Beyond Specialisations - Go Broad
“I will likely see technologies in my lifetime that appear unimaginable to me today” - Max Roser
Technology can dramatically change the world within a lifetime.?
The data visualization by Max Roser brings to light the extra ordinarily fast rate of technological change. The history of technology in the graph opposite accelerates in a manner that from 1900 onwards the timeline needed to be stretched out, to show the rapidity with which the changes have taken place.?What are the concomitant impacts of this change acceleration on our mental frame? What do we need in our toolkit to navigate a future of rapidly shifting dunes??
Alvin Toffler in his pathbreaking book “Future Shock” described the requirement of accepting impermanence to be future ready.?
“Transience” will radically affect our relationships, our work, and our mental health. We live in an age of bewilderment where technical skills expire as the stories they built collapse, only to be replaced by new narratives requiring a different skillset to build. Change is always stressful and such accelerated change, even more so. We aren’t ready to overhaul deep structures of our identity and personality. The dune has shifted - we haven’t.?
To navigate transience - we need to stay relevant. We must be able to: -?
????????????-???????????Learn new things.?
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????????????-???????????Deal with change.
????????????-???????????Preserve our mental balance in unfamiliar situations.
????????????-???????????Re-invent ourselves over and over again.
Since we don’t really know what particular skill people will need in the future, we need to emphasize the building of general-purpose life skills to ride the perpetuality of transience: -
????????????-???????????Critical Thinking.
????????????-???????????Creativity.
????????????-???????????Communication.
????????????-???????????Collaboration.
In a world of increasingly rapid change, we need a broad range of experiences to widen our ability to not just withstand but instead flourish in an ever-changing, complex, multi-dimensional world.??So, beyond specializations - go broad. Then the shifting dunes won’t be as daunting as they seem today.??
Kathak Exponent & Educator. Founder Director Divyakala. Performer, TEDx Speaker, Writer, Storyteller.
2 年Impermanence, transience, change... has become the constant. We truly need to reinvent ourselves rapidly, like the changing seasons, to remain in the present and be prepared for the future. The four C's are the key for sure.
Vice President - Recruitment (Operations) | Military Veteran
2 年The next levels of technological advancement like AI and ML have been firmly established, machines are no longer just dumb innovations. There is certainly a wide gap between technology and the level to which we humans have upgraded to keep pace with the ever-changing world (rapidly shifting dunes) and to develop psychologically to adapt as well.
GM @ Hindustan Zinc, Vedanta | Head Government Relations & Estate | Corporate Affairs | Strategic Planning | Agile Leadership | Stakeholders Management | Community Relations
2 年What a beautiful thought. I deeply believe in this concept of remaining Agile and creative than get fixated by tools n skills with short lifecycles