How to predict a student’s SAT score: Look at the parents’ tax return — Dan Pink
NOTE:
Dan also mentioned the work of Duke’s Helen Ladd in that posting.
On 02/06/2012,
in business, corporate / business world, economics, ethics, faith, hearts -- matters of the heart, MBA, society, United States,
by Daniel Christian
Stopping the ‘brain drain’ of the U.S. economy — from NPR
Excerpts:
“The problem is that when you’ve got 20 to 30 percent of some of the top talent in this country going into a sector that is not necessarily contributing to economic and social productivity,” he says. “That’s a problem for the country at large and it’s something that we should all be concerned about.”
…
Economist Paul Kedrosky with the Kauffman Foundation says elite schools sending a bigger share of their graduates into finance and consulting is not new; they’ve been doing it for at least two decades. Kedrosky tells NPR’s Raz that what’s different now is that those students have essentially used their talents to grow the financial sector in ways that are unhealthy for the overall economy.
From DSC:
Some relevant scripture comes to my mind — which I, myself, also have to reckon with (these are hard teachings, especially in this day in age…but on second thought, in any age for us humans)
For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.
Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it.
For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.
“For the word of the LORD is right and true; He is faithful in all He does. The LORD loves righteousness and justice; the earth is full of His unfailing love.”
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From DSC:
One last, relevant reflection here…
I’ve been wondering about the place of the heart when it comes to capitalism. I was listening to Gary Hamel earlier today — Gary is author of the new book, What Matters Now (thanks to Daniel Pink’s Office Hours) and one of the items Gary mentioned was the need for a moral renaissance in business today. The comments were that:
- Capitalism requires that the most powerful players act as guardians, stewards, and are accountable, equitable, and charitable; they can and do deny their self; leaders must see themselves as stewards instead of just maximizing short-term gains
- Without those morals, there is egregious behavior
Bottom line:
Values and principles are key to our economy and our nation.
Values and principles are key to our economy and our nation.
Relevant graphic:
Addendum on 3/1/12 pointing to the relationship and relevancy of our hearts as they relate to capitalism:
- U.S. News: Rich People Cheat, Study Shows
Study: Rich people more unethical?
A new study out of UC Berkeley shows rich people are more likely to cheat and lie. Find out theories on why.
U.S. debt is now equal to economy — from ABCNews.com/USAToday.com by Richard Wolf
On 01/13/2012,
in career development, corporate / business world, creativity, disruption, economics, future, global / globalization, innovation, morals/values, political science, reinvent, society, staying relevant, United States, workplace,
by Daniel Christian
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From DSC:
I originally saw this at Gerd Leonhard’s MediaFuturist.com where he entitles a blog posting:
- Thomas Friedman video on ‘That used to be us’: Must-watch for everyone in the U.S.!
(Thanks Gerd!!!)
Some of my notes on this video — Friedman’s main talk finishes around 35:45 w/ a Q&A beginning at 36:00
(From DSC: I’ve added my own thoughts in red)
- Non-routine work — is the kind of work that you want to be able to do (there’s also the non-routine, local work — butcher, grocier — but that wasn’t the focus here)
- Routine work — has been crushed via algorithms, outsourcing, (robotics), etc.
The bar has risen in non-routine work as we’ve moved from connected to hyper-connected world.
We are in the middle of an IT revolution/transformation — cloud, mobile, social, other — where Information Technology changes and globalization are creating global supply changes. Tom’s key point is that the United States needs to be involved in these changes or we’ll get left in the dust.
In their Help Wanted chapter, the following skills are wanted:
- Critical reasonsing
- Problem solving
- Non-routine work oriented
- But most of all, you must be able to invent and reinvent your job WHILE you are doing the job
- Creative
- Innovative
- (Pulse-checker and responder; which is why universities and colleges must begin offering classes on futurism/developing scenarios)
- Unique value creation
- Be able to bring your EXTRA
Average is over. Now that we are hyper-connected, “average” is over. If average is over — you must bring your “extra”.
From DSC:
If “average” is over, are we developing and raising up a generation of students who are learning how to bring their “extra”? Does standardized testing help us or hurt us in this regard?
3 key attitudes you need if you want to “lean into this world”:
- Think like a new immigrant
No legacy place waiting for me; I better figure out what world I’m living in, and then I better work hard to uncover and pursue the opportunities that current world presents; nothing is owed to me - Think like an artisan
Unique, hand-made; one-off’s, work in ways that you would be proud to carve your initials into your work - Think like the waitress at Perkins Pancake House in MN
Where she gave Thomas’ friend extra fruit and she mentioned that to them both; she brought her extra in areas where she had the control to do so
United States may be in relative decline — as we experience the “rise of the rest”; but what the US has to worry about it absolute decline
American exceptionalism — hogwash; no one owes us anything; have to earn our way; formula for success was a great private public partnership going back to Alexander Hamilton and built upon by Lincoln, Eisenhower, other (person asking question used the word ecosystem). 5 main pillars of this formulate for success/ecosystem:
- Education
- Infrastructure
- Open immigration policy
- Best rules for capital formation and risk taking
- Solid gov’t funded research
We’ve moved away from these 5 puillars of success and we’ve treated our nation like it’s a football that can be dropped w/ no resulting issues; the reality is we’re more like an egg; in another analogy, we can cut and hit arteries quickly…doing actual damage.
We misread environment — at end of cold war we put our feet up, thinking victory was won; the U.S. chased Al Queda instead of China, Brazil, other
Q&A
- Q: Influence — how changed and how stay the same
A: To have influence, must get substance right — content is key; diamond-hard realities are key; not the spins; still need to do grunt, basic work; can never be a Thor throwing down lightning bolts from on high - Q: Labor arbitrage
A: Rebalancing happening, but may take time; what was outsourced may not stay where originally went to - Q & A about Occupy Wall Street — was/is about injustice; taking $ and treating it like they were in a casino; people doing that got away with it; what will leadership look like in a hyperconnected world?
Final thoughts:
- Idea of OODA loop from the world of Air Force pilots — observe, ___ decide, act — speed of OODA loops are key; our political leaders are talking about A when X,Y, and Z are really happening (and the two circles rarely intersect)
- How long can we be a great country when our political systems cannot deliver optimal results?
- Our political system needs shock therapy — Friedman argues that we need a 3rd party — see AmericansElect.org
From DSC:
Each of us must be able to continually do pulse checks on a variety of forces that may be affecting our domains/places of work. We must be able to develop future scenarios and our responses to those scenarios. The ability to do that will become even more important as we move forward at ever-increasing speeds.
We can’t be looking 5-10 feet ahead when we’re driving at 180 miles per hour in this new, hyper-connected world!
Pingtan Experimental Development Zone — from nextbigfuture.com
.Excerpt:
China is expecting to spend US$4.6 billion in infrastructure in 2011 alone for the Pingtan Comprehensive Experimental Zone, US$15.4 million a day on average, and in the next three years more than US$15 billion, reaching US$38.5 billion by 2015. China is building a gigantic special economic zone on a cluster of islands on the other side of the Taiwan Strait some 150 km from the port city of Taichung, for the sole purpose of enhancing cross-straits industrial cooperation.
International architectural firm 10 Design has recently won the opportunity to master plan a 93-hectare (230-acre) waterfront central business district as part of a new development for Pingtan in China. Pingtan, being the closest Chinese island to Taiwan, is to be transformed into a new commercial hub in an effort to attract trade between the two sides of the Straits.
On 11/20/2011,
in change, corporate / business world, cost of getting a degree, dangers of the status quo, disruption, economics, future, future of higher education, game-changing environment, global / globalization, higher education, leadership, legislatures / government / legal, New "Amazon.com" of Higher Education, political science, real-world assignments, society, United States,
by Daniel Christian
As of 11/20/11 (~2:00pm EST)
.
As of 8/24/11:
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From DSC:
With the increase in globalization — and from what I’ve seen happening in the financial systems (i.e. how what happens in Europe affects the financial systems in the U.S./Asia/other and vice versa) — it seems clear that we are all in this boat together. If that’s true, what does that mean for:
- Businesses and economies around the world?
- The ability of families and individuals to afford the increasing cost of getting a degree?
- Higher educational systems — and business models — around the world?
- How do we resolve such massive problems?
- What does all of this mean for how we should be educating our students?
Addendum on 11/21/11:
- Debt committee: Why $1.2 trillion isn’t enough — from money.cnn.com by Jeanne Sahadi
Excerpts:
That’s because under the most likely scenario, reducing deficits by $1.2 trillion won’t stop the accumulated debt from growing faster than the economy.
…
Thus, to stabilize the debt, Congress would need to pass a debt-reduction plan worth $4 trillion to $6 trillion, budget experts say.
On 11/15/2011,
in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, analytics, Augmented Reality (AR), career development, CMS/LMS, collaboration, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, digital learning, disruption, distance education, e-books, e-publishing related items (EPUB and more), e-readers, economics, education, education technology, educational games / serious games, elearning, emerging technologies, Europe, game-changing environment, online learning, pace of change, personalized/customized learning, web-based collaboration, workplace,
by Daniel Christian
On 11/14/2011,
in Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, career development, corporate / business world, cost of getting a degree, economics, future, pace of change, trends, workplace,
by Daniel Christian
Also see:
- Future of Work Survey Findings: Focusing on the Future? –– from thefutureofwork.net
- How Technology Is Eliminating Higher-Skill Jobs — from NPR.org by Chris Arnold
- Difference Engine: Luddite legacy — from economist.com
Excerpt:
There is a good deal of truth in that. But it misses a crucial change that economists are loth to accept, though technologists have been concerned about it for several years. This is the disturbing thought that, sluggish business cycles aside, America’s current employment woes stem from a precipitous and permanent change caused by not too little technological progress, but too much. The evidence is irrefutable that computerised automation, networks and artificial intelligence (AI)—including machine-learning, language-translation, and speech- and pattern-recognition software—are beginning to render many jobs simply obsolete.
This is unlike the job destruction and creation that has taken place continuously since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, as machines gradually replaced the muscle-power of human labourers and horses. Today, automation is having an impact not just on routine work, but on cognitive and even creative tasks as well. A tipping point seems to have been reached, at which AI-based automation threatens to supplant the brain-power of large swathes of middle-income employees.
Addendum on 11/22/11:
- The Coming Jobs War — by Jim Clifton
- New Data Set Reveals Health of U.S. Economy — from tuck.dartmouth.edu
Professor Matt Slaughter talks about a newly released data set that won’t get much media coverage, and yet paradoxically is one of the most important indicators of the health of the U.S. Economy.
On 11/01/2011,
in Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, business, career development, change, changing business models, computer science, disruption, economics, future, game-changing environment, global / globalization, human-computer interaction (HCI), MBA, new business models, programming, society, sociology, technology (general), trends, vendors,
by Daniel Christian
IBM sends Watson supercomputer to business school – from wired.com by Eric Smalley
Excerpt:
There have been four waves of technological innovation that disrupted the labor market over the last two and a half centuries starting with the Industrial Revolution, and we’re beginning the fifth, said IBM Chief Economist Martin Fleming. “We’re now beginning to enter into, in my view, a period where the economy is beginning to open up opportunities for the deployment of very significant innovation … We’re going to see many new industries get created, radical new technologies being deployed, but being deployed in the context of new business models,” he said.
“This will have significant implications from an income and income distribution point of view.”
The MIT economists generally agree that we’re at the beginning of a technology-driven shift in the economy and ultimately the labor market will adjust. But no one had any good news for workers in the middle of economy during the transition. “The future is already here in many ways, in terms of what technology can do,” Brynjolfsson said. “But right now the benefits are not very evenly distributed.”
On 10/20/2011,
in business, career development, economics, student-related, workplace,
by Daniel Christian
The 10 worst mistakes of first-time job hunters — from fins.com by Kelly Eggers; originally from LinkedIn
From DSC:
Though the title is a bit harsh, the advice is solid; especially for those students who are in the fall of their senior year (or even in their junior year).
Also see:
- Here Are Four Charts That Explain What The Protesters Are Angry About… — from businessinsider.com by Henry Blodget
Here’s just one of those charts:
CEO pay and corporate profits have skyrocketed in the past 20 years,
“production worker” pay has risen 4%.
On 10/19/2011,
in business, content development, aggregation, repositories, corporate / business world, economics, global / globalization, internet, mobile technologies, trends,
by Daniel Christian
On 10/06/2011,
in career development, change, changing business models, economics, future, history, society, workplace,
by Daniel Christian
The second economy — from McKinsey Quarterly by W. Brian Arthur
Digitization is creating a second economy that’s vast, automatic, and invisible—thereby bringing the biggest change since the Industrial Revolution.
Excerpt:
We could look for one in the genetic technologies, or in nanotech, but their time hasn’t fully come. But I want to argue that something deep is going on with information technology, something that goes well beyond the use of computers, social media, and commerce on the Internet. Business processes that once took place among human beings are now being executed electronically. They are taking place in an unseen domain that is strictly digital. On the surface, this shift doesn’t seem particularly consequential—it’s almost something we take for granted. But I believe it is causing a revolution no less important and dramatic than that of the railroads. It is quietly creating a second economy, a digital one.
On 09/21/2011,
in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, business, career development, digital learning, economics, education reform, Microsoft, society, sociology, student-related, surviving, United States, workplace,
by Daniel Christian
Also see:
- Microsoft commits to bringing technology access to 1 million low-income youth — from Microsoft.com
On 09/20/2011,
in budgets, business, business side of he, cost of getting a degree, dangers of the status quo, economics, higher education, New "Amazon.com" of Higher Education, student-related, United States,
by Daniel Christian
Addendum on 9-21-11:
- Census: Recession taking toll on young adults — from NPR and The Associated Press
Call it the recession’s lost generation.