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生存在功利社会，奔波劳顿，勾心斗角，若想做到从心所欲，难矣哉！人自孩提时代起，求学、谋职、恋爱、成家、立业、功名、财富??几乎无时不在追求，而且总也不能满足。当然事业上的进取与物欲上的贪婪，是两种截然不同的人生观，或可说是两种内涵迥异的苦乐观。但有一点是共同的，即人生的道路并非平坦的康庄大道，事物的发展往往不以人的意志为转移。与其陶醉在“梦想成真”的幻觉中，莫若在实践中多多磨砺自己，有道是“苍天不负有心人”嘛！即或如此，也未必事事天遂人愿。总之，有追求必有烦恼，这就是生活的实际。
05-19
曾几何时，人们还对“80后”评头论足，或感叹他们是“垮掉的一代”，或认为他们很嫩很青涩。如今，“80后”已经长大了，他们中将首次出现30岁群体。《论语》说，“三十而立”，而我们却无法把“80后”与而立画上等号。调查显示，五成以上80后的职场人在工作上力不从心；近五成调查对象无房无车，且处于未婚状态。“80后”三十难立也不必沮丧，有时需要励志一下，因为要改变自己的命运，最终靠的是自己，多一些意气风发，多一些愈挫愈勇的斗志，少一些埋怨，少一些迷失。毕竟，“80后”也不乏成功人士，他们筚路蓝缕，走出了自己的一片天。
05-19
长期以来西方人一直怀疑由草药制成的中成药是否有效。在过去的几年内，中国传统医药在世界范围内经历了严格的科学审查。为证明和提高传统治疗方法的效益，中国大陆投入了巨资在这方面进行艰苦研究。香港一直在努力使自己成为世界上传统中医研究的带头人。台湾也提出它将把自己建成一个中医技术中心。传统中医药的研究工作在亚洲以外地区的大学和其它机构也蓬勃开展。这些揭开传统医学秘密的研究工作可能会为中西医都大感头疼的疾病患者带来福音。尽管在理论上中西医之间还存在着分歧，一些对中医药感兴趣的著名国际制药公司已开始在中国实施小规模的研究项目。一批新药已在亚洲各地接受试验。
05-19
长城是世界一大奇迹。现在，每年都有几百万人到长城游览。在旺季，几处最著名的景点总是让成群结队的游客挤得水泄不通。中国人修筑城墙的历史久远，可以追溯到战国时期。历史上，中国共修过大约20座长城。在所有这些长城中，明长城最长，达到6700公里。在当时，中国技术在世界上处于领先地位，因此明长城的结构也是最复杂的。明长城的修筑是为了抵御北方游牧民族的入侵。清朝建立后，由于它的建立者本身也是游牧民族，他们觉得没有必要继续修筑长城。不过，清政府还是颁布法令对长城进行保护，禁止拆砖。但是，岁月的流逝和连续战乱使人们易到之处遭到了严重的破坏。十几年来，蓬勃发展的旅游业促进了长城的修缮工程。目前，多处长城已经修复，或正在修缮中。
05-19
中国目前已经建成1.9万公里公路。自1990年以来，中国每年都要新增3700公里公路。到2020年公路网将连接中国所有主要城市。中国公路总里程将仅次于美国，达到55000公里。高速公路网将带来深远的影响。城市带将形成；人们的生活方式将会发生变化；枢纽城市的经济增长率将迅速上升，因为便利的交通条件将吸引更多的投资者。许多国际开发商支持这种看法。世界银行和亚洲开发银行正用巨额贷款支持中国开展公路建设。它们认为公路建设对于缓解贫困至关重要。自上世纪末，亚洲开发银行已减少它在中国经济发达的东部地区的公路投资，而将重点转向较为贫困的西部地区。在公路建设中，中国也很重视支线公路建设，因为支线公路可以使小城镇充分利用附近干线公路建设带来的发展机遇。
05-19
众所周知，鸟无翅膀不能飞，人无双腿不能走。但对尹小星而言，鸟无翅膀不能飞，人无双腿却能走！1970年出生于江苏一户农民家庭的尹小星，出生仅8个月就患小儿麻痹症并发急性肺炎。虽然最终保住了命，他却再也不能站立。因为身体残疾，初中毕业后小星不得不辍学。生存的压力对他来说显得格外沉重，他贩过水果，养过鸡，还下工夫学习过中医。在他21岁的时候，这个年轻人竟怀揣一幅地图，手持一个指南针，摇着轮椅踏上了走遍全中国的艰难路途。近12年来小星手摇轮椅，足迹遍布31个省、市、自治区，行程7万多公里，用坏了4部轮椅。他实现了徒手攀登泰山、华山、衡山等20多座名山，孤身翻越海拔5231米的唐古拉山，手摇轮椅走过丝绸之路，穿越塔克拉玛干(Taklimakan)大沙漠，徒手攀登上海东方明珠电视塔，圆满完成从沙漠到香港的旅行。
05-19
非政府组织是一种独立于政府的非营利性群众组织，包括慈善团体、志愿者组织和其它社会团体。它们从事不同的工作，如扶贫、环保和各种社会服务。近年来，非政府组织在中国迅速发展，在社会生活中起着越来越大的作用。专家估计，目前全国大约有300万个非政府组织。李先生是广东省一家非政府组织“广州青年志愿者协会”的领导人。加入协会后的5年中，他提供了4000多小时的志愿服务。他参加的志愿活动包括关怀街头露宿者，照顾孤寡老人，帮助孤残儿童，发起为贫困地区捐赠等。在参加志愿活动的过程中，他由一个性格内向的人变成了一个活跃的社会活动家。李先生的志愿者协会属于公益型非政府组织。公益型组织是中国非政府组织的重要组成部分。专家认为，非政府组织在中国全面建设小康，构建和谐社会中可起积极作用。它们有助于解决中国当前面临的一系列紧迫的社会问题，如缓解就业压力，协调各方利益，维护社会稳定等。
05-19
近年来，中国经济保持快速发展，为世界经济发展注入了活力。实践证明了中国在加人世贸组织之前的预言：中国的发展离不开世界，世界的发展需要中国。未来20年，在全面建设小康社会的进程中，中国一定会对世界经济的发展和实现全人类的共同进步做出历史性的贡献。为此，中国将继续扩大外贸，大力实施西部大开发战略，进一步改善投资环境，为外商提供更大的商机。同时，中国将引导和支持更多有比较优势的企业对外投资，开展平等互利、形式多样的经济技术合作。中国将进一步加强双边、多边和区域经济合作，实现世界各国各地区的共同发展。
05-19
改革开放30多年来，中国发生了巨大变化。从1979年到2004年，中国经济年均增长9．4％，居民消费水平年均提高7％，进出口贸易额年均递增16．7％。2004年，中国国内生产总值达到16494亿美元；进出口贸易额达到11548亿美4元。我们初步建立了社会主义市场经济体制，社会生产力和综合国力不断增强，各项社会事业全面发展，人民生活总体上实现了由温饱到小康的历史性跨越。同时，中国人口多、底子薄，发展很不平衡，人口资源环境压力日益突出，在前进的征途上仍面临着很多困难和挑战。中国国内生产总值总量虽然不小，但人均国内生产总值仍排在世界100位之后，尤其是还有近2600万农村贫困人口和2200多万领取最低生活保障金的城镇贫困人口。中国要实现现代化，还需要长期艰苦奋斗。在经济全球化趋势深入发展的新形势下，如何立足中国的实际，抓住机遇，应对挑战，继续实现经济社会持续、快速、协调、健康发展，是我们高度重视的重大战略问题。经过多年探索和实践，我们已经找到了一条符合自己国情、顺应时代潮流、体现人民意愿的发展道路，这就是中国特色社会主义道路。今后，我们将坚定不移地沿着这条道路阔步前进。
05-19
移动电话正在成为21世纪一个主要的技术领域。在几年之内，移动电话将会发展成为多功能的通信工具，除了语音之外，还可以传输和接收视频信号、静止图像、数据和文本。个人通信的新纪元即将到来。在一定程度上多亏了无线网络的发展，电话正在与个人电脑和电视融合5起来。不久之后，配有高分辨率显示屏的轻巧手机便可以与卫星连接。人们可以随时随地通话，收发电子邮件或者参加视像电话会议。这种手机也许还会吸收电脑的许多主要功能。移动通信工具有望带来一些互联网所能提供的新服务，如股票交易、购物及预订戏票和飞机票。电信革命已在全球范围内展开。不久之后，用一台装置就可以收到几乎任何形式的电子通信信号。最有可能的是一部三合一手机。在家里它可以用作无绳电话，在路上用作移动电话，在办公室里用作内部通话装置。有些专家甚至认为移动视像电话将超过电视，成为主要的视频信息来源。
05-19
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Though mindful of its evils, many people believe bureaucracy is unavoidable. Jamie Dimon,the CEO of JP Morgan Chase, remembers an outside adviser who defended it as the ''necessary outcome of complex businesses operating in complex international and regulatory environments". Indeed, since 1983 the number of managers, supervisors,and administrators in the U.S. workforce has grown by more than 100%. Peter Drucker's prediction that today's organizations would have half as many layers and one-third as many managers as their late- 1980s counterparts was woefully off the mark. Bureaucracy has been thriving.Meanwhile, productivity growth has stalled. From 1948 to 2004, U.S. labor productivity among nonfinancial firms grew by an annual average of 2.5%. Since then its growth has averaged just 1.1%. That's no coincidence: Bureaucracy is particularly virulent in large companies, which have come to dominate the U.S. economy. More than a third of the U.S. labor force now works in firms with more than 5,000 employees 一 where those on the front lines are buried under eight levels of management,on average.Some look to start-ups as an antidote. But although firms such as Uber, Airbnb, and Didi Chuxing get a lot of press, these and other unicorns account for a small fraction of their respective economies. And as entrepreneurial ventures scale up, they fall victim to bureaucracy themselves. One fast-growing IT vendor managed to accumulate 600 vice presidents on its way to reaching $4 billion in annual sales.Why is bureaucracy so resistant to efforts to kill it? In part because it works, at least to a degree. With its clear lines of authority, specialized units, and standardized tasks, bureaucracy facilitates efficiency at scale. It's also comfortably familiar,varying little across industries, cultures, and political systems.Despite this, bureaucracy is not inevitable. Since the term was coined, roughly two centuries ago, much has changed. Today's employees are skilled,not illiterate; competitive advantage comes from innovation, not sheer size; communication is instantaneous, not tortuous; and the pace of change is hypersonic, not glacial.These new realities are at last producing alternatives to bureaucracy. Perhaps the most promising model can be found at a company that would not, at first glance, appear to be a child of the digital age. Haier, based in Qingdao, China, is currently the world's largest appliance maker. With revenue of $35 billion, it competes with household names such as Whirlpool, LG, and Electrolux.
Seventy years ago, an earlier generation of world leaders came together to create the United Nations. From the ashes of war and division they fashioned this Organization and the values of peace, dialogue and international cooperation which underpin it. The supreme embodiment of those values is the Charter of the United Nations.Today we are also taking a decision of great historic significance. We resolve to build a better future for all people, including the millions who have been denied the chance to lead decent, dignified and rewarding lives and to achieve their fall human potential. We can be the first generation to succeed in ending poverty; just as we may be the last to have a chance of saving the planet. The world will be a better place in 2030 if we succeed in our objectives.What we are announcing today 一 an Agenda for global action for the next fifteen years — is a charter for people and planet in the twenty-first century. Children and young women and men are critical agents of change and will find in the new Goals a platform to channel their infinite capacities for activism into the creation of a better world.“We the Peoples” are the celebrated opening words of the UN Charter. It is “We the Peoples” who are embarking today on the road to 2030. Our journey will involve Governments as well as Parliaments, the UN system and other international institutions, local authorities, indigenous peoples, civil society, business and the private sector, the scientific and academic community — and all people. Millions have already engaged with, and will own, this Agenda. It is an Agenda of the people, by the people, and for the people — and this, we believe, will ensure its success.The future of humanity and of our planet lies in our hands. It lies also in the hands of today’s younger generation who will pass the torch to future generations. We have mapped the road to sustainable development; it will be for all of us to ensure that the journey is successful and its gains irreversible.
Disruptive labor market changes will result in a loss of more than 5.1 million jobs from 2015 to 2020, according to a latest report by World Economic Forum (WEF).The Fourth Industrial Revolution, which includes developments in fields such as artificial intelligence and machine-learning, robotics, nanotechnology, 3D printing, and genetics and biotechnology, will cause widespread disruption not only to business models but also to labor markets over the next five years，according to the report, the Future of Jobs, published Monday by the WEF.This trend will lead to a loss of more than 5 million jobs in 15 major developed and emerging economies, said the report.The report predicts that in the next five years there will be a total loss of 7.1 million jobs — two thirds of which are concentrated in routine white collar office functions, such as office and administrative roles — and a total gain of 2 million jobs, in computer and mathematical and Architecture and Engineering related fields.“In its scale, scope, and complexity，the transformation will be unlike anything humankind has experienced before,” wrote Klaus Schwab，Founder and Executive Chairman of WEF in his latest article called The Fourth Industrial Revolution: what it means, how to respond.Compared with previous industrial revolutions, the Fourth is evolving at an exponential rather than a linear pace, said Schwab. Moreover, it is disrupting almost every industry in every country. And the breadth and depth of these changes herald the transformation of entire systems of production, management, and governance.According to a latest international survey, four out of ten young people around the world worry that robot will replace them in the future workforce due to rapid development of technology.Commissioned by Indian business and software services firm Infosys, the study surveyed around 1,000 16- to 25-year-olds in Australia, Brazil, Britain, China, France, Germany，India and the United States, as well as South Africa，where a smaller sample of 700 was polled. Young people in developed economies are more worried about their future jobs.Nearly 80 percent of interviewees think that it is a must to keep learning in order to gain competitiveness ahead of rapid development of technology.Globally, while almost two-thirds of those queried said they felt positive about their job prospects, those in developing economies were far more optimistic than their peers in developed markets. In India, 60 per cent said they think they have the skills needed for their careers, just a quarter were similarly optimistic in France, the poll found.
The countries that minted the most female college graduates in fields like science, engineering, or math were also some of the least gender-equal countries. According to a paper by Gijsbert Stoet and David Geary, psychologists at Leeds Beckett University and the University of Missouri respectively, this is because the countries that empower women also empower them, indirectly, to pick whatever career they"d enjoy most and be best at."Countries with the highest gender equality tend to be welfare states," they write, "with a high level of social security." Meanwhile, less gender-equal countries tend to also have less social support for people who, for example, find themselves unemployed. Thus, the authors suggest, girls in those countries might be more inclined to choose stem professions, since they offer a more certain financial future than，say, painting or writing.When the experts looked at the "overall life satisfaction" rating of each country — a measure of economic opportunity and hardship — they found that gender-equal countries had more life satisfaction. The life-satisfaction ranking explained 35 percent of the variation between gender equality and women"s participation in stem. That correlation echoes past research showing that the genders are actually more segregated by field of study in more economically developed places.The upshot of this research is neither especially feminist nor especially sad: It’s not that gender equality discourages girls from pursuing science. It’s that it allows them not to if they"re not interested.The findings will likely seem controversial, since the idea that men and women have different inherent abilities is often used as a reason, by some，to argue we should forget trying to recruit more women into the stem fields. But, as the University of Wisconsin gender- studies professor Janet Shibley Hyde put it, that9s not quite what"s happening here."Some would say that the gender stem gap occurs not because girls can"t do science，but because they have other alternatives, based on their strengths in verbal skills," she said. ""In wealthy nations, they believe that they have the freedom to pursue those alternatives and not worry so much that they pay less."Instead, this line of research, if it’s replicated, might hold useful takeaways for people who do want to see more Western women entering stem fields. In this study, the percentage of girls who did excel in science or math was still larger than the number of women who were graduating with stem degrees. That means there’s something in even the most liberal societies that’s nudging women away from math and science, even when those are their best subjects. The women-in-stem advocates could, for starters, focus their efforts on those would-be stem stars.
Historians and many members of the public already know that Winston Churchill often took high-stakes gambles in his political life. Some, like the disastrous Dardanelles campaign — an audacious attempt he masterminded at the Admiralty to seize the straits of Gallipoli and knock Turkey out of the first world war — he got wrong. Others, notably his decision as prime minister in 1940 to hold out against Nazi Germany until America came to rescue Britain, he got spectacularly right. But the extent to which Churchill was a gambler in other spheres of his life has tended not to catch his biographers' attention.Two new books attempt to fill this gap. The first is”No More Champagne” by David Lough, a private-banker-tumed-historian who looks at Churchill's personal finances during the ups and downs of his career. Mr. Lough has trawled through Churchill's personal accounts and found that he was as much a risk-taker when it came to his money as he was when he was making decisions at the Admiralty or in Downing Street.Although Churchill was descended from the Dukes of Marlborough, his parents had “very little money on either side” 一 though that never stopped them living the high life. Neither did it hamper the young Churchill; he spent wildly on everything from polo ponies to Havana cigars, a habit he picked up as a war correspondent in Cuba.It is no wonder, then, that Churchill spent most of his life leaping from one cash flow crisis to another, being perennially behind with his suppliers5 bills. Another new book, “Winston Churchill Reporting”,by Simon Read, an American journalist, looks at one of the ways Churchill eventually paid some of them: writing. Mr. Read investigates how Churchill went from a young army officer cadet to being Britain's highest-earning war correspondent by the age of 25. It was the extent to which the young reporter was willing to take risks on battlefields across the world that marked out his columns from those of his contemporaries.Both books manage to tell their tales of Churchill the adventurer and gambler elegantly.And for a financial biography, Mr. Lough's is a surprising page-turner. But the two authors only briefly link their assessments of Churchill's personality to the important decisions he made in office. Although their stories are worth telling, they have left bigger questions about Churchill to other historians.
An internal briefing document seen by the BBC says the effects of globalisation on advanced economies is "often uneven" and "may have led to rising wage inequality".The bank, which provides loans to developing countries, also says that "adjustment costs",such as helping people who have lost their jobs,have been higher than expected.Dr. Jim Kim, the head of the World Bank, told the BBC that he understood why people were angry in advanced economies despite the fact that free trade was one of the 6tmost powerful" drivers of growth and prosperity."I hear them and they are saying that my life is not better than my parents and my children's life does not look like it's going to be better than mine," he told me."So there is a real concern but the answer is to have more robust social security programmes,so you have a safety net. And then you need to get serious about getting the skills you need for the jobs of the future."Dr. Kim said that 20% of jobs lost in advanced economies could be linked to trade, with the rest down to automation and the need for new skills.He said governments needed to do more to support those who had lost their jobs.Dr. Kim said that if developed countries start throwing up trade barriers, ambitious targets to eradicate poverty by 2030 could be missed because global economic growth would be slower."It will be much,much harder to achieve [the poverty targets],there's no question," Dr. Kim told me. "We can build all the infrastructure we want and we can increase trade among the emerging market countries, [but] at the end of the day if global trade does not grow at a more robust rate, it is going to be very hard to make those targets"I asked him directly if the target could be missed."We very well could, absolutely,it's possible," he said.Proposals to end extreme poverty — defined as anyone living on less than $1.25 a day — were put together by a United Nations committee chaired by David Cameron in 2013.Dr. Kim said that action by organisations like the World Bank, which provides loans to developing countries, as well as the growth of free trade had lifted millions of people out of poverty.He said that international organisations had to do more to explain the advantages of global trade for advanced as well as emerging economies.
The coffee giant is facing uncomfortable questions in Los Angeles, after becoming a go-to spot for the city's homeless population of 44,000, NPR reports.That's because homeless people living in the city have turned to Starbucks as a place to sleep, use the bathroom, charge electronic devices, and use Wi-Fi because it is often the least expensive and most convenient option around.Three Starbucks locations in parts of Los Angeles with large homeless populations have recently closed their bathrooms to customers and non-customers alike in recent months. The company reports the closures are linked to safety concerns, but current and former Starbucks employees told NPR that homeless people's reliance on the bathrooms has been a struggle for the chain.How to best respond to homeless customers, who spend little and at times cause other customers to complain, has been an ongoing challenge for Starbucks.In 2007, a woman was thrown out of a Starbucks because management thought she was homeless. The chain has since tried to be more compassionate toward homeless customers, with the company^ legal team contributing to a handbook dedicated to informing homeless youth of their rights.Many Starbucks bathrooms, especially busy locations in cities, have solved the issue of homeless customers bathing in bathrooms by adding a lock on the bathroom door, making it only accessible for paying customers.Starbucks’ hours and free Wi-Fi have helped make it a haven for homeless customers. While the chain has long hours, many shelters close early in the morning.Libraries in Los Angeles, one of the few providers of free public internet access, have been forced to shorten hours due to budget cuts in recent years. However, an increasing number of entry-level job applications require online applications, making wireless access more important for poor and homeless customers than ever before.Free Wi-Fi has led to a number of unexpected consequences across the restaurant industry in recent years.In March，KFC and McDonald's in Stoke-on-Trent in the UK banned teenage customers after brawls between teens congregating at the fast-food locations to access free Wi-Fi.Starbucks was a leader in the movement to bring Wi-Fi to coffee and restaurant chains, debuting the service in 2002, when many people still relied on Ethernet cables at home to access the Internet. Wi-Fi played a key role in turning Starbucks into what the company calls a “third place,” where people can socialize, work, or relax outside of the home and office.Free Wi-Fi brings new customers to Starbucks, but also new complications. Fourteen years since the chain began rolling out wireless internet, it still seems impossible to have one without the other.
Tolstoy was a member of the Russian nobility,from a family that owned an estate and hundreds of serfs. The early life of the young count was raucous, debauched and violent."I killed men in wars and challenged men to duds in order to kill them," he wrote. "I lost at cards, consumed the labour of the peasants, sentenced them to punishments, lived loosely,and deceived people …so I lived for ten years."But he gradually weaned himself off his decadent, racy lifestyle and rejected the received beliefs of his aristocratic background, adopting a radical, unconventional worldview that shocked his peers. So how exactly might his personal journey help us rethink our own philosophies of life?One of Tolstoy's greatest gifts was his ability and willingness to change his mind based on new experiences. The horrific bloodshed he witnessed while fighting in the Crimean War in the 1850s turned him into a lifelong pacifist. In 1857, after seeing a public execution by guillotine in Paris — he never forgot the thump of the severed head as it fell into the box below — he became a convinced opponent of the state and its laws, believing that governments were not only brutal, but essentially served the interests of the rich and powerful. "The State is a conspiracy," he wrote to a friend. "Henceforth, I shall never serve any government anywhere." Tolstoy was on the road to becoming an anarchist.The most essential life lesson to take away from Tolstoy is to follow his lead and recognise that the best way to challenge our assumptions and prejudices, and develop new ways of looking at the world, is to surround ourselves with people whose views and lifestyles differ from our own. In Resurrection, he pointed out that most people — whether they are politicians, businessmen or thieves — "instinctively keep to the circle of those people who share their views of life and their own place in it". Cosseted within our peer group,we may think it perfectly normal and justifiable to own two homes, or to oppose same-sex marriage, or to bomb countries in the Middle East. We cannot see that such views may be perverse, unjust, or untrue, because we are inside circles of our own making. The challenge is to spread our conversational wings and spend time with those whose values and experiences contrast with our own. Our ultimate task, Tolstoy would advise us, is to journey beyond the perimeters of the circle.
Before our eyes, the world is undergoing a massive demographic transformation. Globally, the number of people age 60 and over is projected to double to more than 2 billion by 2050, and those 60 and over will outnumber children under the age of five.Some in the public and private sector are already taking note — and sounding the alarm. In his first term as chairman of the US Federal Reserve, with the Great Recession looming, Ben Bernanke remarked, “In the coming decades, many forces will shape our economy and our society, but in all likelihood no single factor will have as pervasive an effect as the aging of our population.” Back in 2010, Standard & Poor’s predicted that the biggest influence on “the future of national economic health, public finances, and policymaking” will be “the irreversible rate at which the world’s population is aging”.“While some people are financially capable of retiring,not all are ready to retire,” says the article. “Many older people need to save longer for retirement so they don’t outlive their savings. Others just choose to work longer to continue to remain cognitively engaged and actively contributing to society.”Unfortunately, misconceptions abound about them: older people will get sick and leave，they are a drain on company benefits，they have difficulty adapting to change and lack technology capabilities, they won’t work as hard as younger people and “are just coasting toward retirement”.Because of this, they experience the highest rate of unemployment in the general workforce, and for longer periods of time — double that of younger generations. Surveys consistently show people 50-plus believe they experience age discrimination in the job market. Some refer to this age group as “the new unemployable” .It is no secret that they offer considerable experience and skills, providing an opportunity for employers across all sectors, especially as the growth rate of the workforce slows or even shrinks in the future. And the companies lucky enough to hire them will reap the many benefits afforded to those who “strategically harness the power of generational diversity and build inclusive age-friendly, organizational cultures”.
A recent study by Oxford University estimates that nearly half of all jobs in the US are at risk from automation and computers in the next 20 years. While advancing technologies have been endangering jobs since the start of the Industrial Revolution, this time it is not just manual posts: artificial intelligence — the so-called fourth industrial revolution — promises to change the shape of professional work as well. For instance, lawtech is already proving adept at sorting and analysing legal documents far faster and more cheaply than junior lawyers can. Similarly, routine tasks in accounting are succumbing to AI at the expense of more junior staff.This change is an opportunity to create new and better jobs. Paul Drechsler, who is president of the CBI employers' organisation, is enthusiastic about the future: t6The fourth industrial revolution is the best opportunity that this country has had for decades to leapfrog” in terms of productivity and competitiveness. But he cautions that “the change is happening must faster than the education system”. The next generation will need a new set of skills to survive, let alone thrive, in an AI world. Literacy, numeracy, science and languages are all important, but they share one thing in common: computers are going to be far better than humans at processing these forms of explicit knowledge.The risk is that the education system will be churning out humans who are no more than second-rate computers, so if the focus of education continues to be on transferring explicit knowledge across the generations, we will be in trouble. The AI challenge is not just about educating more AI and computer experts, although that is important. It is also about building skills that AI cannot emulate. These are essential human skills such as teamwork, leadership, listening, staying positive, dealing with people and managing crises and conflict. These are all forms of tacit knowledge, not explicit knowledge. They are know-how skills, not know- what skills. Know-what is easy to transmit across the generations, and is easy to measure. Know-how skills are hard both to transmit and to measure.The employability skills gap is already large, and AI will only make it larger. A McKinsey survey found that 40 per cent of employers cited lack of skills to explain entry- level vacancies in their companies. Sixty per cent said that even graduates were not ready for the world of work.
