Teaching: Work Ethic

In the game industry, if I found an interesting article on game design or business or something, I could just pass around the link in email and by the next day everyone will have read it.

In class, if I do the same thing with my students, maybe one or two of them will take the time to click the link. Even if it's something really cool, like listening to Warren Spector and Greg Costikyan cussing or a game you can play for free online.

And I think it comes down to the difference in how these things are approached. In school, I don't think most students think of it as a job (where you get "paid" in grades perhaps?), nor are they concerned with professional development (since learning new stuff is kind of mandated, which automatically turns people off from doing it voluntarily).

I was guilty of this myself; I didn't really develop a solid work ethic until I was 25 or so. But oh, how nice it would be to be able to teach it, since it's practically required to get into the industry (and certainly to do well once you're there)...