After Bryan and I did our episode on the #Jobocalypse, someone rightly commented on the Mixed Mental Arts subreddit that this was all great but what practically do I do? Well, this episode is a practical response to that. Mixed Mental Arts is not just about identifying problems but empowering you to solve them for yourselves.
Part of that is going to be teaching you how to learn, unlearn and relearn. That’s something the Mixed Mental Arts community will be doing taking everything that’s in The Straight-A Conspiracy and everything else we’ve learned in the last 200 interviews, breaking those ideas down into easy, bite-sized chunks and giving them away. The other thing we’re going to be doing is introducing you to people who have made the transition into the new economy to give you a playbook on how you can do that too.
Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Jon Aguilar.
Jon Aguilar works in what may be the oldest profession. No, he’s not a prostitute. He works with dry stone. It literally doesn’t get much older than that. Stone on top of stone with no mortar. And yet, Jon Aguilar is thriving in the new economy. That’s because he’s transformed this oldest of professions by bringing to it a spirit of exploration and Motivation 3.0. Jon reads voraciously. He’s constantly rethinking his craft. And he’s always learning, unlearning and relearning. In the end, surviving in the new economy doesn’t mean you have to become a computer coder. Far from it. In fact, you may end up doing the job you were doing in the old economy BUT you approach it in a very different spirit. You think of yourself and approach your work as a craftsman.
In this episode, Jon describes how in 2007 he really started to take his craft seriously as something to be mastered and refined and the books and ideas that were useful to him in evolving his own approach up to this point.
Jon is also a fount of t-shirt ideas. I’m sure the Unicorn (@madonna_matt) and Unikitty (@nicoleleepage) will run with some of them. Personally, I’m going to put in a request for “Embrace The Suck” and “What Kind of Smith Are You?” Maybe an “Ideasmith” t-shirt. I defer to them. Pretty sure that something awesome will emerge from this great improv we’re all in.
You can find out more of the tools Jon is using to navigate the #Jobocalypse here including resources for people looking to become or looking to connect with apprentices.
Jon’s Stonesmith business = www.heritageearthandstone.com
Jon’s Facebook = “Heritage Earth & Stone”
Jon’s Instagram = “jonaguilar_designworks”
The Consortium of Craftsmen, Innovators & Thinkers = www.throughstonegroup.com
The Consortium’s Instagram + Facebook + YouTube channel (will be online by May 1st) = “Throughstone Group”
The Dip: A Little Book That Teaches You When to Quit (and When to Stick)
The Rise of the Creative Class — Revisited: Revised and Expanded
The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles
Steal Like an Artist: 10 Things Nobody Told You About Being Creative
3 Simple Steps: A Map to Success in Business and Life
The Obstacle is the Way: The Timeless Art of Turning Trials into Triumph (Hardcover)
