“John, we’ve got to make it cool again” - Barack Obama

Buskirk, Eliot Van. "What Obama Is Learning from Facebook, Google and Ideo." Wired. http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=3628008386551780171

This article address the fact that most of the brightest and creative graduates seem to be "snatched up" by tech start-ups. The Government is tiring of the old men who are due for retirement and are looking to have more hip and young, yet still very intelligent, aged people working for them. After all, the USA was able to put a man on the moon in the 1960's with a team of people in their late twenties. Obama is looking to get this youthful, tech-savy generation involved with the government and keep everyone up to date. Berry, Director of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, met with Facebook and Ideo and said this, “It was just great,” he said, “phenomenal people, outside-the-box thinking, creative approaches to how they manage people — and they’re wrestling with some of the same issues we’re wrestling with… what is the fairest way to appraise peoples’ performance, how do you hold employees accountable, so that they’re doing a good job but you’re not micromanaging them to the point where they just throw their hands up and quit?" According to the article Obama is the last president besides Kennedy who really understand the importance of having "the best and the brightest".

I agree with our president, Obama. How can we look towards building our future if we are so caught up in the past? The world is constantly changing and it is crucial that something as important as the United States Government is staying as up to date as possible. Who knows, maybe someday we will have flying cars or have the ability to hallo gram ourselves into a basketball game and have automatic front row seats or sit at the half line in the middle of a soccer game as the athletes run right through you because you are invisible (yes, an invention I plan to make real one day). The older generation will never advance unless they take these leaps of faith and put trust in the new generation. While it is important that we include the "brightest and best" in the recruiting process I think it is also critical that we involve the older, wiser, and better experienced age at the same time.