How You To Survive The Robot Invasion
At least at work
Replacement of Jobs and the Need for Lifelong Learning
In 2017, the McKinsey Global Institute conducted a study to see how robot automation would displace jobs. It concluded that by 2030, over 800 million jobs would be lost worldwide. Such projections have made a lot of people concerned if the future will have any work for them.
Automation is coming and there is no way of stopping it. The good news here is that it may not be as bleak as you think. There has been job disruption and automation before and the employment rate has roughly stayed the same.
Similarly, it is expected that with the increase in presence and ability of AI and robots, we will see workers taking on new jobs. Many of which have not even been created yet. The question we need to ask ourselves is how do we now prepare for it?
I am no technology expert, but I have become obsessed with this question for the few months. There seems to be some disparity among experts of how things will turn out. However, they all have agreed on one thing. Those who will be the most successful in a world full of robots are those who are adaptable and committed to lifelong learning.
I’ve discussed the principle of lifelong learning before. This time, I want you to walk away with a plan.
Valued Skills and the Development of New Roles
There are four skill types that will affect the jobs of the future: human relationships, judgment, technical and art. Human relationships are understanding how people work and interact with them. Judgment is having the expertise to make decisions with the information you have and the goals you set. Technical is being able to work with and program machines to do what you want and common people interacting with machines to achieve their goals. Art is the creation of something original. It is a gift from the creator to the observer. All jobs that will be exchanged and created will require skills in all four roles.
Human Relations
There is nothing that a person wants more than to feel connected to other human beings. As such, the skills you will need to acquire are in empathy, communication, and kindness. These may not seem like real skills, but being able to connect with another person and make them feel something, can mean a lot.
If you want to develop this skill, you need to spend time around people. Personally, I think the best place to develop human relation skills is at a Toastmasters club. If you don’t know what Toastmasters is, it is an organization that helps people be better speakers and leaders. You meet up regularly and take on different roles like speaker or evaluator. There are other such clubs, but this is the one I would recommend.
Judgment
Ajay Agrawal, Josuah Gans and Avi Goldfarb claim in their book Prediction Machines: The Economics of Artificial Intelligence that AI will just make prediction cheaper. Using AI to accomplish a task just means that we now see it as a prediction problem.
However, they continue by arguing that prediction is only part of decision making. Prediction creates knowledge and awareness, but it must be accompanied by judgment. For example, current AI systems can read the results of CT and MRI scans looking for tumors with higher accuracy than a radiologist. However, one thing that the AI cannot replace is the radiologist’s expertise in determining treatment. That still requires judgment.
If you want to acquire judgment than you to acquire the expertise. This means reading and studying a lot. Study your specific topic extensively, but make sure you take time for others as well.
Technical
This is probably the most obvious one, but I think the easiest to get overwhelmed with. Coding is a good skill to learn, but it isn’t for everyone. The technical skills required can be anything from controlling a machine to working with an app on your phone. This requires awareness and training.
Learning technical skills can be hard if you don’t know what you would need in your field. In this case, I would search and then see if you can get some training. If you are able to work with technology, you make yourself that much more valuable.
Art
Art probably stands out as the most contrasting to technical world. But creating art is important. A few weeks ago, I talked about this idea of why you should create art. Seth God describes art as something made by human and is gift.
Yes, we will still want entertainment, but art is much more than that. It is innovation and creative thinking. It is creating something people will remember.
I don’t think you can learn how to do art but is more so practiced. It requires to think outside of your job description or your daily tasks. If your art requires you to learn a specific skill, then learn it. Then apply your expertise to do something your own or collaborate with a colleague.
Your Plan
Now that you understand the basic skills you will need and how to get them, you need to make a plan. How are you going to keep up life-long learning? I wish I could lay out detailed instructions for how and what you should do, but that is up to you. Your goals and priorities.
The most important thing to remember is that we are not entirely sure about the future until it is the present. Don’t feel like you have to have it all figured out. Get your idea and then work with it. Then adjust as you go.
The old saying goes “when one door closes, another one opens”. We should all remember that as we are facing the future of work. There will be a lot of closed doors, but you just need to be ready to jump through the next open one.
Call To Action
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