One Complex Piece of Machinery.

I place a dollar in the machine and the gumball drops. It clicks, clinks, rotates and rattles, changing direction multiple times until finally it is redirected onto its final course… Kind of like my educational background.

But this isn’t just about me, this is about us and the educational end game: a future career.  You see, that gumball machine is one complex piece of machinery; full of turns, loop-the-loops, hand-offs, backtracks and swerves. At first the ball goes one direction but then suddenly, it goes another. Almost as if it were a student in TPL’s class, trying to solidify a topic for the ever-elusive graduating thesis.

What is your future? What do you want to get out of this complex gumball machine we call life? Well, that can be a tough question to answer. Can you prepare for it? Is anything really ever certain (besides eventually dying that is)?

Okay, okay, lets not get out of hand. In order for this conversation to go anywhere (as one-sided as it is), we need to ground ourselves somewhere. We need a foundational concept that we can build upon. So here’s one thing you can be certain of: Real world problems are becoming increasingly complicated.

How do we solve the global climate change crisis?
How did Trump get elected?
And most importantly, where are Tupac and Biggie?

You see kid, life is filled with problems; and complex problems are analogous to those multi-tiered, obstacle course type gumball machines we’ve all seen during our youth. Each individual gadget, gizmo, contraption, apparatus and doohicky contributes to solving this complex real world problem: moving the gumball from start to finish in the coolest way possible. Ooo-la-la!

In a sense, the conglomerate of coordinated mechanics can be seen as the knowledge and methodology weave of the traditional disciplines, combining to overcome challenges that are parts to a whole.

An interdisciplinary approach to problem solving is the pinnacle of future research.

The majority of future problems will be solved at the synapse of intercepting disciplines. This means that our current educational pathway will be at the forefront of opportunity. And so, here’s one final certainty on which you can bet your bottom dollar: your background in Interdisciplinary Studies will always have a spot at the problem-solving table (career opportunities). At least for as long as multi-layered, complex gumballs are on the menu that is!