TL;DR:
- Prepare for AI age by improving learning skills.
- Develop effective, efficient learning through style, content, curation, and critical thinking.
- Choose right content, medium, and evaluate creators for successful learning.
- Practice curation and critical thinking to filter valuable information.
- Master learning skills to adapt and thrive in AI age.
First off, a heartfelt thank you
Yes, thank you to all you readers who made my last article on this website “Does Your Business Really Need an AI Strategist?” a top trending article on this website, and thank you AIinASIA for publishing these articles.
So what are focusing on today?
Off the back of this, a lot of you reached out with different questions and concerns… and so this new article has been written in direct response. Grab yourself a coffee, get comfortable and welcome to the next article in this series of The View from Koo!
How to prepare yourself for the age of AI:
First, some context: a lot of my friends and participants of my courses are young parents. One of the top things on their minds were, what should they have their children to learn. The parents’ concern – and really, the top concern on everyone’s mind – is a worry that AI will eventually take over our jobs and cause seismic shifts in our industries… leading to a need to find another job.
Remember: you’re not going to be able to escape the impact of AI. So how best to prepare for it?
Current Trends Are Intriguing, But It’s Not All Doom and Gloom
The current trend is while Artificial Intelligence does not take over jobs right now, it will take over certain tasks. As Artificial Intelligence take over more and more tasks, jobs which is a basket of tasks, can be replaced eventually.
It is either that or Artificial Intelligence will change the nature of jobs since it is a tool. You can see it as a dirt digger at a construction yard, from using the shovel to an excavator.
Artificial Intelligence will either change the nature of your job by increasing your productivity, moving you to higher value-added tasks, or make your job obsolete (think long-haul drivers and supply chain workers).
A Single Key Skill to Have to Unlock Your Future!
If I were to go to ‘First Principles’ I would say the single key skill to pick up and become more resistant to the waves of changes brought about by Artificial Intelligence is embrace the “Learning Skill” – meaning: how to learn effectively and efficiently.
Innovate and pivot
As waves of changes keep coming, we can either be proactive and pick up new skills that we believe will be in high demanded later, or be forced to learn new skills when changes hits hard and potentially embrace retrenchment or our businesses may become bankrupt.
The next 3-5 years will bring uncertaintly and we will all be in a constant state of flux and we will need to continue to learn new skills such as operating new software, technology or latest best-practices.
This translates into the need to keep learning. The spoils will go to those that are proactive, and able to learn effectively (able to apply) and efficiently (understand in a short amount of time).
So Let’s Talk About Learning
As a fellow lifelong learner, trainer and mentor, I see that there are THREE dimensions you need to look at to improve your learning skill. They are: learning style, content, curation and critical thinking.
Learning Style
Learning gets better with practice and having lots of self-awareness. The more you learn, the more practice you get. The more you learn, the better you understand your learning style. Getting to that learning style is important as it makes your learning more productive. But getting to that learning style requires time and experimentation.
You need to experiment while learning at the same time.
For instance, spending time listening to audiobooks versus reading physical books, learning from an instructor versus self-directed learning, or writing notes versus recording and listening to notes.
Content is everything: Medium and People
For content there are two sub-dimensions to look at: Medium and People.
There are many mediums that we can use to learn from. There are videos, websites, physical books, e-books, podcasts, classrooms, workshops, short-courses, degree programs etc. You can see them as delivery channels of content. Choose the deliver channels that suit your style of learning.
Content is generated by people, think professors and lecturers in your degree or diploma program. To learn better, we need to start questioning the background of the folks who are generating the content. Are they the right people to learn from? As I always say:
If you want to be rich, learn from the rich. If you want to be a professional soccer player, you learn from a professional soccer player.
We need to start questioning the background of the content generators. Do not fall into the influencers in “expert” clothing trap.
Critical Thinking & Curation To Cut Through the Noise
We are in the information age where information is in abundance. I am sure you have heard of disinformation and misinformation and you do not want to fall victim to it as it hurts your credibility as an individual and in your career.
What can we do with the information avalanche? How can we quickly differentiate the truth from the “fake news” stains?
In a self-directed or from classroom learning, we want to pick up the skills, knowledge and information that is going to be useful. This is where we need to do curation and critical thinking:
Curation will help to quickly reduce the delivery channels we need to pay attention to. Critical thinking will help us to quickly differentiate what we should pick up and learn from.
You can start practicing curation by always looking at and figuring out the content producers are they really experts or the schools that are putting out the courses are they credible in the fields and what is the background of the instructors, and critical thinking comes in to quickly ascertain whether the content shared is it going to be useful for your circumstances.
Critical Thinking and Curation as you practice more of it will make your learning better!
So Where Does This All Lead Us?
We need to start to learn how to learn. Learning skills will help us to stay ahead of the curve, ensuring that we can not only survive but to thrive in the Age of AI.
However, learning how to learn is not taught in any former education institution and thus it is up to us to pick it up.
To be able to learn effectively and efficiently, we will need to quickly be aware of our learning style, focus on getting good content, the medium and producer, that suit our styles and last but not least, practice, practice and more practice, especially on our Critical Thinking and Curation skills.
Do you have any tips on how to learn better? Share your thoughts in the comments below as we hone our learning skills together, and don’t forget to subscribe for updates on AI and AGI developments.
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