Skills for the long term

“What skills would you teach your children, that would be relevant in the next 10 to 20 years?”

The curriculums taught in traditional education are based on the past, rarely including the present, and almost never hinting at the future.

Given the accelerating speed of change, this is making the decades-long traditional education obsolete in many ways.

Add to it the rise of Artifical Intelligence (AI), which is already replacing many skills that were traditionally only human, and the issue becomes serious.

I had to the opportunity to ask that question to one of the greatest minds in the planet on AI, someone who helped shaped the Internet as we know it, and I found his answer both simple and sound:

“I think you want people to be curious about the world, and to be able to dive into any new situation and apply what they know, understand what they don’t know, collaborate with people to collectively do things that they cannot do individually.

I think that is a very good skill regardless whether you are a roboticist or any sort of profession or endeavour (not STEM related).

You want to be able to work collaboratively with others, know lots of things, and learn new things on a regular basis not just when you are in school but all the time.”