Research by the McKinsey Global Institute has looked at the kind of jobs that will be lost, as well as those that will be created, as automation, AI, and robotics take hold. And it has inferred the type of high-level skills that will become increasingly important as a result. The need for manual and physical skills, as well as basic cognitive ones, will decline, but demand for technological, social and emotional, and higher cognitive skills will grow…
— from “McKinsey: These are the skills you will need for the future of work” posted to the weforum.org website, June 28, 2021.
For some absurd reason, I found myself reading an article… purportedly about the future… on a website called “weforum.org”.
“weforum” as in, “World Economic Forum”. Based in Davos, Switzerland.
“These are the skills you will need for the future of work.” That was the article’s absurd headline.
I have chosen the word “absurd”, because I’m not the slightest bit interested in the skills I will need to remain employed in the future.
I want to be unemployed in the future.
Unemployed… as in, sitting on a beach in Belize, drinking mojitos, and discussing investments, over the phone, with my stockbroker. As in, ladies in skimpy swimsuits walking by, wondering if I’m actually a secret agent talking with CIA headquarters over a secure line.
That kind of ‘unemployed in the future’.
We understand, however, that many people are still concerned about the skills they will need to remain employed in the future… and we understand that the World Economic Forum is likewise concerned about the skills Multinational Corporations will be seeking, to keep the wheels of Consumer Capitalism churning.
Of course, my trips to Belize will be an important aspect of Consumer Capitalism. It’s not like I have anything against Consumer Capitalism. So long as the mojitos keep coming.
But I’m getting off track. I wanted to say something about the “weforum.org” article mentioned above, written by four employees of McKinsey Global Institute — Marco Dondi, Julia Klier, Frédéric Panier, and Jörg Schubert — who probably hope to be employed in the future. The McKinsey statisticians identified 56 “Foundational Skills” that will make it more likely to obtain a job with a Multinational Corporation, or with the governments they control.
Mainly, though, I’m concerned about the photograph World Economic Forum chose to illustrate the article.
This one:
The caption for the photo (by photographer Avel Chuklanov) reads: “Citizens will need new skills in order to become ‘future-proof’ in the workplace.”
Doesn’t look much like the future to me. For one thing, the calendar sitting on the table says “September 2015”. That was, like, six years ago. And the book displayed in the upper right-hand corner, The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell, was published in 2002 and now sells on Amazon (used hardcover) for as little as $1.49.
I’m also bothered by the cup of tea. Is our future going to be devoid of coffee?
The woman is wearing a watch… (I assume this is a woman, apparently married)… a watch that looks suspiciously like the ordinary type that doesn’t connect to the internet. Most importantly, there is no smart phone in the picture. Did she leave it in the kitchen when she was making her tea? If so, she will miss the text message from her boss, telling her about an important Zoom meeting at 1pm.
Personally, I would be completely happy if “the future” looks like 2015. That would mean my MacBook is only three years old. (Instead of 10 years old.)
The World Economic Forum article featured another illustration, displaying the “56 Foundational Skills” citizens will need, according to four employees of McKinsey Global Institute. (I counted the skills, and there are indeed 56 listed. As President Reagan once said, “Trust, but verify.”)
These are all very interesting foundational skills. The list doesn’t completely align, however, with the illustration of the woman in the photograph, who appears to be choosing a block of text with the “Control-A” keyboard shortcut. “Familiarity with keyboard shortcuts” is not in the list, for some reason. An oversight?
I looked over the list, and I feel I could qualify for most types of future work, except possibly those that require “Humility.” Is that really going to be necessary?
But like I said before, “work” isn’t part of my imagined future.
The experts at McKinsey Global Institute seem, however, to have missed some really important skills citizens will need, even if they prefer drinking tea and reading outdated non-fiction books.
I am thinking specifically about, “Can take orders from a poorly-programmed robot, without losing one’s temper.”
Also, “Can repair a robot damaged by a co-worker who lost his temper.”
Important future skills, I suspect.