exists because something needs it, like other objects, seen and unseen. And a God exists in theory and belief to give the idea to us of purpose to live. And that leads back to the beginning of this chain... (Energizer bunny, keep beating).

This is definitely more than 2 cents, and I'll probably have more.

-Joe

Re: Society on the Future
 

Stepping up - Leadership - Authority - Respect - Prosperity. It's pretty easy to connect all and see a very strong relationship. It's how all teams work. 80% of the students are lazy. 20% of the students probably do 80% of the work. If you just hand work over to the kids, some will, some wont. It's just the way things are. Everything is not for everybody. But those who step up and work hard benefit more than the others - even if the result is not immediate.

You are absolutely right. Television and videogames are the #1 brain damager in the world. Why? It's the easiest and most available way for kids to immitate. Very fanscinating and influenctial, they know how to get you. If you watch directors, movie makers, television commercial makers talk indepth about how they make their productions, they will straight out tell you its about manipulating the public's minds. But wait a second.. that is wrong. That's not suppose to happen. The kids are not suppose to look up to Eminem as their role model. His stuff on TV is just for ENTERTAINMENT, but the kids have taken it way beyond. The reason is they have no other role model to follow, no direction, no motivation so they will obviously follow what influences them the most. I blame the parents - and let the parents blame their parents, and let them blame their parents, it will keep going on. The right thing to do is take control and learn the right way. Books might help. Let me demonstrate an example. I have a passion for photography and am saving up for a digital SLR. The reason is because my uncle owns one and I sit down with him and learn all this stuff. He's motivating me to do something worthwhile and useful.


Blaming is one thing that will NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER STOP NO MATTER WHAT YOU DO. BUT - people of real character will accept their faults. I have one message for all of you - apologizing and admitting to your faults DOES NOT make you of LOWER STATUS in front of other people. Infact, it's the opposite. Accepting your faults also lets you analyze youself and improve the quality of your life.


That's why I love FIRST. It has boosted my self esteem and self image so much. I could never stand in front of a crowd and speak before I joined FIRST. After giving numerous presentations for various things, I can now confidently stand and talk and not worry if I mess up because I know as long as it's natural its good. By facing tough situations and doing some intensive work, FIRST helps us boost our self image. wo0t.

Leadership is an art, not science. Therefore it does not apply to engineers. OK Just kidding. But you are right, the world needs more leaders. Leadership is no joke because when you are a leader, people want to follow you. They want to copy you. If you do the wrong thing, they do the wrong thing. There are going to be obstacles, if the leader does not stand strong there will be chaos. There will be an opposition. Another person who wants to be a leader but has wrong values and people will even be willing to follow this person. If the real leader is not strong, then the wrong things will happen. Leaders have to be go-getters. If they put off work, everyone will.

The other day someone asked me "Are leaders born?". My answer was "yes". All leaders are born, I don't know any unborn leaders. What I am trying to say is there is no such thing as "born leaders". Read books by John Maxwell for more about leadership. He has done very intense research about this subject. Everyone has some sort of leadership qualities in them - you just have to bring them out. I would suggest reading "The leader in you" by Dale Carnegie. I would also suggest reading this post. Those books have helped me tremendously in my personal life and I hope it helps you to embetter yourself too.

-Bharat

Re: Society on the Future
 

As others have said, there will always be leaders, and there will always be followers. The leaders normally know what needs to be done, and do it, while the followers normally sit back and watch, perhaps aiding if they want to. Commonly I've seen this happen on some of the larger teams, where there isn't exactly enough work to interest most of the students.

One of the problems with other students not listening, while I really don't want to rationalize it, is with the normal cliquéiness of high school, social groups normally only seen during school arise in the closed club environment. Whoever is in the 'highest' social group will probably turn someone into a pariah, and others will follow their lead like cattle just because it's the 'cool' thing to do.
You're absolutely right, yet what can any of us do about it beyond our choices for our own children? Sure, we can instill values in younger generations, yet there will always be the peer pressure of their friends who didn't have parents who instilled the same values to do something against what they've been taught. Most kids (yes, including us) will probably turn to a friend who hasn't gone through something before rather than attempt to talk to a parent, teacher, mentor, neighbor, etc., just because of the age similarity and the belief that they might understand a situation more than an older person.

Yet no one is truly telling the schools outright that what they're doing is wrong, and that they need to cease and desist. Their "goal" is to provide students with a learning environment that, as many put it, "creates productive citizens." They don't really seem to believe at all that it matters how much the student learns or gains from any material that's taught, but rather that they just graduate and move on with their life. The whole education system revolves around that principle, and many of the people designing the education system nowadays disregard strictness in favor of allowing children to "express themselves," which has proven itself to work completely against the intended purpose.

Agreed, but with students being shoved out of the way, it should often be the job of graduating upperclassmen to delegate who should be leading the club, so a legacy of power can be maintained, allowing for the maintenance of a leadership.

Re: Society on the Future
 

On a related but somewhat different note, a wise person once said, "That which does not kill me, only makes me stronger."

The tallest blade of grass may indeed often get cut first. Yes, the individual who tries to push forward in a positive manner may have their ideas shot down. And yes, much of this is due to the media emulating an image of conformity and a negative attitude toward any straying from the status quo.

Let us take this thread as a reminder, though. Those individuals that try to advance the well-being of the situation must always remember that they have to persevere, because doing so can only make them stronger. This strength, in turn, can help them express their beliefs to their peers even better. Their peers may laugh a little bit more - eventually, though, they might actually process the thoughts that are being conveyed to them, and, themselves, feel competent to do something, too.

The most successful movements in history have started with one or few individuals. Look at what Gandhi or Susan B. Anthony accomplished, for example - they were in the same exact situation as some of FIRST team's students may be in, today. They had their ideas shot down. But eventually, they gained a voice in their surroundings. They found people who felt the same, and empowered them.

Human nature makes people realize, "Hey, I believe such-and-such, too. I was scared, but look at this person over here, he/she is expressing their ideas. Hey, wait a minute, he/she is only human, too. I can do that if I have the will to, everyone had to start off somewhere, right?" This is where the whole FIRST deal comes in again. I = inspiration. While the adults definitely do inspire their teams, the students have the ability to inspire their peers to express their ideas, as well.

So yes, I have to agree with the anonymous statement that I quoted. Actually, I would like to modify it to read, "That which does not kill me, only makes me and those surrounding me stronger" - because indeed does it help indirectly help others to see that they, too, can make a difference.


To add to Bharat's definition of a leader and add to what I had said earlier - I believe that a leader is someone who is willing to embrace what others have to say, regardless of whether or not what is voiced coincides with one's own opinions. A leader stays open-minded at all times, allowing others to step up.

Re: Society on the Future
 

So today I was going through my subscribed threads and found this.
I remember it very well, and was thinking that since there are new people joining chief delphi because of the new season that it would be cool to make this be brought up again and see others opinions on this.
With the new season we will have new thinkers! yay!

-Ashley

Re: Society on the Future
 

I think, so that I don't ramble on and on about this, that a good way to get students motivated to try to be a leader is to make them the head of a committee. Not all students can be a project manager, so not all students can be leaders, there has to be a combination. But for the students who take the initiative to try to be a leader, they are the ones who deserve to lead. Plus with leading a committee, they can find an aspect of robotics that they are really interested in, and take it to another level. This makes it so they can lead in one thing they are really good at, but they can also follow in things that they want to help with, like maybe building the robot itself. Our team has committees that have leaders, but the entire team takes turns on working on the actual robot. :)