Tone-deaf Tommy Friedman: Be a lifelong learner or find yourself fired.

[HughBeaumont]

Easy peasy stuff for a guy who married into a real estate fortune and has a cushy job writing victim-blaming books and unintentionally hilarious columns by the dozen.

The notion that we can go to college for four years and then spend that knowledge for the next 30 is over. If you want to be a lifelong employee anywhere today, you have to be a lifelong learner.

And that means: More is now on you. And that means self-motivation to learn and keep learning becomes the most important life skill.

That’s why education-to-work expert Heather E. McGowan likes to say: “Stop asking a young person WHAT you want to be when you grow up. It freezes their identity into a job that may not be there. Ask them HOW you want to be when you grow up. Having an agile learning mind-set will be the new skill set of the 21st century.”

(snip)

So the tough news is that more will be on you. The good news is that systems — like Khan-College Board — are emerging everywhere to enable anyone to accelerate learning for the age of acceleration.

Step back from all of this and it’s clear that thriving countries today won’t elect a strongman. They’ll elect leaders who inspire and equip their citizens to be strong people who can own their own futures.

Yeah, just like America, RIGHT??

[tanyev]

1. Even lifelong learners get fired or laid off.

No doubt a wide variety of skills could make it easier to find a job, but first there have to be jobs available.

[HughBeaumont]

2. +1,000!

Possessing all the degrees in the world isn't going to take target off your back in corporate America.

Nor are they going to matter when automation stands to replace great swaths of blue AND white collar work. Most economic solutions nowadays from the "You need to want it BAD enough" set range from tone-deaf to insulting.

[Leith]

3. AND Corporations Need to Be Willing to Hire

I've kept in touch with a couple people who had been laid off 6 ~ 7 years ago - and they are still looking for work. One of them received a "thanks but no thanks" email for a job he doesn't remember applying for. When he checked his records, he had applied for the job this past December. The job listing is still up on the company's website.

The job market is frighteningly cold out there.

[CrispyQ]

4. Tech burned me out.

I used to read fiction all the time. Then I got a career in tech & one day I realized it had been 13 years since I'd read any fiction. I spent my evenings reading tech.

[exboyfil]

5. Classic example

My daughter is in Nursing school. When she started Nursing looked like an attractive occupation. If the AHCA becomes law, suddenly we are not going to be able to afford as many nurses. The need will still exist, but there won't be any money for it. Now she has flushed four years of her life and $60K down the toilet.