Daily Inspiration: “We now live in an era in which everybody is an expert at everything, and yet has actual expertise in almost nothing!”

“We now live in an era in which everybody is an expert at everything, and yet has actual expertise in almost nothing!” – Futurist Jim Carroll

Societies and nations have a big problem going forward tt – in the absence of reality, how will progress to the opportunities of the future be stymied?

During a recent client keynote, I was asked what I thought was the biggest impact of the global pandemic in the long term? My answer? The inability of people, regions, countries, or companies to accept the reality of that which surrounds them. Take the world of manufacturing, for example: going forward, it evolves to a massively hi-tech industry based on IIot, advanced robotics, 3d printing, mass customization, and much more. It is less ‘manufacturing’ as we know it, and more an orchestrated dance of hi-tech automation managed by experts in data and process management.

All of this involves a continued acceleration of skills – in an oft-used quote that I used on stage, “it’s almost as if today’s manufacturing worker needs to be able to do trigonometry in their heads.” That skill level is becoming a  reality, and those that accept it will be those who thrive because they will pursue activities that provide massive skills training and retraining as required. Other regions and companies will not survive, because they will be able to accept this truth.

Today it’s pretty evident that our current world of political discourse is doing little to advance the cause of reality. People choose to believe what they want to believe; they find facts that support their narrow mind; they manufacture facts when facts can’t be found. The global pandemic has accelerated this reality to a ridiculous degree. I fear for our world.

The result of this is that social media today has become a minefield of opinionated uselessness. More and more, I see people I know fall into the trap of expressing opinions on matters in which they clearly have no expertise, and yet state it as fact.

I think we will look back in 25 or 50 years, and know that some societies succeed with the future and others failed, based on their ability to align to reality.

And the key rule for the use of social media in 2021? The more you use it, the less you should say on it!