Reinvent or decay...

#rightchoice #careerdilemmas #shivshivakumar #howtolearn #learntosucceed #learntolead #committedtolearning #lifelonglearner

Much of this blog is about the influence of the book by title The Right Choice by Shiv Shivkumar. I had read this book as I was asked to present this book in the BDB Book Club's virtual version when the book club restarted its work after Covid.

Around the time I was also reading Yuval Noah Harari's book and listening to his YouTube lectures. This specific blog is from the notes from these two events.

In our careers we face many dilemmas. But ten dilemmas are very important to deal with carefully and make right choices.

We all are facing a dilemma, irrespective of the stage of our careers, right now.

This dilemma is will our current skills set carry us forward? How far and how long?

Please listen to what Harari has to say

21st Century is the century of disruptions.

Generative AI is evolving rapidly. Chat GPT, GPT-4 and more are on the way....

And what skills are getting redundant is impossible to gauge.

Hence, it's very important for us, the individuals to be ready to disrupt ourselves - to unlearn the redundant skills, modify behaviors that are dysfunctional and relearn and readjust - all in a jiffy, almost!

That's what is coming. Are we mentally flexible? Are we learning to learn?

In this context, I would like to discuss some of the major career dilemmas:

Let's listen to Shiv.

World is changing faster than before; so does our life including career...

Earlier - we "studied" for 25 years and worked for 35 years and stayed retired for another 15+ years... or more!

Average life expectancy has increased. In our generation we are more likely to live 80 years plus!

And every few months technology is changing.

So is the 25 years of studying good enough to see us through?

Shiv posits that the model relevant now is 25 years of study with 50 years of continuous learning, to stay relevant.

Continuous learning is important and essential because business/management concepts have less and less shelf life as technological evolution keeps modifying those concepts.

In Shiv's own words "It is no longer the past perfect that is important, but the future ready is more important and relevant"

Being digital savvy is very important.

We can learn from anyone - good and bad bosses and peers!

However, its important to know our own learning styles: do I learn by reading, listening, or doing it myself or a combination? It's important to understand this to design our own upskilling plan.

One need to be willing to shed the useless baggage of past through unlearning, and have the commitment to learn and upskill.

Today, access is not the problem, but learning attitude is!

I know all is the surest form of career suicide.

Let's not get carried away by the 'brand image' the institutes from where we learn. Let's focus on the relevance of the content and the sync between teaching and our learning style.

In summary - let's be ready to learn, unlearn and relearn - what is relevant, in a way we learn best and apply the learning and progress. And be ready to do it all over again, and again and again...

Happy learning everyday!