Blessed are the geek, for they will inherit the Earth
Yes, you’ve read it right. That was not a typo. Although the phrase originally came from the Bible and mentioned “meek” instead of “geek”, the latter is more relevant in the context of the present time. And it doesn’t contradict with the former either. Although word “meek” is often perceived as being the same as “weak”, it is not entirely correct. A war horse can be very powerful, but will be meek in terms of being controllable by a skilled rider and being reliable. That is not so different from what geek is.
Indeed, a geek is someone who studies how something works in-depth and is determined to do things properly when this knowledge needs to be applied. A good geek is the best and the most reliable worker you can find. It is someone who is a skillful subject matter expert, enjoys what he does and doesn’t take any shortcuts. It is someone who humbly studied and practiced something that many people find very hard to do without letting their ego get in the way. So yes, a good geek is someone who can, almost certainly, be described as meek, but, due to the perseverance required to be a master at anything, such person is probably not weak.
And indeed, these are the people who will inherit the Earth, as they are the ones who will occupy the positions of power and influence. They are the ones who know in depth how a very specific part of physical reality work, so they will outcompete anyone else in that specific area. They are the ones who are doing today what others won’t, so tomorrow they will do what the others can’t. And, in our digital society of today, geeks can become much more powerful than they ever were.
Remember that nerd you bullied in school?
Kids who are interested in complex technical subjects get bullied in school, and this is not always because such people are socially awkward. In many cases, technical adepts, or nerds as people prefer to call them, are just as social as anyone else to start with, but over time, they develop social awkwardness because of constant harassment.
You may even be a person who took part in bullying some geek at your school, as, unfortunately, such pastime is very popular among the school kids. If that’s what you were, I want you to recall how it all happened. I bet that at the beginning, the fact that some guy in your class was very enthusiastic about computers (or science) didn’t really bother you. However, after some time, you have noticed that other people in your class started making jokes about this guy’s hobbies, so you have succumbed to the peer pressure and started making fun of him yourself. Now, I’ll tell you why this happened. Society conditions people for mediocrity and it starts from the early age by demonising those who can do what others can’t.
Of course, bullying of geeks doesn’t always happen. Geek is a term that can be applied to anyone who is highly enthusiastic about something and studies this particular subject diligently. People who obsessively practice mixed martial arts can also be classed as geeks, but you wouldn’t bully one of them, would you? I dare you! The truth is, however, that many people out there do secretly wish for something bad to happen to those athletes as well. Envy is a big part of human nature and this is what often drives people to hurt each other. This is precisely why tech or science geeks are the ones who usually become a target for bullying. People do realise, whether it is consciously or subconsciously, that these people are quite likely to do well for themselves in later life and, as a result, the envious people are determined to hurt those geeks while they can.
Such behaviour is especially widespread in poorer areas, as elite schools in wealthy areas encourage kids to be adept at something complex. This is why those who graduate from good schools tend to be much softer, nicer and support liberal policies that appear to be helping the poor. People who graduate from poor school are different. In most of the cases, one of few things happen to those kids who came from poor background and had to endure harassment in their early life for being better at something than their peers. Some give up their original hobbies and proceed to become a part of the grey crowd. Some develop social awkwardness and have a tough life as a result. A small number of those kids, however, grow a thick skin and become really successful and influential.
Although in the minority, the latter category of geeks are the ones who can actually give their school bullies a massive payback, albeit indirectly. In the best case scenario, those will be the people who will vote for and, perhaps, financially support “screw the poor” category of right-leaning policies. In the worst-case scenario, they may use their power and influence to actively make changes that will actually harm the poor communities, such as opening a short-term loan or gambling company.
Believe it or not, people like these sleep well at night. Despite the fact they came from poverty, they aren’t really betraying their own. They have used their skills to build a good life for themselves and they have probably already taken care of their families and close friends. They are no longer at the bottom of the socio-economic ladder either, so working class is no longer the group they see themselves as being members of. However, when they think about working class, they probably associate it with all of hard time that they have received while they were at school. They want to have a good life just like anyone else, but they don’t mind doing it at the expense of the people who they associate with the part of their life they would rather forget. Often, their own conscience remains clean, as the business such individuals operate often rely on their customers making their own bad choices. After all, nobody is forcing you to take a high-interest loan or spend your weekly wage on gambling.
So, if you are still at school and there is a book worm that you regularly bully, it is in your own interest to stop the madness and tell others to do so too. If you let him be, you’ll maximise the chance that this person will contribute towards something genuinely helpful for the society. If you leave things as they are, you may create a monster with no compassion for people like you who, one day, will come up with something that will ruin some people’s lives.
In some cases, you don’t even have to wait for the bullied nerd to grow up to experience his real might in full. If it is a computer geek, for example, he can just hack some of your accounts and make your life hell right now. So, watch out. Those glasses-wearing book worms are much more dangerous than they look.
Oh yeah, and I would watch out for Elon Musk. The guy is a truly bad-ass geek, he has a massive amount of influence and he was heavily bullied when he was young. Who knows whether he has ever forgiven his bullies and, if not, what he has in store for people like them?
If you have no advanced skills, AI will replace you
If you can’t beat the geeks, the only option is to join them. And join them you must if you want any chance of surviving in a modern workplace, where more and more jobs are being replaced by artificial intelligence and other, simpler, forms of automation.
You have probably already heard how automation is going to replace human workers and destroy many jobs. After all, press absolutely has to push the negative narrative, because negativity pays. However, this message is not new. Various people have been spreading the fear of automation making people unemployed since the earliest days of the industrial revolution. However, quite the opposite has actually happened, and, based on this, there is no reason to believe that the next wave of automation will be any different.
A number of decades ago, “computer” and “calculator” were actual job titles. Those were just people who were good at maths that were paid to solve complex numerical problems. When the actual computational machines were in their infancy, the idea was that the machines would replace those professions. And replace them they did. However, nobody was forced to become unemployed in the process.
While computers were originally designed solely to be machines that can perform complex calculations much faster than humans, they have eventually evolved to perform a huge variety of other tasks that nobody would have even been able to imagine back then. Without a doubt, smart technologies have enriched our lives. They have also led to creations of types of jobs that could not have even been conceived few decades ago. Who would have thought in the 1960s that there would be such a thing as a search engine and that countless companies would employ search engine optimisation specialists so they can be easily found online? Who would have known that a meek calculating machine would evolve into a source of education, entertainment and work for most of us?
There is no reason to assume that the same will not happen with the advancements in the AI. Yes, it is easy to see how certain jobs will be made obsolete once AI takes over. However, as certain tasks that are currently mundane and time-consuming will be automated away, bright industrious minds will have more time to conceive other uses for AI that are currently beyond imagination. Even the most advanced AI doesn’t operate on it’s own. Human intervention is required to either check on it or direct it. Therefore, new uses for AI will surely create a demand for new types of skilled jobs.
There is a catch though. If you never got to develop any skills and if you work in a job where no special skills are required, your job will almost certainly be automated away. In this case, it will not be pretty, as you will actually be forced into unemployment. Jobs that aren’t too complex are the first ones to be automated and the only reason why they haven’t been already is because, in many cases, it’s still cheaper to employ people. However, with smart technologies becoming more accessible and with increased push to force employers to pay no less than so-called “living wage”, the situation is due to change soon.
However, there is a way of thriving in a AI-dominated economy and that is to geek out on something that is in-demand. I am sure that virtually everyone is capable of finding something that they can make themselves enthusiastic about that they can also earn money from. Yes, there is still a risk that whatever set of skills you have chosen to develop also gets subjected to automation. But it is still better than having no skills at all. When you diligently study and practice something, you gain a number of transferable side-skills in the process, so if your core skills are no longer in demand, you can always build up new abilities on top of the existing ones. Alternatively, if you know a particular job in and out, you can change your profession from doing things yourself to guiding robots on how to do it. So, don’t despair. The AI will only out-compete you if you will let it to.
Programmers is a new investment banker
Fortunately, there is one profession that is virtually immune to being automated away. This is mainly because this is the profession that is responsible for automating everything else away. And, although it requires some learning and practice to get into, it doesn’t necessarily require any specific type of formal education. It is, indeed, one of the least bureaucratic fields known to man. On top of all of the above, it also pays pretty well. This profession is a software developer.
Programmer is indeed the ultimate geek. For decades, it’s exactly those who are interested in programming who were bullied in schools. However, as we are now literally surrounded by smart technology, these days the profession is often seen as sexy. Investment banker used to be one of the sexiest professions, but after the global financial meltdown of 2008, nobody wants to be an investment banker anymore. All smart kids who are good at crunching numbers and who want to get paid well for that go into software now.
Unlike investment banking, software industry is safe from any crisis. Sure, something may happen to a particular segment of it. When banks suffered from the crisis, many companies that wrote software for banks have suffered too. However, software is everywhere, so, as a software developer, you can just relocate to an industry that is thriving if the outlook on your current industry is not looking good. Your job will not fundamentally change regardless of what type of product you are making.
The mere fact that software is everywhere creates a demand for software developers that is difficult to meet. For sure, this is what keeps programmers’ salaries consistently high. However, this is also what has lowered the barrier to entry into the industry over the last few decades. Sure, the job of a software developer is not for everyone. However, becoming one is easier than ever. Because the demand for programmers is so high, formal qualifications are sometimes seen as hindrance. Your ability to actually code is much more important and, as long as you can demonstrate that your programming skills will match what a particular job requires, you’ll get that job.
Of course, even as you don’t require formal programming qualifications to enter the industry, you still need to spend several hours learning how to code. But how would you know whether programming is something that you can thrive at if you’ve never done it before? There is one tell-tale sign. If you are good at playing strategy games on computer and enjoy the process, you can be a good programmer. The cognitive process involved in building software is very similar to the thought process involved in playing strategy games. And no, you don’t have to be particularly good at maths. Logical thinking is what you actually must be good at, but this is a skill that you can build with consistent practice, just like you can build a muscle.
TL;DR: take-home message
Geeks, i.e. the people who diligently study and practice something hard, will be the ones who will rise to the top. If you are a teenager who likes to bully geeks, you should stop right now. First of all, you are expressing your own weaknesses and insecurities by taking it out on those who can do stuff you can’t. Secondly, the guy who you are bullying may, one day, use his skills to hurt people like you or yourself personally. Don’t instill hate in someone who is tech-savvy.
As you know, AI is slowly automating away those jobs that don’t require any particular skills. Therefore, you may hate it, but the only way to survive in AI-dominated economy is to become a geek yourself. Things that require genuine skills are difficult to automate. One skill in particular that is completely safe from automation is programming and if you want to become a software developer, now is the time. The barriers to entry into the industry are lower than they have ever been and the salaries are still high.
