Phaim (fāme) — Larry Becker’s Blog

Are You Ready for Tomorrow (and Next Week)?

Posted on 12 July 2010

I’m 47 years old, so I grew up in a time before every home and every white collar job revolved around computers. During my childhood, adults generally expected to have a handful of full time jobs in their life and one (or possibly two) careers in their lifetime. Computers changed all that, and technological developments in general have dramatically changed the speed at which a working professional must continue to learn. Some folks in their upper 50s or 60s may have been able to skate by without getting totally immersed in computers and huge changes, but at this point, anybody 55 or younger has simply got to learn and change. Everybody (with a very few exceptions) has to stay up on the leading edge of technology in their industry.

Speaking of my childhood, I remember all kinds of wild predictions about the future from back then. Some have come true, while others have yet to be realized. I remember in 1976, when a futurist came to my social studies class and told us how everybody would be able to buy groceries and instantly have the money come out of our checking account and go into the store’s account. I thought that was crazy futuristic stuff, but I use my debit card every day now. He also predicted that we would all have a printer hooked to our TV set and we’d download daily newspapers via a small satellite dish, straight to our TV and even print them if we wanted. While he was off a bit, I think that’s a pretty solid description of the internet and PCs with a personal printer.

But some of the stuff that didn’t come true had to do with future cars and transportation in general. Another missed guess was that our houses would all be solar powered by now. Nope. Now, if I were a cynical kind of guy, I’d say that’s because the power-company owning government entities and the big car and oil companies have crushed anything that threatens their business as usual profit schemes. But why 20+ year predictions do or don’t come to fruition, isn’t my point today. The thing is, when new technology is emerging, what are you doing about it?

Back in my youth, grown-ups could work from day to day without expecting dramatic changes in their industry. Going to conventions every year or two, was more than enough to stay up on trends. Those days are gone. Almost everybody needs to do online training and read trade related web sites to stay current. Over the past couple of weeks there have been a few stories at Engadget, about what Canon is predicting will be the future of photography. It’s thought-provoking. It’s interesting. And some of it may actually happen. However, I wouldn’t get all caught up in the gloom and doom of the end of the still photography business. Just stay up on what people are willing to pay for and how to do it. For example, these days if you’re selling photography, you had darn sure better know how to do HDR photography.

So get current and find out what people are paying for. Take some classes. Read some articles online. And maybe in 20 years you’ll still be leading the pack.

_