How can the youth be prepared for a future when the educational system is not up to date with the fast paced world? The big problem today in our world is that, exponential technological change is rendering so many things in terms of what the youth are learning obsolete. Close to 45% of jobs today will not exist 10 years from now. According to Singular University, by 2022, we are going to see as much technological change in the world as compared to the entire 100 years between 1900 and 2000.
So the idea is this, stop asking youths “What do you want to be when you grow up?” or “what do you want to study?” These are dangerous questions. They are wrong questions. These questions get youths stuck on an idea of their future for a world that will no longer exist. When you ask that to a kid, they are going to say “ I want to be a doctor, or maybe a teacher, or an engineer or maybe I want to get into marketing.” All of these jobs are changing because of robotics or artificial intelligence due to advance algorithm and emerging new technologies. These are changing at a rapid pace. Peter Diamonds said “Ten years from now, you will not want a doctor operating on you. You’re going to be operated on by robots.” But it’s just technological change. It’s also that, so many jobs today are not problem solving-oriented. They do not produce anything that’s actually valuable or progressing the human race. The best question to ask youths is “How do you want to contribute to the world when you grow up?” This question changes everything, as it doesn’t put them down a narrow path. Rather, it opens them to a whole field of possibilities and to a life that’s about meaning and contribution. They’re less likely to be seduced into an unproductive job selling more crap that we really don’t need.
What I aspire doing is solving today’s problems such as TRAFFIC with the use of Technology. It will open me up to a field of various possibilities such as programming, in which I can build up apps that calculate the shortest time possible to a destination or mechanical engineering in which I can install already built and programmed devices into a vehicle that calculate and show traffic or better still, I can work with a civil engineering company to construct roads of different speed limits for cars of respective limits, thereby reducing traffic and solving the problem. It’s about problem solving. When you ask the right questions, you help us get on the right path, you help the youth emerge into a life, into a career that actually gives back to the human species. And those are the careers that give us the greatest amount of fulfillment. These are the people the world needs today. If we take a look at great and emerging nations, we realize that they aimed at problem solving and not just getting into jobs.
If educational systems can all aim at solving problems, that is giving the students the opportunity to create solutions to problems they see around them using what they learn, it will cause students to enjoy what they study and get involved with an open mind to new possibilities, giving them great satisfaction. So remember, if you want to prepare youths for the future, ask them the right questions. “How do you want to contribute to the human race.”