I used to be an avid camcorder user - remember those? All our family holidays were captured, if not very professionally, on a Sony or similar video recorder. All of these seemed to disappear overnight when smartphones with high quality video capability became ubiquitous.
But there is always an exception and one that had passed me by until some friends introduced me to “GoPro’s” on a sailing holiday in the BVI last year. I finally got around to buying a GoPro Hero in an airport lounge last week for our current and planned holidays this year.
If you have never seen one, they are amazing. Essentially a very small and extremely tough camera and video recorder that will go anywhere – up mountains under the water on boats or bikes – you can swim with it, fix it to helmets or handlebars. On the box it actually says: “if you can break it we will replace it.” How much better is that than your standard electronic guarantee, caveated by so many conditions.
It doesn’t have a traditional set of instructions, which those of us of a more mature age might be used to. There are a few diagrams on the box and then you sort of just work it out for yourself, it’s fairly intuitive – or Google it if you are really stuck. You also need a sort of handle as an accessory to use it properly and frankly not to lose the small camera.
This story of survival of a concept albeit in a different format makes me think of how as professionals in this day and age of technology and artificial intelligence we have to make sure that we don’t just stand still but evolve with the times. Even in the hallowed realms of the lawyer, doctor or commercial adviser we cannot I suggest ignore this lesson of recent history.
This Economist article Equipping people to stay ahead of technological change provides some good insights into this challenge and albeit suggests . Commenting on another time of fundamental technological change, the Industrial Revolution it says: The combination of education and innovation, spread over decades, led to a remarkable flowering of prosperity.
It proposes that Today robotics and artificial intelligence call for another education revolution. This time, however, working lives are so lengthy and so fast-changing that simply cramming more schooling in at the start is not enough. People must also be able to acquire new skills throughout their careers.
It does suggest there may be a greater impact on lower skilled jobs, but I am convinced that as professionals we are equally going to get caught up in this revolution and will need to change. This McKinsey article on Technology, Jobs and the Future of Work analyses the difficulties for all workers on a global basis and highlights some of the opportunities as well.
New technologies have the potential to upend much of what we know about the way people work. But disruption is an opportunity as well as a challenge—given the promise of digital talent platforms and new options for independent work, for example.
So we will need to avoid being stuck as camcorders and make sure that we reinvent ourselves as GoPro’s, and then continuously as our work and technology advance.
As Bill Clinton said The price of doing the same old thing is far higher than the price of change.
But there is always an exception and one that had passed me by until some friends introduced me to “GoPro’s” on a sailing holiday in the BVI last year. I finally got around to buying a GoPro Hero in an airport lounge last week for our current and planned holidays this year.
If you have never seen one, they are amazing. Essentially a very small and extremely tough camera and video recorder that will go anywhere – up mountains under the water on boats or bikes – you can swim with it, fix it to helmets or handlebars. On the box it actually says: “if you can break it we will replace it.” How much better is that than your standard electronic guarantee, caveated by so many conditions.
It doesn’t have a traditional set of instructions, which those of us of a more mature age might be used to. There are a few diagrams on the box and then you sort of just work it out for yourself, it’s fairly intuitive – or Google it if you are really stuck. You also need a sort of handle as an accessory to use it properly and frankly not to lose the small camera.
This story of survival of a concept albeit in a different format makes me think of how as professionals in this day and age of technology and artificial intelligence we have to make sure that we don’t just stand still but evolve with the times. Even in the hallowed realms of the lawyer, doctor or commercial adviser we cannot I suggest ignore this lesson of recent history.
This Economist article Equipping people to stay ahead of technological change provides some good insights into this challenge and albeit suggests . Commenting on another time of fundamental technological change, the Industrial Revolution it says: The combination of education and innovation, spread over decades, led to a remarkable flowering of prosperity.
It proposes that Today robotics and artificial intelligence call for another education revolution. This time, however, working lives are so lengthy and so fast-changing that simply cramming more schooling in at the start is not enough. People must also be able to acquire new skills throughout their careers.
It does suggest there may be a greater impact on lower skilled jobs, but I am convinced that as professionals we are equally going to get caught up in this revolution and will need to change. This McKinsey article on Technology, Jobs and the Future of Work analyses the difficulties for all workers on a global basis and highlights some of the opportunities as well.
New technologies have the potential to upend much of what we know about the way people work. But disruption is an opportunity as well as a challenge—given the promise of digital talent platforms and new options for independent work, for example.
So we will need to avoid being stuck as camcorders and make sure that we reinvent ourselves as GoPro’s, and then continuously as our work and technology advance.
As Bill Clinton said The price of doing the same old thing is far higher than the price of change.
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