With so much talk about artificial intelligence (AI), it’s easy to become either totally absorbed and fearful of it or ignore it completely.
I am talking about the majority here because to some, it “isn’t real” and that is because they haven’t seen it or got their heads around it — for others, it is a total reality and of course, there is the “fascination” factor.
For me, it is a total reality and I truly believe we will end up with firstly a hybrid race and ultimately, the end of humans as we know them!
It’s a cheerful thought I know, but I am going to go to extremes here and I first heard the term way back in the 1980s, but only really understood it around twenty years ago.
Now my crystal ball has malfunctioned at the moment, so I cannot give you a timeline on when this “extreme” will happen, so I am going to forget about it right now and talk about building the greatest corporation, the greatest enterprise of all and that is the “enterprise of you.”
The future of you
Let’s get to the big one — how do you future-proof yourself in this ever-changing world of automation and AI?
Well, the first thing is to gain an understanding of emotional intelligence (EQ).
That’s all of the fluffy and soft stuff that doesn’t add up to hardcore qualifications and abilities.
It means those things that you cannot easily measure — being “nice”, having empathy; understanding “who” you are rather than what you know, having values, integrity and the ability to actually demonstrate those qualities.
For me, it’s what I try to teach my children and I will give you an example — if you cannot, for example, turn up on time for a meeting, for a phone call or whatever, then you are showing that you do not respect the other person’s time.
It’s the little things that at the end of the day are so much bigger than the hardcore values.
At least to me anyway.
For me, the best strategy for future-proofing yourself is to intently focus and try to master the qualities of EQ.
Let machines be machines and AI be AI, but there will be qualities that AI will find it difficult to replicate and master…at least for now!
Don’t give up on the human race
Again, I am going to extremes here and just stay with me for a minute — I always go to extremes in everything and that means mapping out the worst possible outcome, the best one and then settling somewhere in-between.
I study the pattern behavior of people and I am simply using that to create a “model” of the person, so I can predict what they do.
In reality, we all do and it is, as they say, human nature.
If you think about this in more detail, you can see how we do this in relation to the sayings that we hear from our parents or other people who try to help us navigate through the maze of human life. We can say things like “don’t make a rash decision on someone” or something…we say things like “let’s give that salesperson another 3 months and we’ll take it from there.”
But our real strength comes from our ability to work on instinct.
Now, what is “instinct?”
I will go to my own children and my trusted business advisor — “sharps,” my wonderful and annoying human Shar-Pei dog!
When my children were young and could form no (obvious) opinion of people, there were some people they would instantly run to and embrace without thought…and others they would run to.
Now my dog takes a certain and instant dislike to certain delivery people…and I mean she has literally jumped up to the window after growling at them and tried to bite through the window!
I know that my dog is not human ( she acts like one), but she is not a machine and just displays her own form of instinct to support the point.
Machines are excellent at learning patterns and will out-perform humans simply by sheer processing power at the very least, as well as machine learning techniques that will enable predictability.
AI and other experts please correct me if I am wrong here — I doubt machines will have the ability to have an instinct as we humans know it!
Invest in the enterprise of you
I cannot stress enough that the best investment you can make in life is in yourself and it doesn’t have to have any cost!
I have spent thirty-five years in business, I have struggled, learned and always tried to share that knowledge with everyone who would listen and to those who would not!
But my conclusion to this day is that it all starts with you.
Anyone can start a business, anyone can get a job…but not everyone can really make those options work and get the best out of them.
It comes down to “hearts and minds” — how strong is your desire to succeed, how strong is your willingness to never give up on what you truly believe in and how much passion do you have for what you are doing?
These are the keys to future-proofing your life and ones that in my opinion and at least for now, machines will struggle to cope with and therein lies the opportunity.
There will become an up and coming war for real human talent!
Neil Franklin
Artificial Intelligence Emotional Intelligence Future of Humans
Last modified: November 6, 2019
