Every day, every hour, every minute and even every second, the world keeps changing so fast and in unexpected ways making us easily lost or confused. The knowledge and theory you are studying right now may not have existed ten years ago and it may give way to another new technology in the next ten years. This is the scary part of fast technological development which makes your life more insecure. Are you scared?
Certainly there is a solution to give you better protection and it is inside you. Listen to your heart. What do you most like and what are you most good at? It can be a subject or a pattern of behavior and that is the starting point of your core capability. If it is obsolete, then the probability of success will be much higher because you become a “segment of one” and “the first”. But this does not mean you establish a big wall not to interact with others at all. Actually it is the opposite. By knowing what you are good at, please interact and collaborate with others as much as possible. Share what you know with others and be open to learn what others are good at. By doing so, you become a part of group intelligence which will lead your future world. Whether you recognize it or not, the current world is so complex and in need of quick solutions that many organizations are using group intelligence rather than depending on a single person or limited resources. Therefore you should be able to act as a group player in order to better deal with your future.
Having your own focus of expertise is only one piece of the puzzle and you need other skills to be complete. The first skill you need to acquire is intellectual curiosity. An innovating idea always comes from a piece of rubbish idea. Read the newspaper. There will be so many news stories whose solutions seem to be unrelated to your area. Well, that is not true. Look at the corporate or business world; there are mathematicians or physicist who solve financial issues, social issues and even political matters. They are not living in a different world but they are dealing with our futures using their core expertise. Linking other areas with your area of expertise may be somewhat difficult to adopt at first. In order to do that you need to experience various things through working or meeting with various people. Reading is also good way of boosting your intellectual curiosity. Read and think, then you will see how much this world is a combination of similarities.
Secondly, communication skill is also crucial. However ordinary an idea is at first, it can become a world genius idea after rounds of communication among various people. Communication ignites analogy and imagination of ideas which influence participants’ intellectual activity further and at the end it will come down to the essence of essence. Communication does not necessarily mean you talk to people often and much. Rather it includes listening skills, asking questions, coining better ideas based on your colleague’s input, and continuously pursuing solutions even if it may look impossible or so daunting.
Finally you should keep your integrity in any case. You can easily assume yourself to have nothing to do with unethical or bad behavior. However in this world it never becomes easy to say what is good or bad at the point of your action. The result, if it is especially not good for many of us, will come at the last moment and probably at the worst time. Therefore, you always have to think twice and think thoroughly whether your current action is ultimately good for human beings. That way our life will continue to get rolling.
So my fellow Postechians! If you open up your eyes more widely and if you reach out to people more broadly and if you are willing to share your knowledge more actively, then you will become a master of your future. Also do not forget being positive about your past, present and future. A positive mind will be your emergency food supply whenever you get lost.
Hyuna Choi
IME 89, Towers Watson Consultant
