By Thomas Carroll, PhD

I have been reflecting on the pace of change in the world in 2022. This is in relation to my ongoing work to continuously update and improve my course on the how to prepare for the future of work – Future Skills 2030. I have come to the conclusion that one of the main ways to deal with the fast pace of change is to adopt an attitude of ‘Relentless Restlessness’. In this article I want explain what I mean by relentless restlessness using examples from my own background.

By the way the Future Skills course is not what you might call an evergreen course. That is where the course material remains relevant without much change. On the contrary the course requires constant updating to reflect a fast changing world. In particular section two, which deals with technologies driving the 4th industrial revolution. Almost every other day we have new developments in one field of technology or another. There are also other shocks such as the global pandemic and an ongoing war in Europe. As a result of this disastrous war we have escalating food and energy prices being felt around the world. In response to these rapid changes I also need to adopt an attitude of relentless restlessness to keep my course current and relevant!

Reflections on my own family history

If I look at my own family history my great grandfather Thomas, born in 1837, was a farmer in Ireland. His son, my grandfather James, born in 1863, was also a farmer. Their methods of farming were probably very similar. They used horses on the farm and hand milked cows. At that time farming was very labour intensive and there was a lot of manual work to be done. From the 1911 census I can see that the family had 4 servants. These people were employed to work on the farm and in the home.

My own late father farmed from the 1940’s to the 1980’s. My father would have seen quite a few changes during his farming life. He had a dairy farm and hand milked cows. He supplied fresh milk to our local town using a horse and trap. In his lifetime he witnessed the introduction of electricity to the home. He witnessed the transition from horses to diesel powered tractors and combine harvesters. There was still a lot of manual work to be done on farm. As a child I participated in tasks such as hoeing weeds and bringing in the bales of hay and straw. By the 1970’s we had only one farm worker who retired when I was young. Tractors and mechanisation had replaced the need for farm labour.

AgTech

I followed in the family tradition and graduated with a degree in agricultural science in 1990. Over the past 32 years a new transformation has occurred in agriculture. My degree and what I learned in the 1980’s is now in many aspects outdated. When I attended the world ploughing championships in Co. Laois, Ireland last week, this became clear to me. Agriculture technology or AgTech featured extensively in the companies exhibiting at the event. There was a whole pavilion on AgTech. Displayed there were crop spraying drones and robot milking machines. There were a whole variety of sensors, apps and devices powered by artificial intelligence. All with the purpose of enhancing the efficiency of food production.

When I was doing my degree in agriculture in the 1980’s the type of technology on display last week would have seemed futuristic and unbelievable! We did have computers, but back then there was no internet. Mobile phones had not become widespread. In fact the first phone call ever made on a mobile phone in Ireland was on December 11th, 1985. I was completely unaware of the event at the time. There were of course no smartphones and no mobile computing. In comparison our world of today is very very different.

Today we have supercomputers in our pockets. These smartphones are laden with all types of sensors and apps that can enhance so many aspects of our lives. Another aspect of agriculture that has become center stage today is the environment. In the 1980’s environmental aspects of agriculture were seen as peripheral. Profit was king at that time. Today, rightly, there is a major focus on how to reduce carbon emissions from the sector in order to tackle climate change. Protecting biodiversity is also key.

Our response to change?

The example above of increasingly rapid change is from my own family and the agriculture sector. However all sectors and professions are changing. The question is how do we respond to this fast changing world as individuals? It is certainly no longer a case of going to college, get a degree and then rest on your laurels!  What we have already achieved is not enough. We must keep striving for further success.

Relentless restlessness

Because of rapid change there is no time for mastery on any topic. We must all be eternal students. Because of our fast changing world what we need to be successful today is an attitude of ‘relentless restlessness‘. This is the constant need to get better, to stay current and to stay relevant in a fast changing world. To be relentless is to be persistent and keep going, to be non-stop. Restless is to be uncomfortable and to be uneasy.

I have no doubt that one of the key ways to respond to change today is to always keep learning and growing. We must never be satisfied with where we have reached in our learning.

I have summarised my thoughts below in a new video lecture which I have recently added to the Future Skills course.