The Future Of Professional Careers

Once upon a time... before Google, before electronic computers!

Information needed to be stored somewhere.

Otherwise, how would humanity have sustained laws, customs, historical records, business transactions, etc?

But how did someone retrieve that information if they needed it?

Perhaps the local library, archive, court, or maybe companies house! But how would you know where to look?

Imagine going to a library with 5000 books with no organisation? It wouldn’t even be worth looking for it.

So as well as “creating” information.

Humanity needed other “organised” people, clerks, bookkeepers, record-keepers, accountants to help us sort, manage and retrieve this data or information. Even your doctor, lawyer or banker would need to understand how to retrieve information.

Whole professions and institutes grew and trained people to carry out these data management activities.

As technology improved, so did the sophistication of these activities as well as the income of these “organisers”.

But the key was that these “organisers” were now reprogrammed to stop thinking “creative” but to think as an “organiser” should.

The problem came when people didn’t need the organisers anymore to sort, order or retrieve their information.

And they didn’t know how to become "creative".

Example of how ‘smart contracts will remove the need for notaries

When we buy or sell a large value item (such as a house or business) we tend to use a legal representative as they can ensure things happen as they should do. Basically, the legal representative carries out a series of activities (and algorithm) to ensure a set of predetermined conditions are met as per the law in that particular jurisdiction.  If done properly, both the buyer and the seller gets what they want and the legal representatives get paid accordingly. If there is ever a dispute, then the responsibility lies with the legal representative.

According to IBM:

“Smart contracts are digital computer programs stored on a blockchain that run when predetermined conditions are met. They are typically used to automate an agreement's execution so that all participants can be immediately certain of the outcome, without an intermediary’s involvement or time loss. They can also automate a workflow, triggering the next action when conditions are met.”

Why would any buyer or seller want to pay a legal representative for work that can be done quicker, more efficiently, more accurately with greater trust, transparency and security? For less cost?

Similar situations are occurring in all sectors with competition coming from:

• Outsourcing – You could have someone in the Philippines, Bangladesh or Nigeria prepare a set of accounts for you in a few hours for maybe $3 per hour.

• Fintech – Blockchain has so many uses.

• Artificial Intelligence – Using ‘big data and trends, you could train a computer to simulate any activity. Computers never get tired, never need breaks, make fewer mistakes!

• Online Training – Anyone can learn anything anytime.

• Social Networks – 10,000 years ago the maximum number of people you could reach would be maybe 100; 2,000 years ago, maybe 1000 people; 1,000 years ago, maybe 2000 people; 500 years ago, maybe 5,000; 200 years ago, maybe 10,000 people; 100 years ago maybe 100,000 people; 50 years ago maybe 1m people; today you can reach everyone!

• Online hosting – This allows you to meet with others immediately.

• Many many more.

This is the problem that is occurring in professional careers today. Professional need to understand how to reinvent themselves quickly.