087: Evergreen Skills (Takeaways)
On timeless skills and knowledge.
Last month, I posed three questions.
The first was about timeless knowledge.
Your (excellent!) replies have since helped clarify my thinking. This is a video response to your responses.
Context: A great deal of energy is spent analyzing the parts of our world that are changing. But what about the things that are not changing? What skills and qualities are most likely to remain valuable and relevant over the long term?
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On the society level:
Where should we invest our education resources?
On a personal level:
How can I prepare my son for the future?
One reader (Chris) writes in :
I don't think higher education as it currently exists in the broadest sense is a going concern with a 100-year life expectancy. At some point we're going to have to unravel the shit-show of debt, privilege, and nepotism that has created it, and when that happens, things are going to change.
They're already changing, to some degree. As the world gets more and more networked, "what you can do" will become more and more important than "what are your credentials."
I'm enthusiastic about infinite diversity in infinite combinations. Thanks, Spock. I've encountered beauty in an accounting class, and I've sharpened my thinking in poetry classes. I don't agree with the STEM absolutists any more than I agree with the liberal arts apologists. Yes, and.
To stretch a little: I think our STEM-mania might be an indirect reflection of our wack-ass healthcare financing system. The greatest financial and existential threat to most American middle-class adults is not being able to afford healthcare for yourself or your family. So we have to rush to find the lowest beta path to personal security."
I learn a lot from readers!
In the same series :