Everything that you have said guys depends upon one simple assumption, that the clown wearing a black turtleneck and a black sportscoat, with a mobile phone and a second hand Saab are all that an Architect can ever be, and will ever be. I spent my whole life trying to be an Architect, but trying to be something else other than the character you just mentioned. Not that I honestly have anything against that character at all, I believe, the really go-getter types are just another part of the whole world we live in today.
However, I was a single student out of 50 in my class, and probably 2-3 people like myself never gradutated simply because we wished to learn a simple body of knowledge from our own professors, and didn't want to be totally individualistic. I mean, I spent my whole time in secondary school being the school hero on the football field, and loved every minute of it. But somehow, I wanted to separate all that 'sound of roaring crowds' from my chosen professional. But felt constantly being pushed back into that same arena, unwillingly, just to be a certain kind of Architect? Anyhow, I spent a full 10 years of my life trying to finish my Architecture course, and unfortunately I was just talking in a foreign language as far as the ego-addicts in the Architecture School was concerned.
Why didn't I want to score the winning goal in the last five minutes? Like us? Become the great, charismatic, Architect as hero? I said, guys.... I had all that,... who the hell, or what the hell do you think you are selling this crap to? Now I am perhaps sorry I didn't just 'go along' with it all. :-(
I have very strong reason, and observation over many years now, that young Architects in college are simply looking to extend "College BOWL" well on into their working lives. There simply isn’t any other professional out there, where you can cultivate as much of your own ego, while still getting paid to do so. I mean most rock stars and sports people quickly pass their primes. An Architect can still ‘Kick the winning goal’ at sixty! And many great Architects have, but where else are those kinds of opportunities to be found for aged men and women? I mean the Rolling Stones, probably one of the biggest bands ever, barely manage to pull it off these days.
All of these 'professionals' have more than a little bit of 'ego-ism' attached to them, of yearning to be the centre of it all, the hero. But Architecture is just one of the worst of all. At least Doctors save peoples’ lives without blinking, Lawyers put criminals into jail and have to remain calm on the exterior, but Architects mostly just nurse their own very huge but fragile egos in private and perhaps even in public. To receive at least some of the attention they never had, and rightly deserved as individuals in everyday normal life and growing up as teenagers.
Do young people nowadays become Architects to build buildings, or to facilitate their massive egos about themselves?
A film that says these things better than any words is one called 'Finding Forrester' starring Sean Connery. The movie is loosely based around a young black teenager growing up in the Bronks in NYC. It is about that young man’s relationship to a certain 'Sallinger' (Catcher in the Rye fame) type of brilliant writer/social recluse played so well by Mr. Connery. I love the part where he marches into the classroom, not having left his own apartment in the Bronks for 30 years, and casually beckons up to the wall of Booker Prize winners, “I’m that one”. (Insert Sean Connery accent please) But like in any good versus evil drama the performance of the 'baddie' is just as sheer class by the actor Ben Kingsley.
Some other thoughts while I am at it btw
The ego is the reward schedule, and that is how they motivate themselves, with little rewards along the way. That is why the ego is tolerated, it keeps people going, when it seems Architecture is the worst job in the world. Now here comes the cruch for me though, why don't Architects discuss, talk, ask each other? I have 5-6 thousand posts clocked up on Tech web forums, to improve that aspect of my job. I can assure you those forums are far from being easy places to sell your ideas/opinions on anything.
Advice to profession of Architecture: If necessary buy the knowledge that you require, don't be cheap when it comes to knowledge. Ask your way to success, when you have a good idea, become a negative thinker and put your idea under the scrutiny of people who will rip your idea to shreds.
Brian O' Hanlon.