What/Who do you want to be?

Children are frequently asked what they want to be when they grow up. That’s insane. There’s a better question to ask them. Who do they want to be when they grow up?

For those who are a little slow, let me explain the difference here. What you are comes down to defining yourself by your work. Who you are is more about personality. Children shouldn’t get excited by the possibility of becoming a systems analyst. They should be excited about becoming good people with the potential to make a difference in the world.

But we don’t care. We just force them through the schools and try to push them to pick their careers soon enough to take the right courses to get into the right school to get the job that their career interest surveys say they would be good at. Too bad. We really could be good people if we valued that sort of thing more than our fiscal futures.

I fell into this trap. I was supposed to be a software developer. Since I lack programming skills, I have not entered my government-assigned career. Instead, I sacrificed career for the pursuit of human decency. It’s tough. In a money-driven world, human decency can threaten survival.