How to become into a high-class specialist who is always in demand?
“I graduated from my universities.” This is the phrase used by some adults who are offered to study some new textbook. Others understand that the world does not stand still, and therefore it is necessary to improve in the profession. Despite the difference, both of these groups overlook the fact that modern man needs to constantly learn fundamental knowledge. A person’s skill consists of intelligence (mental mastery) and profession. Intelligence develops at the expense of fundamental knowledge, and mainly at the university. And then, usually on the received foundation, the specialist improves in the profession.
But that was the case in the last century. Now people are changing professions much more often. If earlier a person had one profession for a lifetime, now he will be able to change 5–10 professions for a lifetime. The main competitive advantage of a modern person is not so much a profession, but rather intelligence, due to which he quickly copes with the new. For example, he solves new tasks faster, learns a new profession faster and finds ways out of difficult life situations. That’s why a modern person, in addition to his profession, needs to keep in mind the systematic development of his intellect. And this requires modern fundamental knowledge.
A modern person will have to get a higher education up to 5 times in a lifetime to make this life interesting, successful and happy. In order to always be in demand, you will need to get a higher education every 7–10 years. Or constantly acquire fundamental knowledge, along with applied ones. In our fast world, even fundamental knowledge began to change so quickly. Intelligence can be represented by analogy as an iPhone firmware (operating system), and professions — as numerous applications (Programs). Without modern firmware, new applications on the iPhone do not work. It’s the same with our brain. Therefore, we say: “Systematically upgrade your firmware!”.
Further you will see a squeeze from the book “Introduction to Systems Thinking” section “How to become a highly qualified specialist who is always in demand”, where it is described in more detail what role fundamental knowledge plays today and how to cope with modern problems and complex projects.
How to become into a high-class specialist who is always in demand?
What is the path of development of a highly qualified specialist? For example, an IT developer, product manager, development director or system engineer.
The trajectory of the development of a sought-after person in business is about the same. The basis is a good education. After all, while a person is gnawing the granite of a complex science, his intellect is developing. Therefore, it is very likely that we are talking about technical specialization and/or fundamental education in the field of natural sciences. And then he will have a thorny path along the career steps, in which training takes place in practice, including from experienced mentors or in the framework of cool projects. From time to time, skills are pumped through short-term applied courses.
However, exceptions are increasingly appearing in the world. There is no substitute for primary and secondary education, except that it began to be given in private kindergartens and schools. But higher education is losing its former prestige, and often young people prefer to gain knowledge directly in project activities. Many will remember examples of successful entrepreneurs who dropped out of Harvard in the last century for their startup.
But it is unlikely that the path of Gates, Zuckerberg or Branson can be repeated. It is impossible to count the number of people who dropped out of university for work, but they did not succeed. Nevertheless, it is impossible not to notice such a trend: many cool IT specialists do not have a higher education. And based on this example, we can make a good guess.
There is a reason for this behavior, and the reason for this is that fundamental education around the world does not correspond to the trends of the time. IT is a relatively new field, and the fundamental education on which applied IT competencies should be built has not changed in any way. If we talk about Russia, then this is a MechMath and CMC MSU or Phystech.
From here we can make a strong statement that STEM as a standard of high-quality fundamental education is outdated. It is for this reason that many (not only in IT) reasonably believe: in order to become a specialist, it is better to immediately invest time in practice, and not spend it on the old firmware of intelligence at the university.
However, life is still difficult to deceive. Life skill consists of intelligence and applied skill (specialization). We need both. Narrow specialization, even in entrepreneurship or programming, has high risks. A narrow-profile specialist usually becomes a hostage of his experience. And the world is changing rapidly and therefore applied knowledge is rapidly becoming obsolete. Only intelligence allows you to quickly notice changes and cope with new problems. Including retraining and endlessly developing in order to always remain in demand.
Thus, it is impossible to do without fundamental education, which is designed to enhance intelligence. Therefore, Aisystant offers a new standard of 17 transdisciplines.
Lifelong learning should include programs to enhance intelligence. It is impossible to study only applied practices or soft skills. People aged 30–35 years are recommended to upgrade their fundamental firmware to speed up brain work. And to cope with modern problems and complex projects. But these should not be outdated university programs, but modern sota-transdisciplines.
And one more amendment to the training program. Such an upgrade of intelligence should occur simultaneously with the implementation of work projects. Fundamental education can be obtained simultaneously with the training of applied specialization by implementing work projects. This technique is used at Aisystant, so you will need to do your homework using examples of your work projects, and if necessary, master the necessary applied practices.
