Rooftop reflections - from sea to space...

As I sit atop a rooftop in Tenerife, huddled under an umbrella for shade, I find myself having a moment of solitude, much like I did in Seattle several years ago. I'm on the 7th floor of the hotel, looking out to the sea with a refreshing mojito in hand. The sky is so blue, as is the sea, though with a slight haze that sits just on the horizon. A warm wind blows, keeping me cool up here, while in the distant harbor, large vessels sound their loud, jarring horns, stirring me out of my reverie. I then look behind me to the volcanic mountains, which have tendrils of clouds wrapped around them, giants asleep for the past 115 years or so.

I so appreciate these times; deep thought is personal to everyone - for me, being near the sea is a huge part of this. I find myself contemplating my career journey and those around me. Broadly, I've seen folk take five different journeys (though, as always, there are exceptions). I see folk who are good at what they do and will likely keep doing this until they retire - the easy path, in many ways. I see folk who have their careers mapped out early on: "I'll be a trainee, then an engineer, then an Architect, Manager, Director," etc. I've seen folk acknowledge their aspirations and recognize that they will need to put in the 'hard yards' to get there.

As I move away from this group, there are others who have an idea, an itch at the back of their mind that needs to be scratched. For some, this can represent a significant career change to fulfill a long-held ambition; for others, this can be a shift in focus - from being technical to being in sales (though granted, we are all in sales in one way or another).

However, as I look at what's happening in industry over the last few years, I see many of these paradigms ceasing to exist. In this era of digital workers and digitally enabled workers, these paths become very different - it becomes a race to the bottom to learn the 'next' new thing.

We are already seeing that much of the content and artifacts that will be generated moving forward will come from similar sources, whether they be existing datasets or synthetically generated ones. Every one of the large consulting organizations will have 'their' fine-tuned models with IP that differentiates them in some way. There will be innate value here, which will help accelerate projects and provide even more accessible 'just in time' skills for those who have not gone through traditional learning pathways.

Indeed, if you think about my 'JDMeyer' model that I posted about a little while ago, I'm trying to do just this for myself - how can I distill that vast set of expertise that JD has kindly provided to the public domain? I will always say I have more to learn, and these things fill a gap, but I also acknowledge that I may not have the depth of knowledge without greater study. It's similar to how I watch a YouTube tutorial on fixing a particular issue on my Mazda Bongo campervan; it doesn't make me a mechanic, but it gives me enough of a grasp on the basics to probably do what's needed - and (most likely!), it will work afterwards. Though I may not be using the best tools to achieve this, nor may the outcome be optimal.

To bring myself back to the point, when I started this article, I believed that the easy and happy paths would ultimately disappear, and we would be left with a new paradigm that has yet to fully form itself. At its heart will be the need to continually re-skill and re-evaluate oneself - not too different from today, but in ever-decreasing cycles. I feel the demands placed on those new to a role or early in their careers will be far greater than anything I've experienced. Equally, they will have curated models designed to support them in what they are doing, making this an easier path to follow compared to my experience. Perhaps the happy path will be folk customizing models for new outcomes, while the hard path will involve more general AI, uncertain and unknown paths, new data formats for our ever-increasing demand for consumption and storage, quantum computing, and space exploration. Yes... I think ultimately space is the answer - new infrastructure, technology, careers, and more, opening up a multitude of new paths. How we get there though - that’s the exciting part, I think.

Ok, I'm going to stop here, for two reasons: first, I must order another mojito, and second, I'm going to sit and watch the sunset and contemplate some more. I hope all of you have had a fabulous weekend and please do feel free to share your thoughts below 👇