Monday, April 6, 2009

An inspiring conversation with the PK over some of Norm's cheap comfort food.

So my friend PK came by and hung out with me and Becca last night.

He is one of the many victims of these "Tough Economic Times". He was laid off from his job. It was basically his dream job. He got to spend all day researching consumer grade midi controllers and dreaming up new ways to improve and repackage the items that his company were already selling. I can't think of anyone more suited to that kind of work. But it was interesting because he was loving it and hating it at the same time. As much as he loves "the music industry" he hated the high stress rules and corporate politics that seemed to stymie him at every turn.

When the department he was running was downsized he viewed his lay off with as much relief as trepidation. Sure he was going to have to look for a job, but he also wasn't going to have to worry the rat race anymore.

Since then he's spent a lot of time re-evaluating his life. Looking at what he's done and what he'd like to do. He's given a lot of thought to the things he liked about the company and the things he'd like to avoid in his next job.

The discussion last night turned from his current goals and ambitions to mine. A lot of what he said to me really inspired me to think about where I am now in the video game industry and where I'd like to be. I think that more than anything I'd like to end up in a position at some company where my obsession with the industry and it's history would be better utilized. I'm going to try to focus more on writing some more "game lit" type posts here with an eye towards developing some material that I could hopefully turn into something I can give presentations on and maybe work up an academic course on games and the industry.

Not sure what that means in detail yet...but I think for the time being I'm just going to start throwing up some general musings and try to initiate some dialog.