Half-life of knowledge

Are you twenty or thirty something? And you are doing pretty well in your career? You had been good or above average in your academics? And you have a job that is perhaps not a dream job but is good enough to chase your dreams and goals? Oh! then that is what I must call a perfect career. Isn’t it?

Now it’s time to face some of the realities of present day life.

Do you feel amazed when you see a 10-12 years old kid knows all the basic skills to operate a smart phone, they can play online games at ease, which you could not have even imagined at that age, or perhaps even now? Or, do you feel obsolete when a kid from nursery classes spell that English word with phonetics and not alphabets, like what we used to do in school? Do you get perplexed by upcoming subjects as data science and analytics and actuarial science, which perhaps you have never even heard of during your school and college days? Do you get scared when you think of taking a basics course on cognitive learning and artificial intelligence? Do terms like IoT (Internet-of-things), ICT (Information and Communications Technology), Big data, IBM Watson,  Mind Mapping sound alien to you?

I’m sure that you are frowning at all these questions but you definitely know that the answer to these questions is a big YES! And you might have come to a time when your knowledge and skills that you have acquired over years started to become obsolete.

But better late than never, when you realized that your skills have depreciated over time, what’s next?

Well, the next is what I refer to as continuous learning to maintain sustainability and get that competitive edge!

Most people associate learning with formal education at school, college, university etc.  We are all told, from an early age, that we should ‘get a good education’.

Generally speaking, it is true that a formal education and the resulting qualifications are important. Education may maximize our potential to find better, more satisfying jobs, earn more and, perhaps, become more successful in our chosen career.

There are two main reasons for learning throughout life: for personal development and for professional development.  These reasons may not necessarily be distinct as personal development can improve your employment opportunities and professional development can enable personal growth.

Learning for Personal Development – There does not need to be a specific reason for learning since learning for the sake of learning can in itself be a rewarding experience.

Moreover, keeping the brain active does have advantages since learning can prevent you from becoming bored and thus enable a more fulfilling life at any age.

There are, of course, many reasons why people learn for personal development. You may want to increase your knowledge or skills around a particular hobby or pastime that you enjoy. Perhaps you want to develop some entirely new skill that will in some way enhance your life. Or you’re planning a trip and want to learn more about the history and culture of your destination.

Learning for Professional Development – Being well-educated is not necessarily the key to employment. Although qualifications may get you an interview, actually getting the job can take a lot more. Employers are looking for well-balanced people with transferable skills. This includes the ability to be able to demonstrate that you are keen to learn and develop.

If you do find yourself unemployed then use the time wisely. Learning something new can pay-off with new opportunities which might not otherwise have arisen.

While you are employed, take advantage of training, coaching or mentoring opportunities and work on your continuous professional development as you will likely become better at what you do and more indispensable to your current or future employer.

Putting the time in for extra learning brings its own rewards.

A few years ago when the US had high rates of unemployment, there was a strong suggestion that this was not due to a lack of jobs, but rather a lack of skills.

However, rather than investing in more courses or programs for members of staff to attend, organizations turned their attentions to technology platforms instead. Coupled with social and mobile tools, these platforms enabled companies to develop and share content, provide employees with training materials when they were needed most, and deliver continuous learning.

This represented a shift away from the old ways of formal training, which typically took place in the classroom and involved a teacher telling us what we needed to know. In its place, continual learning gives us a more engaging and satisfying training experience, where we can learn informally on the job or at a time and place that suits us.

Arguably the main reason why you should embrace a habit of continuous learning is that, without such an agile and adaptive life, you are definitely going to get left behind. Skilled jobs are becoming more and more specialized, while the rate in which things like industry regulations and technological advancements change mean that you always need to stay one step ahead of the game.

And in this context let me introduce you to another concept called Half-life of knowledge.

Half-life of knowledge is the time it takes for widely accepted knowledge to become obsolete or shown to be wrong. It is an analogy to the half-life of radioactive decay that captures the tendency for well-accepted ideas to be improved or reinvented with time. For example, the medical treatments of one century may look barbaric to the next. It is likely that current environmental practices that contaminate air, water and soil with known toxins will seem strange to the future.

Likewise, today's science, technology, social values, and practices will seem primitive to the future, perhaps comically so.

The half-life of ideas analogy isn't completely accurate as some ideas may last indefinitely. The durability of ideas varies from one subject area to the next. Social sciences and psychology are thought to have a short half-life whereby half the accepted ideas change every 5 or 10 years. In areas such as technology, half-life may be even shorter. The half-life of scientific knowledge is considerably longer, perhaps 50 to 100 years. In areas such as philosophy, ideas thousands of years old continue to endure.

As you can see, continuous learning can be a key ingredient in your success. In addition, as knowledge becomes obsolete at a faster and faster rate, keeping your personal knowledge base up-to-date is quickly becoming a matter of survival!

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