I happened to listen to views of two great individuals during the week, one the CEO of social networking giant Mark Zuckerberg and the other of a media fame “Neeya Naana” C.Gopinath. Both offered good views to an ever persisting question on my mind over what I must tell my kid when he grows up. What future holds for him and what he needs to look up to? I would be a very bad role model for him but I would serve my purpose as a personal guide and provide him with loving shoulder to lean on whenever he need to. Looking at some of the rapid advancements in the digital world and how every industry is transforming for good, whatever ideals and the yardstick that I looked up to would be idealistic for his generation but not pragmatic. Landscape is completely changing that highlight “Survival of the Smartest” for his generation more than ever with AI’s taking over workloads of many of my generation.
The speech from Mark Zuckerberg at Harvard University on graduation day highlighted the very importance of sense of purpose being much bigger than oneself for the millennials. The purpose is what drives other people to hop on to the bandwagon aligned by the cause. (http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2017/05/mark-zuckerbergs-speech-as-written-for-harvards-class-of-2017/). Our mind is tuned to think about social causes such as poverty, food security and health systems when we think about the cause and they are important. Today, we have people with great ideas working on these issues unconventionally. I read something about the “plant factories” to provide clean food in the neighborhood in china and the model is being tested by some restaurants to grow their own produce (https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2017-05-25/-plant-factories-churn-out-clean-food-in-china-s-dirty-cities). The other point that Mark made during the speech is the importance of community. This also ties back to the previous point on the sense of purpose. We have seen professionals quitting their jobs to help farmers on organic produce and connecting them with consumers and market. Young generation is interested in working with the community. Likewise, within education we have seen people working with communities. There was this Edex edition from Indian Express on Monday 22nd May 2017 about teachers and professors who made difference with the student community. One could sense the passion for community from Zuck's speech and his growing interest for philanthropy.
The other speech that I happened to be there in person was the felicitation speech by C.Gopinath on 21st May 2017 at a school in the neighborhood. The guy has the knack of collecting topics from the audience and delivering his view on those topics which in most of the cases are already found from his research or from his earlier occasions or some of these can be taken up in his “Neeya Naana” Programme. Nevertheless, I liked the pace of his speech, message and his love for networking with people. One of the key concerns expressed by the huddled crowd was on “How we need to prepare the current generation for future as our generation went into the job driven economy?” A valid concern in the minds of every parent with no organized approach to tackle the problem and a big struggle out there. I second the opinion expressed by Gopi on how the confidence is gradually taken away from our generation being driven in swamps into jobs. As the world is becoming more uncertain which is echoed by everyone and also in the speech by Mark Zuckerberg, it is driving lot of people behind in terms of hope and direction. He hinted that we are wealthy than our previous generation but lack a lot in hope compared to our previous generation. Gopi rightly mentioned one thing that we need to nurture into the minds of young generation is on “Confidence and Hope” to handle any challenge in an uncertain world.
Today, I am struggling with yardstick on which we could measure success for the future generation. My generation probably most of them would agree on material status that one achieve within a society could be a barometer. I am not sure how far that is sustainable for the next generation which is already highly networked and looking beyond just material and platonic measures. Now, coming to the question that I started with and the answers that I skimmed from these two speeches at different parts of the world, I thought 4C’s in terms of cause, conviction, courage and community could become more important for the young generation. Again, borrowing some of the thoughts from these leaders. Cause in terms of defining a large purpose for you and society, conviction in terms of bright ideas and hope to solve larger problems, courage to step out of shades and start on the work and community in terms of bringing larger section of people to work on a common cause could be a way to guide the young generation. Technology and money are tools that would be in abundant and we need brighter generation that has the courage and conviction to apply these tools to solve problems within their community and their field of interest. I am beginning to question the relevance of formal education if they ever will be able to guide students on these principles and build in them the 4C qualities. At the least, maybe we as parents as they gain knowledge on their field of study from formal education, we need to inculcate some of these thoughts to prepare them for the new world. We may need to selectively choose encounters (speeches, books, debates, discussions, field visits, stories, and meeting new people) that could seed these thoughts in their minds and allow them to grow on their own stead. There could be no material yardstick but it is in the satisfaction and happiness that you would get from the shared purpose be it social, environmental or friendly encounters in life that defines the future generation.
Happy Beginning!!!
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