A Generation of Cyber-MacGyvers

I don't know how many of you remember the TV show MacGyver.

(From Wikipedia)

"The series revolved around Angus MacGyver (known to his friends as MacGyver or "Mac") who favoured brain over brawn in order to solve desperate problems.

Angus MacGyver's main asset is his practical application of scientific knowledge and inventive use of common items—along with his ever-present Swiss Army knife and duct tape and the usual coincidence of being locked up in a room full of useful materials. The clever solutions MacGyver implemented to seemingly intractable problems—often in life-or-death situations requiring him to improvise complex devices in a matter of minutes..."

Well, hold on ladies and gentlemen, because the next generation of kids to enter the workforce are cyber-MacGyvers.

To find an example, I needed to look no further than the room upstairs that my son occupies.

A friend of mine wanted to upgrade a very old (circa 2001) iMac and dropped it off to have my son look into it. It had 256k memory, a decent (600mhz) processor and a slot load CD drive, but it was running an old OS and had an outdated browser.

Since newer software comes delivered on DVDs, (and no CD versions of the OS could be located) we decided to order a DVD slot drive for the iMac.

Within just a few minutes my son had located the appropriate memory on the web and had sourced a slot loading DVD drive for the iMac.

My friend purchased the parts and had them shipped to my house.

Once the memory arrived, it took just a few seconds to learn how to crack the case and install the memory (done in 60 seconds). We couldn't install a newer OS because the DVD reader hadn't yet arrived.

Then somewhere in the back of his mind, my son remembered (he still doesn't know where he learned it) that you could boot an iMac as a "target" of another Mac. A quick trip to Google validated his recollection and provided the "how to" instructions. We connected the two systems via Firewire. Then using his Mac Mini DVD reader, he began loading my friend's OS X (Tiger) onto the iMac.

About 90 minutes later, the whole process was completed.

Lesson learned? Its not what you know. Its how quickly you can source the answer. Growing up in an internet world is equipping our sons and daughters to compete on speed - leveraging the knowledge of others.

This changes the rules.

No longer will knowing the answer count. Sourcing the information and leveraging it will matter most. And beng confident in your abilities doesn't hurt either.

We're raising a nation of cyber-MacGyvers. And that's a good thing.