Chapter 223

the university model

Life long learning is the only way to future-proof your life. The university model that I grew up with and that you grew up with is far from adequate for the pace of today’s world. There is no way that four years of university can begin to equip you for pace of change and size of needs your world is facing. It can provide you with some patterns of learning and skills of focus and demand-management, but content?? Not a chance.

You will need decades to develop and hone content. I finally felt like I was starting to really understand a few things by the time I finished my doctoral thesis. Only a few things though. Its just like when Dr Klipowitz told me that when I have read every single book on my subject, and when I have already read all the books being quoted in my latest find on this subject - that I was finally ready to begin to write, to begin to understand. That only took five years. And I am a very fast reader. The value of the university model is that it taught me some skills and practical means to continue learning.

So if you have the excellent fortune of a good university education, you get a slight headstart on the non-university graduate, but both of you will need keep learning every single day of your lives, or you both will find yourselves stuck.

Life long learning is the single most critical factor in your future-proof self.