Forget STEM, Get a BFA

Back in 2018 both of my daughters were looking to pursue degrees in the performing arts, particularly musical theater. I remember at the time asking them if they could possibly be happy doing anything else because theater is a really tough career. No, they said. And I understand. The arts are a calling as much if not more than it is likely to be a well-paid vocation.

A year earlier I had been asked to speak on a panel put on by The Economist for Social Media Week in NYC. It was called Schrödinger's Bot and the topic was the impact of chatbots on various industries and what they might be capable of over time. I was there to talk about the impact on customer service and was asked to kick off the discussion with a framework I often use to describe the impact of AI and automation on the future of work.

The illustration I like to use when I describe the challenges (and opportunities) of our AI-infused work model is Simple/Complicated/Complex. Simple is a recipe. Complicated is launching a satellite into space. Complex is raising a child. Right now, technology can handle most simple scenarios and some complicated scenarios. But complex remains out of reach.

To a large extent it's a question of scale. The industrial revolution was all about automating things and using technology to do it faster and cheaper. AI is the culmination of the industrial revolution. It is a technology that allows you to easily automate not just physical actions but actions that require some simple and maybe even some complicated "reasoning". I put reasoning in quotes because what we see as reasoning is really just statistics and probability. Yes, my college calculus is finally coming in handy. 

When technology can handle the simple and some complicated tasks, the complex remains the domain of human employees. For employers, it means they will need to hire for new skills. If a situation has come up before or a process is well defined, it can be automated. If it's new, someone needs to figure it out. 

What this means for the future of work is if you are doing a task that is well defined in terms of the scope and well defined in terms of the outcomes, it is likely you can be replaced by technology. If you're looking to future proof your career, you need to find a way to be in a position to apply uniquely human skills.

You need skills like problem solving, communication, creativity, improvisation, critical thinking, collaboration, team building, active listening, and empathy. You need skills like sensemaking that I've talked about before.

As it turns out, these are the same skills my daughters learned in their musical theater programs.

I'm not saying STEM goes away. I'm just saying a BFA and liberal arts have earned a seat at the table.

Seven years later both my daughters are still pursuing careers in the performing arts and I know the skills they continue to hone will serve them well in any endeavor they choose.

Berkson's Bits

What we once considered immutable is now very much mutable. We live in a world where the things we’ve relied on to establish identity and verify authenticity—signatures, photo IDs, voiceprints, videos—are losing their efficacy.

AI can spoof what we used to think was immutable. Blockchain can help make things truly immutable.

In other words: AI drives the need for blockchain.

The two biggest challenges AI is creating are: 

• ✅ Authentication 

• ✅ Provenance

The two biggest value propositions of blockchain are:

• ✅ Authentication 

• ✅ Provenance

We may have finally found a problem for the solution.

What I'm Listening To

Megan Rapinoe & Sue Bird on leading great teams and moving on

I'm a big fan of organizational psychologist Adam Grant and his Work/Life podcast. In this episode he has a conversation with two sports legends, soccer star Megan Rapinoe and basketball star Sue Bird.

While the title focuses on leadership, there's one point where Adam asks them about some of what made them successful. Sue Bird's response is what I think is a key to anyone's long-term success. More than her shooting or dribbling ability or even her athleticism, she said "my greatest skill is my ability to adapt."

She also had this advice for learning a new skill, which is great for individuals AND startups: "When you first start working on a new skill, you know you're gonna be bad at it and it's gonna be embarrassing or ugly, but eventually you get it."

If I had a chance to go back to school I still think I would get a computer science degree. I loved the math AND the technology. But most of all I loved the problem solving. Maybe a double major with theater!

If you had to go back to school and get your degree all over again, would you do the same one? Something different? Let me know!

Looking forward to continuing the conversation...

Alan