Changes are coming ☄️

Are we all close to extinction like it happened to the dinosaurs? Well, stick around, and we will figure it out!

I wrote this article to bring light to the paradigm shift happening now and its consequences in our lives. I would also show an alternative vision to the traditional work environment and educational institutions. You should read it if you want to find an answer to the question: “What can you do to survive and thrive in the future world?”

What is wrong with traditional education, and how to solve it?

Let’s imagine Sam. He has finished high school and thinking about his future career. Since tech is hot, he decides to get a Computer Science degree at a university. Sam appreciates that local bank for landing $50k to pay for his education, say “Bye” to parents, and move to the university campus.

He is taking the classes the program requires for graduations. Each of the university classes includes a specified volume of work Sam needs to do to get the necessary credits, and he, as a diligent student, does what is required. After 5years, Sam gets his desired degree with anticipation of offers waiting for him in the job market.

But, surprisingly, most actual positions do not need Sam to “write a compiler”; The market wants Sam to understand technical requirements, choose a modern development stack to build the product, and do time estimates for his work. The market wants Sam to ship the programming solutions which solve their problems.

Guess if the university taught him to do it? Guess what Sam feels with the understanding that he wasted 5years and $50k in debt?

Same as Sam, I finished school, attended a university, went through years of traditional academic education, graduated, and started to search how I can apply what I learned there in the real world. Guess what; I could not! Why? Here is how I would formulate the answer:

"Many traditional educational institutions often answer the question neither student nor market asks. But the price tags as if they are."

Most students, when attending a university or a college, seek the skills they will be able to apply to build a successful career and future, while most traditional education institutions only answer a question: “What a student should prove they know to finish each class and graduate?”. And usually, it is not the same.

The market seeks someone who has actual hands-on skills and can do things, not just know things.

So what Sam and myself can do in these circumstances? The answer is self-education!

Self-education is when you are taking responsibility for your education. It is the way to understand yourself, understand the pace you can learn with, and the learning approach that suits you best. It is learning how to learn in general and learning how to teach yourself in particular.

Self-education is when you use a university only as a service for a specific skill you learn and do it online. And if they fail to deliver a service you seek, you move to other educational sources which will. The ability to do self-directed learning is becoming a vital skill in the current fast-evolving world. No doubt that mastering self-education will help us to survive and thrive in the world we live in.

What is wrong with the traditional working environments, and how to solve it?

Let’s come back to Sam. Even though he went through the confusion he had after graduation, he did not give up and figured it all out via self-education. He trained the necessary skills to the point when he can have a first job.

He applied for dozens of positions, went through a few dozen interviews where everyone asks standard questions, went through dozen of artificial coding assignments. Sam played “the game” called the hiring process and finally got the offer he wanted.

Now Sam wakes up early, spends two hours a day commuting to his job’s office, and spends the rest of the day in a beautiful office in downtown.

While doing self-education, Sam got used to being in the Flow State in his uninterrupted environment. Now he notices that interruptions are everywhere. Despite that, Sam works hard. He not only over-delivers but also helps his coworkers to get things done.

He does not always agree with the programming solutions his manager asks him to do, as they are not good from a long-term perspective. He sometimes forgets to do a small request manager tangentially asks him to do outside of their task management system.

Sam believes that results matter more than the presence in a working place. Sam allows himself to come late at work sometimes, which is not being unnoticeable by his manager and coworkers. After half a year working at the office, Sam made a calculation and realized that without the commute, he could have saved 240 hours of his life. Since all his work he can deliver over the internet, he does not see the reason he cannot do it remotely.

So he initiates a meeting with his manager and discusses an opportunity for him to go remote. Sam highlights that he consistently delivers results in his position required and all the benefits of him being remote. But guess what, the manager thinks about this request and overall about Sam and his performance? The manager sees it all through the lens of What you see is all there is. Most probably, the manager will refuse Sam’s request with vague explanations.

The problems of the most in-office working environments are constant distractions, office drama, miscommunication, old school rules. Performance measurements are all hijacked by human biases. Remote work not only solves all of these problems but also provides many other benefits.

In a true remote-first working environment, you would be valued not by appearing in a workplace but by the actual results you deliver. You will be able to define the time when you are the most productive. You will be less distracted and will get more things done. You will save precious time you would otherwise spend on the commute, which you can share with people you love or invest in learning new skills.

I believe remote work is the way to go for both businesses and professionals. If you are a Software Developer or have a dream to become one, it is crucial to start mastering this skill. If you are a business owner, start incorporating a system where the physical office is not required. Those who will, will survive and thrive, those who resist, may extinct as dinosaurs did.

Summary

The world is rapidly changing. The traditional education systems are not able to keep up with the pace of changes. Many businesses are stuck in fancy offices and old belief systems.

We have a great online education that is growing. We have technologies that make remote work easy and, unfortunately, we have COVID-19 which forced many of us to go remote.

Those are the meteors that symbolize the ending of an old and the start of a new world. A world where it is essential to take responsibility for own education and incorporate both self-education and remote work skills. A world where delivered results matter more than being present at the workplace. A world where you grow up, learn the skills you passionate about, and start a career at any company without the necessity to move thousands of miles away. It is the world I want to help to build and live in.