Generation Wired…and Wise?
by Matthew Gilbert
Wisdom and technology had their friendly faceoff at the second annual Wisdom 2.0 conference as some of Silicon Valley’s finest mixed comfortably with a trio of mindfulness masters and an audience of new media pioneers. And if those in the sold-out crowd (or among the 130,000 who watched the streamed version) had any question of what they were in for, Zynga co-founder Eric Schiermeyer quickly reminded them: “In order to succeed in business, forget an MBA. Learn how to be mindful.”
The theme of mindfulness weaved its way throughout the conference, in no small part because of the presence of Jon Kabat-Zinn, renowned scientist-author and founding director of the Center for Mindfulness at the University of Massachusetts. His wry and sometimes solemn mien gave the event some necessary gravitas, assisted by Zen Abbot Joan Halifax (who attended the 2010 conference) and popular Buddhist meditation teacher Jack Kornfield. The juxtaposition of their collective wisdom against the relatively nascent spiritual impulses of the other speakers provided some helpful perspective – not to take anything away from anyone on stage or in attendance. Everyone seemed passionately immersed in their own journey of exploring how to wisely co-exist with an explosion of technological tools that are re-defining what it means to be connected – and, in some cases, to be human.
Great article about the groundbreaking Wisdom 2.0 conference.
