In the future, what skills will be necessary? Here the situation becomes very complicated due to a set of narratives that don’t want you to think about the future. In short, there’s a dominant portrayal of “young people without a future.”
Young people, then, don’t want to hear about the future—but if they began to realize that there isn’t just one future, but multiple possible futures, they might be able to develop strategies and chart courses toward those futures. And perhaps start thinking about the skills needed to face them.
The idea here is the importance of paying attention to the weak signals of the present in order to understand and anticipate future trends. Weak signals are early hints of emerging changes that, if recognized and correctly interpreted, can offer a significant advantage. The example of the first electric‐vehicle charging stations that appeared around 2014 and their evolution up to today’s predominance of the green economy clearly illustrates this concept. The ability to discern and interpret these weak signals is crucial for anticipating and adapting to future changes.
But to do this, I must not simply look at what’s around me—I must “see” and try to “forecast,” making more or less plausible hypotheses. I must know that I can form different, sometimes conflicting, hypotheses, and this tells me I’m dealing not with a single future but with many futures. Consequently, we need a different approach—perhaps one more skill that today is hardly talked about, but on which I intend to spend a few seconds.
Clearly, a bit of imagination is required. Only with imagination will we be able to build multiple Plan Bs. George Bernard Shaw is illuminating on this point: “Imagination is the beginning of creation.” A very intriguing phrase. Imagine—and then create!
If I talk about future scenarios, all shaped by technological frontiers advancing at unprecedented speed—genetics, biotechnology, artificial intelligence, and robotics, the four forces shaping our future—I immediately understand which skills will be needed to master that future.
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