When does a puppy know whether its bum is over the pee mat before it drops its doo-doo or takes a piss? When it has good judgement? When you holler louder? When you throw it into the winter night? When you break it's neck?
Well. I think it's like any kind of awareness - it comes with good education and experience.
I'm toilet training a puppy - she's sensitive and smart and learns fast but sometimes she misses.
She tries though - no point in kicking her around because it will only damage her.
Some puppies may not be so lucky.
Today, as I cleaned up the mess. I thought of all the things I didn't know when I started work that meant I probably messed up :*|
I once walked away from a day's picking strawberries without asking for pay. My dad took me back to get paid.
I once left a job where we weren't allowed to take holidays. When I asked I for leave the boss told me: "I've always thought we could more than friends." - So I left. And then I took my ski holiday.
And looking back I think that I made a right mess by barking at nothing sometimes and cowering at nothing sometimes and being totally tactless a lot of the time.
The trouble is that your intentions of trying to do the right thing aren't counted - all that counts is your bad judgement. I think the problem is always knowing when to bark and when not to? Biting... that's another thing altogether, isn't it? Yikes!
But when you're a puppy entering the big old world of employment your future depends greatly on who is training you and directing you - to a large extent. I think a dog needs to be street smart, if not clever.
A lot of old dogs need training to navigate the brave new world being implemented by the fast movers of the digital society. It's just like an eight-week old puppy who's seeing rain for the first time, tasting chicken for the first time, smelling the smells of a new home for the first time, looking for a pat on the head: it's exciting, it's scary and you may not even have the confidence to whimper let alone bark.
Unfortunately, like the crapping process, the digital process requires training. I often wish I was a teenager these days. I know I'd be in this space but the big difference is that people would be helping me own it instead of ... well ... I think Gen Y's get to growl and bark a lot more than Gen Xers and Baby Boomers who had to sit and follow instructions and wait for a pat on the head. ( .. .. .. .. .. ha,ha,ha, panting for a pat, ha ha ha.. .. .. ..) Experienced oldies are mostly sitting in their cubicles waiting to be retrained or just live in the hope of making retirement with their mortgage paid off - you can't hear tectonic plates move until there's an eruption. Sounds barking mad to me.
In the same way that marketing books don't fill the creative well to draw on when you need to create content (to postulate an idea you need to find an idea and then you need to prove it). Technical prowess is a process, like peeing. All it takes is a little training. Go on, I know I've insulted you so go on - disagree!
Don't you think that it's weird that institutions which are supposed to be staid and conservative, like libraries and museums, are moving and shaking in the digital communication space?
Look at The Edge at the Queensland State Library - but it too is aimed at young people as if older people are somehow exempt from the future?
Social and economic landscapes are transforming the workplace. Training is crucial to transform workers, employees, cogs, fodder - whatever you like to call your staff. I think this is an important issue if you're really concerned about the future of your industry. We talk about super taxes on mining companies to boost superannuation contributions - no good if you're obsolete.
You know what's far, far worse than a peeing puppy?
Snarling mongrels peeing all over the place to mark their territory. OH!