Right now you can feel the collective angst in the air as millions of workers are fired as more and more robots begin to enter the picture. Everything is changing so rapidly as the world begins to take it’s next form. People are unsure of where to focus their attention and are fearful of sinking thousands of hours into a skill that might very well become redundant with the next ChatGPT update.
The only way to prepare for a world living alongside artificial intelligence is to develop a set of timeless skills that will forever be important as long as human beings exist on this planet.
We need to be able to relate to and understand one another as human beings. We must have an ability to cultivate a visceral understanding of other peoples view points and opinions. This doesn’t mean you have to agree with everyone you come across, but it does mean you need to be able to think deeply about circumstances and experiences that might’ve formed someones worldview. It isn’t until we’ve done this before we can have open and honest discussions as two people looking at two sides of the same coin.
You need to learn how to think and form your own opinions. This might sound silly but most of our opinions have been formed from things we may have just heard loosely on a podcast, a tweet or even a tiktok that we have now accepted as truth. We have closed our minds to the possibility that we might be missing a piece of crucial information that might actually change our stance on any one person or situation.
We need to ask more questions and feed our curiosity as much as possible. For now the machines answer the questions and execute on the problems. Whereas we’re the ones who have to dictate to these machines what we want them to do. Which means we must learn how to ask the right questions. To cultivate the curious mind you must think deeply and have an interest in how and why things work the way they do. The sooner we begin to dive into deeper levels of understanding across different areas of life, the sooner we will soon be able to make the previously unseen connections that will drive true innovation.
Understanding how to actively listen and communicate yourself is one of the most important skills to foster. We need to be able to convey ourselves through speech, body language and text. It is our social skills that will unlock the deeper levels of connection with one another. If we are too afraid to speak we will never be heard.
Over the next thirty years you might work hundreds of different jobs. You could be a mechanic today and a blacksmith in the metaverse tomorrow, you literally never know. We may also reach a point of so much abundance where humans never need to work again. In either scenario how would you cope with either outcome? How would you get through your days and find meaning in what you do? If we are not agile and able to adapt to the ever changing landscape we will unfortunately be left behind.
As Heraclitus once said “the only constant in life is change” and there’s a whole lot more of it coming over the next few decades. So don’t be afraid, accept it and learn to shape and use it to our advantage.
Good luck.