Knowledge Industrialisation

The future is rooted in the past; the present is that infinitesimally thin membrane between them. Thus it is that knowledge, that curious construction of what we think we know, is one of the threads that holds us secure within the tapestry of time.

There are jobs that have risen and fallen in prestige, careers that have teetered and tossed from pillar to post, from architecture to horticulture. There are professions that have split and joined, from barbering to surgery and pharmacy to witchcraft. Some disciplines have updated themselves, some need no updating; the ceramicist and the fashionista are in as high demand these days as they were in the time of Nebuchadnezzar.

But just as there is nothing new under the sun, so too there is nothing new about career guidance. No matter what ebbs and flows human endeavour brings, the man who knows who to hire for what job, and the man who knows what must be known (and who knows it) — these are the ones you want, or failing which, want to be. Only the polymaths will make order from chaos across the burning universe, even though the statistical points which are specialist will give them the bricks to do it with.

And that is why there is a need to teach people about knowledge definition, construction, management and utilisation. That is why people must be taught that data is not information unless it is given significance, and that information is not knowledge unless it has a relevant context. Those who teach these things and those who learn and use these things will never go out of style, will always have a job and a living, will always be able to get a life and keep it.