We want things “our way,” but within limits. That’s kind of the gist of how most people handle customization. The deep pool of seemingly limitless possibilities is intimidating, so when presented with infinite depth and breadth, most of people opt to just lounge at the water’s edge.
Defining a section of safe waters and a curated selection of potential activities makes the murky, unfathomable depths far less threatening. Most people respond better to parameters within which to make their choices. A customizable menu at a fast food restaurant is less daunting than the open-ended question, “What do you want for lunch?”
Customization, then, is a double-edged sword because most people want the opportunity to choose but want those choices to be manageable. Too much choice can shut a person down. This makes applying for and getting a job with a large corporation easier than starting a solo venture from the ground up. It makes choosing a well-defined major and course of study at a large university a path of less resistance. It’s safer and easier to let someone else define the goals and rules of the game. That’s what most people want. Or is it?
Something is shifting in the world of higher education, and I think it’s worth taking note. Customization is becoming increasingly popular, at least among colleges and universities seeking to attract the brightest minds with the greatest potential. While “I’ll tell you how this degree curriculum works” is predominant, more and more institutions not only offer but promote and sell the idea that the student can customize their education. They are free to follow a core curriculum with a few choices along the way, but they also have the option to completely customize the college experience. Interested in Physics and Music? At the University of Illinois College of Engineering, a student with such interests can create a specialized course of study unique to solving problems at the intersection of the two. At the University of Pennsylvania, MIT, Stanford and many others, similar mindsets serve as the foundation for the guiding philosophy for developing leading engineers, doctors, and political scientists of the future. The message to prospective students seems to be that customization isn’t meant to be feared; it’s the way of tomorrow. It reminds me of how we used to talk about global change when I was in college.
Despite this shift, customization is overwhelming outside of higher education. Award-winning and prolific author Neil Gaiman recently made this observation: a page filled with writing, no matter how atrocious, can be fixed; you cannot fix a pristine page…because there’s nothing there. It’s time to take the fear of customization, of sullying the pristine and blank page, out of the equation. I believe the world we live in is optimized for customization. Technology provides us access to seemingly limitless possibilities, but having options is not the issue. Making choices is the issue. In order to make those choices, we need to narrow down the options. The first choice, then, is whether or not we believe it is worthwhile to define the options ourselves, then make a choice. The alternative is to continue living in a fast-food world and tweak the choices others make for us.
I’m ready to jump in the deep end. Are you?
Illuminate Possibilities 