Our Last Monday...and Networking
Sad but true. Our time here is almost over. Three weeks flies by so quickly. Anyway, on to business. Today we talked about Networking. Not the kind of networking you may be thinking of, however, where you make contacts within your profession. This kind of networking involves seeing the relationships between people, determining who to go to for trustworthy information, credibility, and also homophily (love of similarity).
So here in Hawaii, if I was going to go to someone for inside information, I would probably not want to go to someone who had only been here for a year or two, they would probably have a more monomorphic knowledge (they know a lot about one thing/you go to that person for information about one specific area of information). On the other hand, someone who has lived in Hawaii for a long time is probably going to have a more polymorphic knowledge (knowledgeable about multiple areas/bodies of knowledge).
We have seen networking play out here even today, when we got to surf at Barber's Point with some of the Surf the Nations crew. Pastor Young had a connection with people here in Hawaii, and was able to work out free surfing lessons with them. As the saying goes, "it's all about who you know."
Another example of someone with polymorphic knowledge is the cook who works here at the Pu'u Kahea conference center. He has lived in Hawaii for a long time and recommended the Hannara restaurant that the Intercultural Communication's class went to the Sunday before last. I'm sure he would have other good recommendations and a wide knowledge-base about Hawaii; especially cuisine.
In case you are wondering--I actually did not go surfing. I had no desire to paddle through the water, wait for mediocre waves, and go plummeting into the salty water, most likely snorting much of it into my nose. If you couldn't tell, I'm not much of a water-sports person.
So here in Hawaii, if I was going to go to someone for inside information, I would probably not want to go to someone who had only been here for a year or two, they would probably have a more monomorphic knowledge (they know a lot about one thing/you go to that person for information about one specific area of information). On the other hand, someone who has lived in Hawaii for a long time is probably going to have a more polymorphic knowledge (knowledgeable about multiple areas/bodies of knowledge).
We have seen networking play out here even today, when we got to surf at Barber's Point with some of the Surf the Nations crew. Pastor Young had a connection with people here in Hawaii, and was able to work out free surfing lessons with them. As the saying goes, "it's all about who you know."
Another example of someone with polymorphic knowledge is the cook who works here at the Pu'u Kahea conference center. He has lived in Hawaii for a long time and recommended the Hannara restaurant that the Intercultural Communication's class went to the Sunday before last. I'm sure he would have other good recommendations and a wide knowledge-base about Hawaii; especially cuisine.
In case you are wondering--I actually did not go surfing. I had no desire to paddle through the water, wait for mediocre waves, and go plummeting into the salty water, most likely snorting much of it into my nose. If you couldn't tell, I'm not much of a water-sports person.
Comments