A space where the experiences of makers are fully recognized
Hi, I’m Minkyo Jung. William as well.
I've recently joined a team called Disquiet as an operator after dropping out of the school I attended for the past two years. Given the significant life changes, I wanted to share my thoughts on how I've lived up until now and why I joined Disquiet.
1/ Experiences that Influenced Me
1-1/ Creating Something Is Valuable
I was first exposed to education studies in my second year of high school. In the history of humanity, education has always needed to sense changes at the forefront and adapt flexibly. However, the reality in Korea was disappointing.
Initially, I was fascinated by Waldorf education, which focuses more on how we currently sense and express things rather than acquiring a lot of knowledge. With a desire to see this firsthand, I flew to Germany with three friends after sending emails to Munich University of Technology and all Waldorf schools in Germany.
Fortunately, a professor at Munich University of Technology and a Waldorf school in Frankfurt accepted our proposal. We went to Germany to observe their educational environments.
From these experiences, I got the following insights:
Both Munich University of Technology and Waldorf schools value the act of making (Make).
Those who have experienced creating something live their lives with high ownership.
Making is another way (dynamic) to acquire new knowledge, unlike reading books (static).
After returning from Germany, I engaged in a project to create a virtual school with friends interested in architecture, business, and educational administration for a year during my senior year of high school.
1-2/ Logical Stubbornness is Necessary
I've always been stubborn, but in my own way, I believed it was logical. For example, during high school, I had no intention of going to a typical college. I thought that to solve problems in education, I had to take a different path from normal education colleges.
However, when I reached the third year of high school, seeing my friends focus on college entrance exams made me realize that I also needed to solidify my resolve.
So, I embarked on a short project with the hypothesis that educational background doesn't significantly impact employment or entrepreneurship (experience is more important).
To test this hypothesis, I spoke with HR managers from various companies and also referred to research from an organization called "Spring of Education" to prove the correlation between hiring and educational background. I was curious about the Korean environment, even though there were articles and reports from places like Google.
Ultimately, I concluded that higher educational qualifications do not guarantee stable employment or higher performance once employed. As a result, I chose not to attend a traditional college.
I presented these findings to students, parents, and teachers. I'll include related materials below.
From this experience, I got the following insights:
The relief of making data-driven decisions. I want to do it even better.
When I form my own hypotheses and logical arguments to make decisions, I can establish a structure that I can take responsibility for. I was able to have great ownership in both life and projects.
1-3/ People Are Not Being Evaluated in a Multi-Dimensional Manner
I did various activities alone during high school. Naturally, these experiences could not be recorded in my school records. Moreover, going forward, a wider range of activities by high school students won't be recordable either.
This is because the Ministry of Education is gradually reducing qualitative evaluations of students based on books they've read, experiences based on interests, etc. They're judged only by subject scores.
I was involved in projects like a COVID-19 self-diagnosis app and an aggregator project for students & alumni, but I disliked being judged solely on academic scores.
When individuals in society are not treated multi-dimensionally, polarization can only worsen. To see a person in multiple dimensions, there has to be a 'context', and this requires time to accumulate, and someone has to recognize it. Although it's essential, it's an expensive activity in many ways.
While it's good to informally document the work I've done, it's much better to have the experience reflected in the most influential documents like resumes and personal statements. Therefore, I created an entrepreneurship course that could be officially recorded and sold it to schools and local governments. I've conducted more than 100 classes and quickly secured opportunities to teach at educational support offices and talent education centers in the metropolitan area.
However, at some point, despite having a steady stream of customers, I started to feel disillusioned. I eventually realized that what I truly wanted to do was not education.
Over the past year and a half doing this, I gained the following insights:
I want the value of people who create things to be fully recognized. The prevailing societal atmosphere burdens process-centric thinking, leading to a significant increase in other costs (e.g., dropping out of college after realizing it's not the right path, considering a job change after realizing the current one isn't a fit).
What I want to do can be described within the realm of education, but it's not education. The core is to offer meaningful value by connecting good people with good information.
Consistent documentation can reduce communication costs. This is true for employment, college admissions, and career planning.
2/ Becoming a Top 1.36% Super User at Disquiet
While pondering these concerns, I encountered Disquiet.
At that time, a playbook called "Building In Public" was being created, and it resonated deeply with me. It felt like meeting someone who defined what I couldn't in a single word.
Here, makers were openly sharing their stories and gaining value recognition through it. Now, many students are also sharing their experiences and getting feedback here. Also, the team at Disquiet always moves in a data-driven manner.
In many ways, what I wanted to accomplish is happening here.
There are two ways to achieve a vision: doing it myself or somehow joining a team that is already doing it well. I seem to have chosen the latter.
The following sentence is from a colleague I am working with, and it really stood out to me:
Even though we each started with slightly different motivations and interests, the destination we're aiming for is the same: to create the best space for makers.
3/ A Space Where Makers' Experiences Are Fully Recognized
This might sound grandiose, but I've written down why I think a space for makers is necessary. (It could be a truly compelling reason, or perhaps it's just a rallying cry before I embark on a new venture.)
Firstly, the reason why I felt strongly about the issues in education is because society is increasingly chaotic (and will continue to be), and I question whether we, who must live in the future society, are equipped with relevant experiences and education.
The second law of thermodynamics states that 'entropy (disorder) always increases in an isolated system.' For example, when force is applied to a well-arranged set of billiard balls, they scatter in all directions. No matter how many times you apply force, the balls will not return to their original organized state. This is an example of increasing entropy.
Society is the same. We have developed technology for the advancement of humanity, but this has created problems like job issues, environmental issues, polarization, and noise. To solve these, additional energy must be expended.
From this, I gleaned two methods to reduce the increase rate of entropy:
Consuming energy - regulations, startup innovations, etc.
Not doing things that increase entropy - everyone disappearing for 10 years, etc.
The second method is not easy. Therefore, humanity has been and must continue to strive to reduce entropy by expending energy, at least for the current and future generations to live in a healthy society.
In this sense, startups are the best starting point to reduce the rate of increase in entropy. As more people solve problems, society can reduce social costs and find comfort.
This is something I wrote about a year ago after seeing Disquiet in the Jung-Ju Young Startup Competition.
I had a sudden thought that startups serve as an interface that connects the world and people. It's a well-designed interface that allows people to do things they couldn't do before, easily and without much difficulty. It offers people control over everything.
Moreover, as you innovate in niche areas, people will be amazed by new types of experiences (UX). "We can control even this?" Many people will applaud.
However, paradoxically, as you innovate in niche areas, societal tension also seems to rise. "We can control even this?" Some people will start to worry.
But eventually, other people will appear to start disrupting again. All our efforts and actions will constantly increase entropy, but innovative teams and ideas will keep saving the world every moment.
I have a desire to live in a world where there are constantly disrupting makers, and for that reason, I believe that makers who consistently solve problems should have the full value of their experiences recognized.
Thanks to the atmosphere started by Building in Public, many amazing people have left a lot of experience and stories in Disquiet. Because of this, we have been able to propose even greater value to the world.
I previously wrote in an article that "people who go through uncertain journeys together are given 'history,' a semi-permanent reward."
This statement is also a perfect fit for Disquiet, where makers who challenge uncertainty every moment gather. I'll do my best, although I may be lacking.