The American Philosopher John Dewey once said.. “If we teach today’s students as we taught yesterday’s, we rob them of tomorrow.”
Which is exactly true in this rapidly changing world we live in today. We live in the midst of a Digital Revolution. Technology is changing exponentially faster and faster everyday.
We have computers teaching computers!
If you look up Moore’s Law it says that the number of transistors on a microchip doubles about every two years and the cost of computers is halved. This observation is linked to other tech too like RAM and pixel size in cameras etc.
This has had a major impact on almost everything you can think of.
In “The Digital Revolution” everything that can be digitalized is and will be digitalized.
We all know this. You can think of at least one example without me having to bring one up.. but I will anyway.
Does anyone remember Blockbuster Video? Maybe that’s too far back for some of you. What about Redbox?
What ever happened to those guys? You know what happened to them?
They became OBSOLETE.
They were no longer needed in this world today.
You know.. The world has always been changing. I’m not talking about Global Warming.
I’m talking about people and societies. Industries, religions, yada yada yada.
All that Jazz.
The only constant is change.
So we’re kinda in this crazy mix of 2 things here..“The Industrial Age” and “The Digital Age”.
The Industrial Age brought in a major accumulation of wealth
due to increased business worldwide. Opening the gates for capitalism.
With the increase in production and commerce there needed to
be a work force behind it. This workforce had to be highly productive and efficient.
This meant factories with machines, assembly lines and interchangeable parts. In the factory, people became like the
interchangeable parts.
They only had one specific function and that’s it. If you didn’t function properly you were replaced.
Most people before The Industrial Revolution were farmers and
had pretty hard lives. So when the factories came around they were
eager to be employed.
The supply of people willing to work and the factories’ demand of those same people created an all new demand.
Schools.
The factories demanded competent and compliant workers.
Life tends to imitate life and this is one example.
This is why schools are based on the factory model. To seamlessly fill those factories.
Society as a whole began to adopt the same model. Societies became machines instead of acting like ant colonies or bee hives. Or like Tribes.
Everything became compartmentalized.
Everyone had to be compliant and follow the rules. No questions asked. Just do your job and do it damn fast. Learn what we teach you and that’s it.
Fear Authority in fear of losing your job. Don’t think outside of the box aka the factory.
Don’t think.
Just remember what we teach you.
But don’t think.
And if you do think, you better not fucking speak up about it, damn it.
In today’s world we’re starting to see a change. Technology has completely flipped the script. We no longer have to subject our entire lives to this outdated model.
In fact, it’s our duty to help pivot out of it.
Technology and Artificial Intelligence is kicking us out of
the factories. Tech is kicking us out of the driver’s seat. It’s taking
us off the cash registers.
Technology is taking our jobs and there’s nothing we can do about it.
Except, evolve. We can change.
We can pivot.
Within our hyper evolving world there is a demand for this change.
There’s some speculation that 40 percent of the jobs that people work today won’t exist completely or will shrink by 2030.
My first job was a paperboy when I was like 11. That doesn’t really exist anymore. Pretty much the same story for the newspaper itself and all the jobs the newspaper factory provided.
As this change occurs new jobs are popping up.
Jobs like drone operators and drone technicians.
And with all the new attention grabbing tech there will be
“Digital Detox Therapists” for people who are addicted to their cell
phones!!
Dell Technologies said that today’s students will have 8 to 10 jobs by 2030.
The tech takeover is here. No sector is immune to it.
More speculation suggests 80 percent of jobs of tomorrow don’t exist today.
What’s our move gonna be?
The best thing to be is inter-disciplined and flexible.
Anyone who is highly skilled but only in one specific position will have to adapt and evolve with the times.
It didn’t used to be like that.
Now it’s better to have a set of keys rather than one key as we open “The Doors of The Future”.
With so much changing so fast what once worked for us no longer works today.
And tomorrow.. Who knows?
Who really freakin’ knows?
We do, that’s who.
Or we will.
Maybe we don’t know just yet but we will figure it out
because the old maps of the world are obsolete. They’re no good, anymore.
We HAVE to figure it out.
We must.
The maps of tomorrow haven’t been written yet. It’s up to us to draw up the new maps.
It’s up to us to explore the new world and stake claim of new prospects.
Of new horizons.
It’s up to us to find the internal compass we were born with
and dust it off. To become familiar with it once again and let it guide us on our voyage.
It’s up to us to learn to navigate by The Stars like our Ancestors did and trust our curiosity.
On our Epic Odyssey we must be Brave. Brave enough to enter The Darkness.
The Unknown.
The Abyss.
This is where we will find our North Star.
In The Unexplored. In The Journey itself.
It’s just like The Legend of Zelda for Super NES.
As you explore the forest you acquire assets. Weapons and Armor. Magic Elixirs and Fairies that can heal you.
You gain knowledge. You gain turf. You form alliances and build rapport within the community.
You gain strength and confidence.
You use your compass to draw out a map and you kick all the bad guys asses.
And In The End..
You save the princess.
Duh.
I wrote this newsletter on July 1, 2020.
This is my first and only newsletter so far but I will be posting one every other week from here on out.