A jar of moonbeams
Bruce Armstrong
New Direction - Boardgame Developer See launch of Zig Zag Tag on Kickstarter soon - if you like it, pledge it!
The 1944 Bing Crosby song, "Swinging on a Star" asks if you would like to swing on a star and carry moonbeams home in a jar and be better off than you are, or would you rather be a ...
The jar of moonbeams is a hope for a better life. But it comes at a price. You need to behave differently (than a mule, or pig, or fish, in the song). As we head towards 2020, the world is in the midst of its greatest change in 100 years. Some call it the Third Industrial Revolution. Whatever you call it, it is the biggest disruption to the office, factory, farm, hospital, bank, trades and manufacturing in five generations.
Low-tech industries will find their people are replaced by robots and machines. High-tech industries will use more advanced and responsive tools. AI will learn more quickly and produce more, at cheaper costs than humans can. Drones, brain reading devices, driverless cars, solar-powered homes will become common. But there's a downside - 47% of job titles that existed in 2013 won't in 2025.
But you know all this....
Most likely, like me, you work in a high tech world, and change is constant. So where does the jar of moonbeams come into the frame?
The jar of moonbeams is the hope that this change won't impact 'ME' before I retire. ME being the generations of workers who are mentally too old to re-train and start a new career. Many ME's will be in their 40's, 50's and 60's, some in their 30's and a few in their 20's. ME isn't an age, it's a life philosophy - the belief that the path I chose when I entered the workforce will be what I do for the rest of my working life.
The sad news for ME is that there's a near 50% chance that I won't make it to retirement in this career, especially if I'm in a trade, manufacturing or low-skilled job. The other sad news, is that many businesses and self-employed won't be aware or prepared for the change that's coming their way. When it comes they will hang on to the belief that they can "tough it out" and outlast the change - their jar of moonbeams.
It doesn't really matter what industry you are in, the Third Industrial Revolution will grip and change the entire business world by 2050. The rate of change will keep accelerating as we move through it. It will create 1000's of new businesses and millions of new jobs, but only those businesses that adapt and change will survive.
Right now, you might like the space you are in, and where your business is going. Knowing that change is coming and preparing for it is the logical thing to do. For many the first changes won't be in their field of expertise - it will be a cyberthreat, or attempt to extract information from your systems through social engineering, or an invoice scam. Any of which could break a business.
Not knowing what technology changes are coming and hoping they won't strike you is like holding a jar of moonbeams - a promise that will never deliver.