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Beloit College Mindset List
Each August since 1998, Beloit College has released the Beloit College Mindset List. It provides a look at the cultural touchstones that shape the lives of students entering college this fall. The creation of Beloit’s Keefer Professor of the Humanities Tom McBride and former Public Affairs Director Ron Nief, it was originally created as a reminder to faculty to be aware of dated references, and quickly became a catalog of the rapidly changing worldview of each new generation. The Mindset List website at http://www.beloit.edu/mindset, the Mediasite webcast and its Facebook page receive more than 400,000 hits annually.
Iris Scanners Create the Most Secure City in the World. Welcome, Big Brother | Fast Company
This vision of the future eerily matches Minority Report, and GRI knows it. “Minority Report is one possible outcome,” admits Carter. “I don’t think that’s our company’s aim, but I think what we’re going to see is an enviroment well beyond what you see in that movie–minus the precogs, of course.”
via Iris Scanners Create the Most Secure City in the World. Welcome, Big Brother | Fast Company.
MILLENNIALS A Portrait of Generation Next
This report represents the Pew Research Center’s most ambitious examination to date of America’s newest generation, the Millennials, many of whom have now crossed into adulthood.
The report sets out to compare the values, attitudes and behaviors of Millennials with those of today’s older adults. And to an extent older adults back when they were the age that Millennials are now.
Pew: Internet Revolution Will Be Slow, Painful – AOL News
Pew: Internet Revolution Will Be Slow, Painful – AOL News.
The Internet may improve our most powerful institutions in the next decade, but a Pew Research Center poll also suggests there is a strong undercurrent of opinion that believes that positive change may be precipitated by a violent electronic revolution.
Some even think that revolution would utterly destroy and remake the old ways of doing business and governing, quite literally in some cases.
February 2010 Bridging Skills Gap
February 2010 Bridging Skills Gap
Long-term benefits are possible when organizations obtain a big-picture understanding of the skills gap and what it means in today’s global business environment.
“Bridging the Skills Gap” is the third report from ASTD (American Society for Training and Development) to cover the growing importance of talent to organizational performance and the skills gap that threatens so many organizations today. This report updates the picture, including the role of job losses during the current recession, and examines the influence of Web 2.0 and the Net Generation on workforce skills.
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BlindSpot – SnagFilms
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Think outside the Box
I have been asked why I decided to become a Personal Coach. Having been in Information Technology for over 24 years as a Systems Engineer, Operations Manager, Technical Manager and as the main GO-TO guy when things hit the fan. And seeing all the technological changes that have occurred, such as the developement of the Personal Computer and the Internet. Change has always been a difficult concept to understand, either you accept it with open arms or deny it kicking and screaming.
Technology has always been a double-edged sword, bringing us longer and healthier life spans, freedom from physical and mental drudgery, and many new creative possibilities, while introducing new and salient dangers on the other. Such as creating a throw away society, fractured personal relationships, declining education standards, elective surgery, cloning, an aging populace, negative birth rates, peak oil, and asymmetrical warfare.
Where advances in technology used to occur over generations, it now occurs within a generation. There is a theory called technological singularity, where technology is advancing so quickly and in great strides, that there will come a time when man will lose control and technology takes over.
I personally do not think this will happen. Advances in technology is usually expensive and takes time to disseminate. Those who can afford it gives them an advantage to those who can not. But there does come a point where technology becomes available to all and not to just a few, and that advantage is lost. The time gap between creation and commonplace is getting shorter and shorter. I do think that technology is like the mythical Ouroboros,
simbolo alquímico (Ouroboros serpent in old Greek alchemical manuscript)
an ancient symbol depicting a serpent or dragon swallowing its own tail and forming a circle. Sooner or later, what is new becomes obsolete, to be replaced by something more advanced.
We have as a society become more dependent on technology. And as such, our basic skills of survival, communication, reading and writing, problem solving, mathematics, and ethics has declined. A good friend of mine put it best when after interviewing a prospective hire observed “Why is common sense so uncommon today??”
We tend to be creatures of habit, doing the same thing over and over. Our decision making, how we act, how we observe things, these are guided by our cultural traditions, genetic heritage, how we think (our ability to analyze /synthesize), and our previous experiences. We can adapt to change, no matter what the circumstance, given that we have time. Shorten the time or add change upon change, then it becomes more and more difficult to adapt quickly enough. And if you constantly fail to adapt, frustration occurs.
Frustration arises when a person is continually thwarted in his attempts to reach a goal. One outgrowth of this frustration is anger. Frustration and anger encourages impulsive reactions, irrational behavior, poorly thought-out decisions, and, in some instances, an “I quit” attitude. People tend to avoid doing something they can’t handle and fall back to the things they are familiar with, regardless if it is the wrong thing to do.
Future shock is a term for a certain psychological state of individuals and entire societies, first introduced in 1970 by Alvin Toffler in his book of the same name. Toffler’s shortest definition of future shock is a personal perception of “too much change in too short a period of time“. And one way for us to combat this perception is that we must constantly learn, unlearn, and relearn. Change is more commonplace now and what was valid yesterday, may not be valid today, and that which may be valid today, may be invalid tomorrow. As they say “The only thing constant in life, is change”.
As a Personal Coach in thinking outside the box, I can empower my clients to embrace change not as something they have no control over but a challenge to be overcome.
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