I love people. I love how the internet has enabled us to connect to people in ways we could not imagine 20 years ago. I love the people I have become friends with through the internet, through social networks and through internet conferences. The people that I have been able to share a part of my life with. I am also enthusiastic about startups. I enjoy seeing people follow their dreams and building startups that make a difference in the world. However, there is a problem. More and more, I meet people who want to get into the internet world to make quick money. They are internet specialists, social media experts or they start a quick startup with the sole purpose of becoming an overnight billionaire after an Instagram-style exit.
What are the posters you had on your wall when you were a kid? What were your dreams about? It seems to me that even as Christians, we are now bringing up a new generation on a money-infused diet of social network founders, rock stars and television personalities. It sometimes seems as if our main purpose is the making of as much money as quickly as you can, to then be able to do whatever you want. And to be honest, that is bad news for the world we live in. After all, neither money nor the internet are problems that we need to solve.
What we do need to solve are problems on a much bigger scale. Things like feeding more and more people in a much better way. Finding solutions for society to live more comfortably while using fewer resources. Lifting worldwide healthcare to a very high standard, while bringing down its cost. Those are the things that will allow us to breathe, eat and sleep every day. And we need to remember that it is not just us. As Christians, we need to look to God for success in that process.
To start the whole process, we need to see how we can inspire people with visions for all kinds of engineering. We need people that can ignore the boxes that we have been in and start fresh. Personally, I feel that we need to inspire our younger generations not just to code, to engineer or specialize in a single field. We need to inspire them to explore the marvels that engineering can offer them. Not to be a cog in the machine of the major engineering firms of the world, but to start anew. To learn what can be learned at school and to draw upon the knowledge and wisdom of our Lord to do things that we thought were impossible before. Things that solve problems. And as Christians, we have the greatest source of creative engineering and real world knowledge at our disposal. We just need to look up to Him more to see what it is that HE wants us to move upon. And then go out and do it.
I will go out and inspire others. Will you?