
How can we create a workforce full of lifelong learners? - sarapeyton
https://qz.com/work/1786842/infosys-president-ravi-kumar-on-how-to-develop-a-workforce-of-lifelong-learners/
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commandlinefan
Clearly the best way to create lifelong learners is to cram them elbow-to-
elbow in noisy open offices so that they have to listen to one another’s
conference calls all day long or try in vain to drown them out with loud music
so that they can only dedicate a fraction of their concentration on a task at
one time. You should also demand that people with advanced degrees from
research institutions who’ve spent years perfecting their research skills
clear a set number of Jira tickets every week and penalize them financially
for missing their targets. And, of course, it goes without saying, don’t
encourage reading or experimentation or learning or any sort of self-
improvement.

~~~
MarkMMullin
If this was reddit, I'd award gold for that comment. Only thing I can add is
that one should only value paid experience, i.e. the person working a day job
doing a banking app and a personal job of adding high quality code to a
complex OSS project, well hell, they only know a banking app

~~~
commandlinefan
And his banking app was written in Java, so he's clearly unable to learn Scala
or Groovy.

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hprotagonist
_" If you pay a man a salary for doing research, he and you will want to have
something to point to at the end of the year to show that the money has not
been wasted. In promising work of the highest class, however, results do no
come in this regular fashion, in fact years may pass without any tangible
result being obtained, and the position of the paid worker would be very
embarrassing and he would naturally take to work on a lower, or at any rate a
different plane where he could be sure of getting year by year tangible
results which would justify his salary.

The position is this: You want one kind of research, but, if you pay a man to
do it, it will drive him to research of a different kind. The only thing to do
is to pay him for doing something else and give him enough leisure to do
research for the love of it. "_

J.J. Thompson, about 1915

~~~
commandlinefan
> year by year tangible results

Wow, he didn’t foresee the 21st century - the “agile consultants” who are
running these circuses demand day-by-day tangible results (and then can’t
fathom why nothing significant is getting done).

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ebiester
This article asks the question, then seemingly goes on three different
tangents unrelated to lifelong learning.

Further, implicit in this discussion is that the worker will continue to learn
in the employer's interest without being paid. I can be a lifelong learner of
music composition, but I don't think my employer cares about that. They're
looking for my lifelong pursuit to increased productivity for their benefit.

(Ironically, that increased productivity makes a lot more sense if I am not
selling my labor but rather am building capital for myself.)

That said, employers can encourage lifelong learning by paying for it in wages
and time allotted during the workday.

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esotericn
There are plenty of lifelong learners out there.

The workforce isn't 'full' of them because the workforce isn't 'full' of
people who have something that can be called a career.

Being able to self-actualize to some degree is a fantastically powerful
ability, everything else stems from there.

You don't need to, and shouldn't, wait for a manager to tell you that. Plenty
of companies rely on the fact that their employees have weak hands; it's not
in their interests to help you.

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rectang
Distinguish yourself from the competition by adopting a four-day workweek.

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nathias
one thing is required above all for continuous learning; leisure time

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selfishgene
Very simple: eliminate exclusionary zoning bylaws in the most overpriced real
estate markets.

"The rent is too damn high."

3-day work weeks will quickly follow.

~~~
toomuchtodo
3 day work weeks will arrive only when mandated by law. We’re long overdue in
that regard [1].

Fixing housing through mandating remote work also would go a long way, so
you’re not held hostage to a job through geographic requirements. Kudos to
remote first/remote only Orgs contributing in this regard. We can always use
more flexible/remote roles ("mostly" remote, flexible enough to still have
reasonable amounts of face to face time with colleagues or others in the
industry).

[1]
[https://economics.stackexchange.com/questions/15558/producti...](https://economics.stackexchange.com/questions/15558/productivity-
vs-real-earnings-in-the-us-what-happened-ca-1974)

~~~
selfishgene
On a practical level how would you prevent people from seeking a second job in
order to pay their inflated rent?

Fixing the housing supply problem appears to be critical here. Without
increasing supply, folks might find ways to work around the "mandate" out of
sheer necessity.

Also I think the OP should broaden the question to read "lifelong
contributors." The learning is a very important component of this, but broadly
construed, that learning should include the practical experience gained from
__contributing __to all sorts endeavors that produce social value. One of the
critical problems with today 's workforce is that so much of the work revolves
around what social anthropologist David Graeber calls "Bullshit Jobs."

There's often very little to learn in these environments except how to play
office politics more astutely ... the next time around.

~~~
toomuchtodo
The aggressive support and prioritization of remote work (using economic
incentives and public policy) and the deflation of housing must go hand in
hand. It's okay if some people want to work more than the regulated work week.
We allow this today, but I don't notice many people working six or seven days
a week voluntarily, only if they're economically forced to. This bodes well
for a reduction in the definition of a work week.

To your point about bullshit jobs, they must be destroyed using policy as part
of these efforts, while still providing a stable safety net for life long
learners to have the opportunity to generate value society can't yet predict.
Everyone who wants a job should be able to have one they want; those who don't
want a job are cheap to provide for (automated ag, cheap/clean energy, etc)
with properly architected public good systems. Some of these issues are
societal ("puritanical work ethic", "suffering is good for the soul", etc) and
will take time to recalibrate (I have seen this first hand in conversations
with people, and I'm sure others have as well).

Apply force in the desired direction of progress and don't let up.

~~~
selfishgene
In order to change policy (in the US for instance), you'll need the
cooperation of politicians. What candidate running for president right now is
truly prepared to challenge the status quo? Those of us who have been around
for more than a few elections know the answer to this question all too well;
hence the low voter turnout.

We need to shift more in the direction of a direct democracy, using the
blockchain perhaps as a next generation digital ballot box. Not holding my
breath though that this will happen within the lifetime of any one reading
hacker news right now. There's just too much at stake for our corporate
overlords.

~~~
toomuchtodo
I intend to run for office. It is a thankless, unpleasant, but necessary
schlep. I’d encourage you to consider the same.

No blockchain!

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Iwan-Zotow
Add Adderoll to drinking water

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generalpass
Abolish public schools.

Nothing crushes the desire to learn faster and more effectively than public
schools.

~~~
tonyedgecombe
Abolish private schools.

You can be sure that the people in power will make sure public schools are
properly funded.

~~~
PhaedrusV
We're already spending more per student on public school than private school,
on average. When you factor in low-cost high-benefit options like
homeschooling, the amount we're already spending on shit outcomes for public
school looks even more ridiculous.

Costs: [https://www.gobankingrates.com/saving-
money/education/privat...](https://www.gobankingrates.com/saving-
money/education/private-school-cost-vs-public-school/)

Homeschooling performance:
[https://www.topmastersineducation.com/homeschooled/](https://www.topmastersineducation.com/homeschooled/)

