I recently listened to an argument why mid- and late career professionals must continue to learn skills and cannot simply lean on their college degrees and acquired wisdom – what is generally current practice. Essentially the argument by futurist Dr. Harari (Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind) is:
to participate and communicate in society, this segment of our population will need to acquire necessary thinking, digital literacy (use AI) and communication skills to remain relevant.
This will be required to interact with younger generations who are on the precipitous of using AI in learning, working, playing, and everyday life.
I likened his argument to the one: go to college not only for career preparedness, but as a civic duty. A young adult needs critical thinking, social and communications skills to participate in society. I believe this is the central premise of a liberal arts college.
Personally, I like to learn and keep pace with the latest technologies, so I will evolve. However, I wonder how this might effect the larger population. Are we going to flip the dependency? Is the older generation going to depend on the younger generation for guidance and knowledge?
Of the many recent talks on workforce development and AI, the futurists (Harari, Musk, Dimon, Huang, etc.) all mention skills in their thesis.