The world is changing at an increasing rate. Marc Andreeson, a very successful entrepreneur and investor, wrote an essay about 8 years ago titled “Why software is eating the world.” Any job that can be done by software, will be done by software. As technology advances, more and more of today’s jobs will be vulnerable to this threat. Along the same lines, any job that can be done repetitively, efficiently and 24 hours a day by a robot (programmed with software) will be done by a robot. Our physical world is continuing to merge with the digital world creating a connectedness that is both exciting and somewhat unnerving.
So what does this mean? Where are we headed?
This would be a far longer post if I had the answers 🙂 What I do believe is that the path forward will be forged by betting on yourself. Betting on the attributes, skills and creative gifts we as humans are all blessed with and maybe have forgotten a touch about. We are years (more likely decades) from software showing true kindness to a sick patient or capturing the perfect angle of a breathtaking sunset. As old jobs become obsolete, there are new jobs and lines of work that will blossom. The world did not stop when the printing press was invented, although the local scribes were probably pretty pissed.
If you’ve been avoiding putting your chips on the table, now is the time to bet on yourself.
Happy Friday!