Good for you!
MFA programs can be a controversial decision -- art as academia? Many people view art as the act of "doing" not "learning" -- but there is a craft and structure beneath it all.

Plus -- as one MFA graduate told me once, "You don't necessarily learn anything in an MFA program that you won't learn doing it on your own, but it cuts off about 5 years of wandering."

fuck being "too old" - it surprises me that lessig is that "practical". good choice. you'll excel in that environment. think of it as a sabbatical to create things.

Too old?

After practicing law for 40 years, my grandfater went back to school to become aerospace engineer. He then designed an aircraft from top to bottom that Cessna actually put into production. Gramps was 77 at the time.

Media is as media does. It's ageism (and Lessig) resistant.

I think Lessig was responding to my own wondering if I was too experienced. Too old is simple phrasing - we were musing together if I was too experienced to sit still through education like this. He didn't think so, he rather cheerily suggested grad school would be grand. Any perceptible agism results from my transcription, not his advice.

You have doubtless seen or heard my general take on this subject. Be clear on this: graduate training is worth doing for one of two reasons, and those reasons only:

1) To acquire a credential that is a specific necessity or substantial advantage for a profession that you want to enter.

2) To acquire the credential to be an academic.

It mostly will not teach people things they don't already know except by concentrating those processes of auto-didacticism and critical thinking they already have into a formal institutional setting. This program is a slight exception in that it may focus you on technical skills that will be useful that you couldn't acquire outside of this setting. But if that's the purpose, be sure you focus on that--don't be drawn into courses that are in areas and competencies that you already are reasonably masterful with just because they're familiar. You're a skilled autodidact: you must, and I mean, must stick to the things that you could acquire no other way to make this worth the time and effort.

It will, however, socialize you into institutional norms. This can be a good thing if you feel a need for that, or want the advantages it confers, or are in need of assistance plugging into a network. I don't know that you need a network, though: you've got one about as big and expansive as I know of. But maybe it would help you to add that MFA with some far-flung corners of your network, perhaps.

Sorry for jumping the gun with the ageism comment. I'm sensitive, 'cause I'm getting old.

Interactive media? WTF is that? Those bullshit degrees will get you nowhere. Don't waste 3 years of your life on some dipshit interactive media nonsense. Get a journalism degree. It's what you do, ya know.

Not only will a degree in journalism teach you a lot, it'll actually get you a job.

Interactive media? WTF is that? Those bullshit degrees will get you nowhere. Don't waste 3 years of your life on some dipshit interactive media nonsense. Get a journalism degree. It's what you do, ya know.

Not only will a degree in journalism teach you a lot, it'll actually get you a job.

At 29, I don't feel too old to go back. The notion of changing my career it the scary part. I was a pretty poor undergrad, and it was hard for me to really focus when I was forced to take classes out side of my major.
I think that Grad school will really let me focus in on what I want to learn, and, as TB says above will enable me to learn things that I'm never going to come across in my day to day life. Good luck to ya'

Grad school will give you a reason to stay in one place, one city, for at least 2 weeks, and that, is a good thing. I think it will add some grounding to your wayward life.

Best of luck! :)

I have to say, I disagree with "sdk"'s double post.

I think when you one looks at something solely as a means to an end, you're screwed. Go back to school because it feels right and because you want to open yourself to new people, possible new thought and new avenues of inspiration.

Maybe it's just me, but trying to take calculated steps to forge a career path rather than doing what feels right in the moment seems too...safe and boring.

On an unrelated note:

Recently, I started studying astrology. I couldn't help but think of you because it was astrology that lead me to find your Web site all those years ago. The page you created--the brief astrology tutorial--was my first introduction to info beyond sun sign generalities.

My question: You don't often mention astrology within your writings. Is it still a part of your life? Also, did you study it indepth or did you study it only to a point?

I think about Astrology sometimes, although I'm thinking more about the I Ching. I have a wary relationship with divination; I like the gentle guiding ideals of the I Ching recently, more than I like the air of predestination of personality types in the astrology I've studied.

But I must say, after my recent astrology reading I find myself remembering things, particularly Jupiter as a sort of protective encouraging force in my subconscious. I bought a small statue of Jupiter off EBay after the reading, and I keep it in my home on a sort of altar.

Otherwise, I work to avoid things like "she's such a gemini" and without doing much deeper reading it doesn't enter my writing much. I do think about the planet saturn tho. Hmm so it's there sometimes.

gaikoo ni kaerimatsu

All the cool kids are doing it... it's challenging to find the borders of a system defined reality. It gives you the opportunity to discover more about your own theories and practices when you are introduced to "The way things are in this field".

But fuck the M, go for the PhD... Dr. J, it would even open you up for a career in the music industry if you decide to give up the code.

Come to the dark side... the resources are almost endless, there are many big big toys to play with... and of course there's the government funded travel and exchange programs all over the world. And you're finally at an age when you can appreciate and utilize it.

Student & novice,
~M~
at 30 yrs old and damn happy about it. :)

Congratulations on taking the dive. 56 credits is almost twice what the requirements were for my MA. Which means you'll be in for about 5 years, give or take a semester. Best of luck.

I think heading back to the academy, as you put it, is a good instinct. But I think this is the wrong program. It will focus too much on tools and technique. Nothing wrong with that, if that's your thing, but in your case Justin I think it will stiffle your conceptual leaps as you slog through the agony of production. I think sdk might have a good point about journalism degrees. Had a good friend who made a complete and successful retread with a j-school degree. Or, dive deep into "real" academics if you think you want to teach/write, and get a PhD in philosophy, criticism, etc. 3 years is way too long for a technical degree like this.

graduate school is total complete bullshit. except for three reasons:

1) you need the degree to teach at universities.

2) you are good at networking and will make the most of getting to know your?professors,?colleagues and peers.

3) you will be in one place with lots of free time and maye a bit of cash for a few years and can settle down and make something. make sure you don't waste that time.

the rest... is bullshit.

i would also strongly advise you to only go if the school is funding the whole thing. students loans are not worth it.

graduate school is total complete bullshit. except for three reasons:

1) you need the degree to teach at universities.

2) you are good at networking and will make the most of getting to know your?professors,?colleagues and peers.

3) you will be in one place with lots of free time and maye a bit of cash for a few years and can settle down and make something. make sure you don't waste that time.

the rest... is bullshit.

i would also strongly advise you to only go if the school is funding the whole thing. students loans are not worth it.

I would defer to Timothy, who really knows, if he disagrees, but I have to say one thing:

Justin, you will never be happy as a member of a university faculty. You might well be happy teaching and doing research, but academia is, as Timothy notes, a kind of institution. And it's an institution that is not happy with people who color outside the lines then argue with their institutional superiors when they try to change that. You will alarm, threaten, and piss off most of the faculty, although you will make many friends among them.

The single biggest advantage of this opportunity is the possibility of regular guidance from Mimi Ito, whether or not she is your official chain of command.

The kind of discipline you need is self discipline. A dojo is a better place than a university. I guarantee you that if you were to do Aikido for hours a day for three years, you will be orders of magnitude more disciplined than you would be after three years of grad school.

(Thanks for the upgrade, and for going to all the trouble to get it to me. You are such a great pal.)

I think Howard is basically right. I'm enough of a conformist to get my rocks off by playing nonconformist, but it's strictly a contrast effect--up against real nonconformists, I'm Norman Rockwell. Academia socializes. It just does. It is a highly regulated, contained profession like law or medicine or psychiatry, but in some ways, weirdly enough, even narrower sociologically and sometimes intellectually than those. Some people flourish within its confines. I doubt you would. Just look on the formal scholarship about cyberculture or games and you'll see what I mean. Are the scholars the intellectual innovators in those areas? No, mostly.

In this respect, an MFA is about preparing yourself to teach in a private high school or third-rate college as a fall-back position. It will not actualize your potential or make you do the things you aren't making yourself do now. It may actually aggravate those problems in that NO ONE in academia is going to stay on your case as a 'dojo'. Nobody. Nobody's paid to do that, trained to do that, inclined to do that. It violates all sorts of hidden social conventions in academic life. Did I stay on your case? Did any of your other professors? No. And that was undergraduate, when we're more inclined to. Graduate school is even worse in this respect.

Do it if you think there's technical skills you lack that you can acquire in no other way, or if you're thinking prudentially about having a credential that may serve as an emergency professional fallback way to get a salaried job and have a middle-class existence.

I don't mean to mock either of those things, but if you're going to choose them, then choose them. Choose safety, prudence, particular technical skills, because you're tired of uncertainty, lack of structure, etc. Choose them so you don't second-guess yourself later about having backed into safety accidentally.

Failing that, Howard's right: hire or fall in love with or make friends with someone who will make you do your thing every day, or hold one part of your brain hostage to make the other part serve the same function.

Or to be less spectacular, look for an ordinary, non-special, not-necessarily-insanely-great structured job writing or doing something like writing or other kinds of work in your areas of special knowledge and awareness. Look for it away from the Bay Area where it might be in demand. And then once structure takes hold, hope you can steal time back to write what I know you can write.

Wow - thank you all, especially Tim for those heartfelt and informed sentiments. There's a strong case to be made for auto-didactism, self-discipline, and making my own way. My sense of this project, going to this program, changes as I absorb this feedback. Sometimes I feel like this program is part of my overall media studies and self-discipline. Sometimes I think this program is a retreat from a life of my own creation.

Next week I am going to visit the school, to meet with the people involved, to get a sense of the place. So I'm going to relieve myself from active decision-making until then. I'll carry these questions and concerns down with me - are these creative exciting collaborators? Or constrained future field professionals? Will I be prompted to woodshed an unceasing load of stories and projects? Or caught up in politics and obtuse busywork? We'll see. Thank you!

And I'll toss my two cents into the pot... I have a hard time picturing you in an academic setting because you are such a free spirit and independent thinker with an unconventional mind. However, things that make us uncomfortable might be things that we need to work on. And I do think that the discipline of an academic setting might be what you need to learn how to focus your energies and apply yourself more efficiently and effectively. However, I worry that your motive for doing this might be deeper seated, that you might be reaching out for order and having someone tell you what to do simply because you are in a time in your life right now when so many things have changed, and you don't really know which direction to turn. I felt like this when I left high school. I almost joined the Coast Guard. To this day, I am thankful that I am not. But my drive was similar, a need to push the burden of choice away from myself so I wouldn't have to deal with it. Doing this only postpones the issue. The question is, though, is the postponement in fact a strategic retreat? That is, will it give you the time you need to regroup? If so, then yes, by all means, go for it.

But you have only just now planted the seed. You have lots of time to make the decision. So go forward with it aggressively, and when the time comes, make your choice. Lots of time for introspection in the meantime.

Go for it. We need you.

I like what Burke wrote. Ditto. Graduate school will cure none of your weaknesses, only amplify them. It will not focus you, only punish you for digressing.

William Gibson is one writer who explores academic issues, has a good time, and is not an academic.

Perhaps the interactive media degree will be loose enough to fit you. If you are going to school to get a job, then change majors or get a PhD.

But really, you don't strike me as an academic at all, by temperament, and an M.A. is almost worthless as professional currency.

academic shackling of focused acountablity leads to lost creativity; the nuse of academia is the unleashing of perpetual bordom of what it means to be alive as a writer. The meeting of destiny is an unusual irony, and unmeeting destiny and subjegating the self to teachers who have not lived an examined life is outside the realm of pure living art. The choices of bringing within discipline may seem an obvious system of achieving focus, but at what price? The world is percieved by being in it, understanding technology requires the stumbling through of networking wreckages, of the occational anarchistic chaos of the realm of the ridiculous: cause only the ridiculous survive, and its what seems truest when we face a transhumanist reenginneering of who we are. With focus will come the blinders of what is a true tolstoyian vision of everything now, of the
the stories needed to be writen; the factual stuff will flow into fiction, and the tense of creativity is only stiffled within the academic world; don't think of walden pond, but spash up the mud in an orgiastic drunken stuper of speaking with dead gods and emotions written upon the heart....go for it....write as you please, with only the future unborn generations of readers and listeners to be a groupie family of justinites!

One question is, how much does it cost? My good friend just got into grad school at Harvard, and decided he'd rather spend the HUNDRED AND FIFTY THOUSAND DOLLARS elsewhere. He is going to travel around the world for a few years, he thinks that will give him more life experience than Harvard. Then again, he doesn't need a network or the degree credentials because of his professional situation.

You, hmm, you've already traveled around the world. You have your own network. Question is, what are you going to do next? Or in life, in general? It's nice to have a project. What's yours? More of the same?

That's my thoughts, a long time links.net reader.

dude, don't only apply to one place, give yourself choices. I'm at Interaction-Ivrea getting my masters in interaction design. You should look here, and also at similar programs at the Royal College of Art on London, MIT's Media Lab, and NYU's Interactive Telecommunication Program. good luck!

-M