Page 40 - August 2020 Voices

SKILLS 2.0 CORNER

Soft Skills and Other Esoteric Philosophies

Sudhir Gautam, DL4

Picture this. It’s the year 2030. Most vehicles I’d spend more time being creative, helping
are self-driven, fast food restaurants are fully others, and working on my physical and mental

automated, most homes have some type of well-being—the tasks that a machine cannot
robot, and your packages are delivered by take over. These will become the Soft Skills
drones. Space flight is common and accessible, of the future, and this new column will talk
and some of us already have a device implanted about some of them and how we can acquire

inside our brains that can mitigate some of the and build them.
effects of age-related cognitive decline. Nobody If you’re reading this, you’re most likely
knows how exactly Artificial Intelligence a Toastmaster—so congratulations, you’re
will play out. We do know for sure that we’re already working on quite a few of these soft

eventually headed towards a future in which skills. Communication, Collaboration, and
anything that can be done by machines will Leadership are some of them, and they are
be done by machines faster, better and cheaper formally taught via the Pathways programs.
than humans could ever do it. In this column, we will expand upon these and

Are you thinking what I’m thinking right talk about several other skills like Empathy,
now? During the pandemic I cook, clean, bake, Emotional Intelligence, Cognitive Flexibility,
garden, shop, do laundry, pay bills, write letters Problem Solving, Storytelling, Persuasion,
to my Senator and Congressman, and finish a Creativity, and more.

telemedicine call. I look at my watch and it’s It’s a well-known fact that there is a certain
still 10 in the morning. If robots took over all new-age stereotype around some of these skills.
these jobs what the hell will I do with my time? Certain images might come to mind as soon as
This is where things get exciting. Personally, they’re mentioned. A quiet, dark room with a

40 ONE COMMUNITY