TED Community » Jeannine van der Linden

More About Me

I'm passionate about

The incubation of social change projects through private enterprise. Changing the means by which we do things which by definition changes the end we reach.

An idea worth spreading

Coworking, which has mostly remained within its own subculture, is going mainstream and changing the face of what it means to be in business. It has to become more than a free place to sit with access to unsecured wifi; it has to be about the people and not about the technology.

Het Nieuwe Werken, die meestal betekent of dat je je privé ruimte gratis mag delen met je werk or opdrachtgevers, of dat je ruimte mag delen met een kamer vol vreemden en geruis, moet volwassen worden. He moet meer met zich meebrengen dan een gratis zitplaats met een onbeveiligd wifi connectie. Het moet over de mensen gaan en niet over de technologie.

Talk to me about

Your dreams of entreprenuership.

My TED Story

is still being written. Wanna be a character in it? Drop me a line.

Comments

• TEDCred score: +8.00 TEDCred reflects your contribution to the TED community.

• A reply on Conversation: William Gibson said "The future is here, it's just not evenly distributed yet." What futures have you seen that are here, but unrecognized?

  Feb 20 2011: I do like it, thank you. I am not at all sure I have grasped it, but I am slow in these matters so you have to give me a couple of days. That is not a small and humble ambition you have outlined there. :-)
• +2

  A reply on Conversation: William Gibson said "The future is here, it's just not evenly distributed yet." What futures have you seen that are here, but unrecognized?

  Feb 20 2011: I recommend to you a series of books by Aries and Duby called "A History of Private Life". It's a long series, and not light reading; if you are only going to read one I personally like the one about the Middle Ages, but you can pick your poison. The series traces the changes in private lifestyle, behavior, beliefs and attitudes from the Roman Empire to the early 20th century; that is, its focus is on people who were not generals, heads of state, leaders of society. You know, everybody else.
  
  One of the takeaways from the series is that notions of what is private and what is public do change very greatly. I think you are right that such a change is happening right now; I am not at all sure that this change will destroy the fabric of America -- or anywhere else for that matter. It will certainly change it but I have faith that we will as usual make ourselves over again in response.
  
  I have not however had my 15 minutes of fame yet, despite having a Facebook account -- and a TED profile for that matter. Possibly it's an alphabetical list, in which case I expect they will get around to me.

• A comment on Conversation: Tiger Mother or Pussy Cat, makes no difference -- anyone who's raised more than one child knows it is all about Nature (not nurture).

  Feb 18 2011: Well, if those are my only choices, then you are lazy. :-)
  
  As to the article, I think many people are missing the boat on the whole tiger mother discussion. One of the things that seems clear to me is that the core of the conflict is this: a parent who has difficulty making her own way and finding her own place within a culture will face enormous challenges teaching her children to operate within that culture. The difference between her own learned cultural values and paradigms and the ones in which she is raising her children is an index of just how much difficulty she will face.
  
  I think many people will say "Oh, yes, if I go to another country than I would of course integrate into that culture". But it is not as straightforward as all that. If you are raising your children in a place that values conformity you are as an American likely to confront the traces of American Exceptionalism which have marked your understanding of the world. And you are going to have to resolve that one way or another because the conflict does not go away.
  
  So yes, I think who our children fundamentally are is to some extent a given. And I also think that parenting is a two way street -- it is not just who the children are but how who they are interacts with how you are that forms parenting.
  
  However, no, I do not think that how people function within their society is a given. That must be taught, because while the creation of a society seems to be an innate human impulse, the form that society takes and the options presented to the members of the society are not innate. They vary substantially and are taught. A particular child may become a leader of men, if s/he has what it takes to do that. But whether s/he becomes the leader of a prison gang, a human slavery ring, an air force squadron, an ad agency, or the local literacy project remains to be seen. That is partially coincidence and partially nurture, it seems to me.
• +1

  A reply on Conversation: William Gibson said "The future is here, it's just not evenly distributed yet." What futures have you seen that are here, but unrecognized?

  Feb 18 2011: Hi, Alec,
  
  I agree with you that new possibilities are appearing for organiszation and governance. In my experience though they all have to deal with the fact that our current methods (as modern society as a whole) are ancient but so is our central nervous system (as individuals).
  
  Ultimately I think this is the reason that an open source model works better than a crowdsourcing one, at least when ordinary, practical matters are what needs to be arranged. Crowdsourcing works particularly well when there is an existing community which commits itself to a goal. Patton said it years ago: Don't tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do and let them surprise you with the results". This form of leadership and organization, though, denpends very much on the existence and maintenance of a healthy community.
  
  Most people need leaders. This seems to me to be deeply imbedded in how people work. So I think the possibilities for new forms of leadership are possible, but I do not think that an absence of leaders is possible.

• A comment on Conversation: Dad, why are there so many black people in Detroit?

  Feb 17 2011: I am also not certain what the debate actually is, the Great Migration (sometimes divided into two different waves) is an historical fact of American history. An interesting one to be sure. But (lacking context, I could be wrong of course) I think you are trying to answer for yourself a question your child did not ask.
  
  Which is a fine thing. But it is not at all clear to me what the question is that you are seeking an answer to. Is the debate, "Why do people divide along racial lines?"

• A comment on Conversation: William Gibson said "The future is here, it's just not evenly distributed yet." What futures have you seen that are here, but unrecognized?

  Feb 17 2011: The group/collection/association/whatever you want to call it most widely referred to as "Anonymous" is one of the most interesting developments it has been my somewhat disconcerted pleasure to watch in a very long time.
  
  It's the shadow world of cocreation in some ways: an ever changing group of leaders, a body of followers comitted to an amorphous cause, operating an an organizationally mature way, with its own PR, its own marketing, its own branding. BUt no real identity.
  
  I am tempted to say it is awe inspiring. Is there a better word for exciting and terrifying at the same time?

• A reply on Conversation: What's the overlooked gem, the book I haven't read that I must?

  Feb 17 2011: Oh, I forgot -- I just read his "Joan of Arc" for the first time and couldn't put it down. Where has that book been all my life?

• A comment on Conversation: What's the overlooked gem, the book I haven't read that I must?

  Feb 17 2011: Sarah Blaffer Hrdy's "Mother Nature", which I encountered quite by accident, is an authentic, honest look at the behavior of human mothers and children. I have a bias against sociobiology in general as I find the parallels drawn often rather result oriented. But this book changed the way I look at family, parenting, social status, and work. Dry in places. But good.
  
  Claire Cooperstein's "Johanna" is a beautiful piece of "faction" about Vincent van Gogh, told through the letters and diaries of his sister in law - without whom we might not now have his art to enjoy. A thoroughly enjoyable read.
  
  Terry Pratchett's "Nation" is not at all what I was expecting from Pratchett. But very lovely.

• A reply on Conversation: What's the overlooked gem, the book I haven't read that I must?

  Feb 17 2011: I remember "DIbs In Search of Self". It touched me also. Thanks for reminding me of it.

• A reply on Conversation: What's the overlooked gem, the book I haven't read that I must?

  Feb 17 2011: I agree, a thoroughly enbjoyable book. I bought a copy just to lend it to people.