Internet's Cinderella

This article is a continuation of the line of thought that made the previous essay happen: What can the ownership economy do for research? Here I wrote some further considerations about internet and the ownership economy.

All tales have important meanings concerning our own subconscious and often there are many beautiful esoteric symbolic meanings. Cinderella name means ‘little ashes’ and it is related to 2 different concepts: the ash tree that has a lot of traditional symbolic meanings; and the ash that is black. Like something valuable that is covered by ashes. It reminds to the protagonist of Pokemon, whose name is Ash and he, similarly to Cinderella, has a connection to elemental creatures. In Pokemon anime the elemental creatures are represented by the pokemons (each of them has a different element), in Cinderella tale the elemental creature is the Fairy Godmother.

As I said, Cinderella is hidden, it represents something that is valuable but is hidden. And I believe that in this world there are lots of underrated people. People who can give a very big contribute to the world but they don’t because of some conditions where they live in. Like in Cinderella’s case it could be the envy of the people who surround them, and this is very typical occurrence. Brillant and valuable people often attract the envy of their peers and often end up becoming psychologically unconfident and overwhelmed.

Internet is very important tool that came like a savior to many valuable people. It is no coincidence that a lot of innovation is information technology innovation. In IT one doesn’t need to have credentials to make it. One can learn online, not just coding, but also a lot of information concerning the domain where he works. This is a reality where it is complicated to make it in many fields where the demons of greed, fame, status dominate. Maybe a certain individual is really valuable but his career was destroyed because of the envy of his collaborators or superiors. There are a lot of stories like such in reality, a researcher who touched a dangerous topic, a journalist who offended somebody too powerful, an engineer who invented something too eccentric, a scientist who is just too disagreeable, and so on. Through the usual conventional paths it is difficult to make it when sometimes a small mistake can end up ruining up your entire career. This is the reason why IT technology has been progressing very much, you just have to say that you can build something and show it in open source and you don’t end up jobless, as in other cases where the rules you break can damage your career totally. What if you did well in a place but your boss just didn’t like you? In places where status is very important your boss is considered as untouchable and if he gives a bad recommendation about you then your career will be damaged.

Another important consideration is the fact that your curriculum cannot cover many interesting qualities that you might have and there is a few time to asses a person and make a decision about hiring them. This is why many apps like Medium, Github, Wordpress or Twitter have proven very valuable. So that many people can express their intelligence and knowledge so that their curriculum is not the only thing to be evaluated. Something like this is made possible through the Internet. Before the Internet’s existence there were no such ways. Many people made it to become successful through their ability to promote themselves via internet. We can call them the internet’s Cinderellas. And the apps that supported them can called “Royal Balls”.

There is an observation that I think is particularly important about Cinderella. Cinderella’s shoes in the ball are made of crystal, that means that Cinderella’s connection to the Earth is fragile. The shoes represent the connection that one has with the land. That means that such people are often too idealistic and impractical, that probably is the reason why they often end up being underrated like Cinderella. And this concept is represented even more obviously in the fact that Cinderella’s foots are the smallest in the town. That means that no one else is more disconnected from Earth than she is.