We are living in a time of rapid change and uncertainty

12 min readNov 28, 2020

Harari recognizes that advancing technology, automation, social and political polarization, Big Data, fake news, a shifting workforce, robots, and AI all portend a very different future from the world we live in now.

A lot of people, particularly folks in traditional working-class jobs, feel uncertain about the future. “Will my job be replaced by new technology?” they wonder. “Why does the world feel adrift?” they ponder. “Do I still matter, or am I becoming irrelevant?” they ask themselves.

The COVID-19 pandemic has forced many people to shelter in place at home, which has amplified the differences between high-tech workers and everyone else. Also, remote work is forcing us to reimagine past and future work practices.

An article in BBC.com notes:

“For those who can work from home (approximately 40% of US workers largely from the higher educated quartile), our daily experience of work will change significantly. Commuters will gain an hour back on average in their day and estimates suggest that post-pandemic, some portion of the week will involve working from home — from one to three days a week. A hybrid model is likely to emerge that will try to balance the efficiencies gained by remote work with the benefits of social interactions and to creativity and innovation generated by working in person with others.”

Beyond the educated working in high-tech and living in metropolitan areas, there is another swath of the American population who will be hit hardest by the changing economic landscape. The BBC.com article adds:

“But the greatest challenge that we face regarding work is what happens to the other 60% of workers who can’t work from home. The decline in daily commuters as well as business travel has a knock-on effect on those whose jobs support and serve these workers and offices. A full one-in-four workers are in the transportation, food service, cleaning and maintenance, retail, and personal care industries. These jobs, often concentrated in cities and lower-paid, are disappearing or are at risk of disappearing in the near term. We need to shore up the social safety net and invest in ways to further skills and increase access to education and training for our most vulnerable workers.”

The world is changing rapidly, adrift on a turbulent sea of technological advancements, economic upheaval, political uncertainty, and environmental challenges.

Whether you’re in high-tech or not, how do you prepare for this changing landscape? How do you ensure that you still matter in a world adrift?

Learned helplessness

Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, writers have weighed in on the changing landscape of our lives. Author J. D. Vance, in his bestseller book, “Hillbilly Elegy,” spotlighted the lives of the working class, poor white Americans living in the Appalachia region of Kentucky.

Photo: Steve Knutson

Vance grew up dirt poor and witnessed first-hand the alcoholism, opioid crisis, dysfunctional families, and despair all around him. His escape and redemption were found via the United States Military.

J. D. Vance joined the Marine Corps, where he learned discipline, embraced education, and eventually became a Yale Law School graduate.

Vance explains in his book how the Marine Corps helped him:

“I came a little closer to believing in myself. Psychologists call it ‘learned helplessness’ when a person believes, as I did during my youth, that the choices I made had no effect on the outcomes in my life. …If I had learned helplessness at home, the Marines were teaching learned willfulness.”

If you want to succeed in these changing times, “learned willfulness” will serve you well. Developing focus, discipline, and effective routines can fuel your personal growth and success.

Making a person

Of course, you don’t have to join the military to transform your life. Consider the experience of Tara Westover, author of the best selling book, “Educated: A Memoir.”

Amazon.com offers the following introduction for Westover’s excellent book:

“Born to survivalists in the mountains of Idaho, Tara Westover was seventeen the first time she set foot in a classroom. Her family was so isolated from mainstream society that there was no one to ensure the children received an education, and no one to intervene when one of Tara’s older brothers became violent. When another brother got himself into college, Tara decided to try a new kind of life. Her quest for knowledge transformed her, taking her over oceans and across continents, to Harvard and to Cambridge University.”

Like J. D. Vance, Westover turned to education to lift herself out of the dysfunctional, isolated world she came from. As Westover notes:

“An education is not so much about making a living as making a person.”

A strong education can produce a more well-rounded individual, better capable of adapting to our changing times. However, the type of education one receives will matter greatly.

Israeli historian Yuval Noah Harari argues that most schools focus too much on predetermined skills, such as solving equations, writing code, etc. In his book, “21 Lessons for the 21st Century,” he argues:

“So what should we be teaching? Many pedagogical experts argue that schools should switch to teaching ‘the four Cs’ — critical thinking, communication, collaboration, and creativity. More broadly, they believe, school should downplay technical skills and emphasize general-purpose life skills. Most important of all will be the ability to deal with change, learn new things, and preserve your mental balance in unfamiliar situations.”

The ability to deal with change is perhaps the most important skillset people will need in the future.

We repress our ignorance

Tara Westover gave a commencement speech in 2019 titled, “The Un-Instagramable Self.” She explained that humans used to have two identities: who we are around others and who we are with ourselves. But now, according to Westover, we have a third self: “The virtual avatar we create and share with the world.”

Everyone spends a great deal of time carefully curating their best identities online. Westover notes:

“They are beautiful, unblemished lives. But sometimes I think that when we deny what is worst about ourselves, we also deny what is best. We repress our ignorance, and thus we deny our capacity to learn. We repress our faults, and thus we deny our capacity to change. We forget that it is our flawed human self, and not our avatar, who creates things and reconsiders and forgives and shows mercy.”

Our online avatars aren’t real. They’re curated projections. We start to believe the lie. We slowly become alien to ourselves. This digital narcissism keeps us from growing.

The best part of you, the real you, is the opposite of you on Instagram. It’s when you’re up late studying, unshaven and tired, immersed in those textbooks. Investing in your future. It’s helping your kids with their homework or taking your elderly mother to the doctor’s office.

This is how we matter in a world adrift. By investing in ourselves. Doing the hard work of personal growth. Taking care of our loved ones. Sacrificing now for a better tomorrow. Helping others.

The part of you that matters isn’t the Instagram photo swimming with dolphins. It’s the months of study and work you put into a promotion, that resulted in more vacation time, which led to your dolphin experience.

In her commencement address, Tara Westover summed it up perfectly:

“Here’s something I truly believe: everything of any significance that you will do in your life will be done by your un-instagramable self. It is, for example, your un-instagramable self who is graduating today. I say this with confidence because I’ve yet to see a Facebook or Instagram account which is dedicated to photos of someone studying or attending lectures or writing essays.”

Windows on the world

If you’re between jobs, displaced by technology, or uncertain about the future, here are five tips to put into practice.

Be open-minded

There’s nothing wrong with having strong beliefs, but sometimes we become imprisoned in our own dogma. Or we get too wrapped up in things we have little control over.

“Your assumptions are your windows on the world. Scrub them off every once in awhile, or the light won’t come in.” ― Isaac Asimov

You can combat this by reading broadly, exposing yourself to different ideas and people, falling in love with learning, and checking for confirmation bias in how you acquire information.

Experiment

A lot of people quit when they try something new and it doesn’t work out. Failure may be frustrating, but it’s instructive.

“I learned from my dad that change and experimentation are constants and important. You have to keep trying new things.” — S. Robson Walton

The more you’re willing to experiment and try new things, the more likely you are to change, grow, and find success.

Stop waiting

Conditions are never going to be perfect. The timing is never going to be right. You seldom have all the tools and experience you need.

“Don’t wait for your ship to come in, swim out to it.” ― Cathy Hopkins

Stop waiting and go for it anyway.Whatever it is you want to do, dive in. Often you’ll learn along the way, and the mistakes you make will only help propel you forward.

Embrace flexibility

According to an article in Center for Creative Leadership, there are three kinds of flexibility that help you adapt to change.

Cognitive flexibility — the ability to use different thinking strategies and mental frameworks.

Emotional flexibility — the ability to vary one’s approach to dealing with emotions and those of others.

Dispositional flexibility — the ability to remain optimistic and, at the same time, realistic.

Incorporate different thinking strategies and mental frameworks into your planning, decision-making, and management of day-to-day work. Adopt some give and take in how you deal with others.

Master adaptability

The actor Harrison Ford started acting as a young man but failed to get any meaningful roles. So he became a self-taught carpenter and worked in that profession for years to support his family.

Photo: Todd Quackenbush

Eventually, Harrison Ford auditioned with director George Lucas for the film American Graffiti (1973). That role and collaboration with George Lucas led to Ford’s role as Han Solo in Star Wars.

In today’s fast-changing world, the ability to adapt and learn new skills will better position you for opportunities. Luck favors the prepared.

You will always matter

Remember that, no matter what direction the world tilts toward in the future, you will always matter to loved ones and friends.

Your children care not how rich or famous you are. Your spouse craves your love and uniqueness. Strangers you help celebrate your humanity.

It’s the real you, working hard behind the scenes, that matters more than the curated you on Instagram.

By all means, use the information and tips listed above to better position yourself in a world adrift. But most of all, be a kind and virtuous person. Your soul will have a warm glow and you’ll sleep better at night.