The future belongs to “cureators”.
The definition of productivity is changing. In a world where machines grow smarter and smarter, capable of storing more and more information in the form of data, retrieving it upon request, combining and recombining it and producing tangible results, services or physical products, humans need to redefine their scope of work. The era where people excelled through memorising huge chunks of accumulated information, spending an extensive amount of time studying and delving deeper and deeper in specific subjects, is reaching its end. The process of producing creative solutions is also changing shape. We now more than ever need to start acting like “cureators”: creators driven by curation. #
But can our lifestyles support this? #
I recently read an article by Greg Satell on Forbes that concluded by saying:
While the past favored those who could retain and process information efficiently, the future belongs to those who can imagine a better world and work with others to make it happen.
I have to admit that this last sentence triggered a lot of thoughts in my head and eventually led to this blog post (so thanks for the inspiration, Greg).
In order to succeed (if not survive) in an environment where AI replaces a growing percentage of human input, we need to harness our brain skills in a different manner: we need to constantly seek for ways to improve the world we live in by leveraging the power of new technologies. Progress nowadays is happening at the speed of light: it is essential that we keep up to date with new solutions and new capabilities. We need to be able to recognise opportunities for positive change and turn them into creative projects. We need to know who the right people to reach out to are in order to form powerful project teams. We need to know where to find the right technological tools to bring our ideas to life.
There is unlimited knowledge out there: it’s in the hands of creative innovators to come up with ways to combine it and help our world take one step ahead.
The problem is that our current way of living and working certainly does not promote cureating. Both curation and creation require time. And focus. And clarity of mind. There might be a minority of people who work in highly “alternative” work environments and therefore have the opportunity to function like that in their everyday life. However, the majority of people I know don’t. Personally, I find it very hard to devote a respectable amount of time to read news, updates and interesting articles - even on a few chosen topics - during weekdays. After 9 hours (at least) of work and between groceries, household chores and any other responsibilities, my ability to concentrate and focus on what I am reading is lost. In my opinion, this information-gathering process, especially for people working in creative roles, should be part of the everyday working schedule.
Technological advances were meant to give us the ability to work for less hours so that we have more time (and clearer minds) to spend on innovative and creative processes. However, this has certainly not been the case. Flexible working hours have made their debut, but have they actually been adopted by the majority of companies out there? I guess we both know the answer to this.
Going back to where I started from, we now know that the future belongs to cureators and that undoubtedly our lifestyles have not yet been adjusted to fulfil this purpose. The sooner we realise that, the better: it’s in our own hands, yours and mine, to modify our way of working and living- in effect our way of thinking- to this new reality, this new era. May the force be with us.
El.