Predictions are hard under any circumstances. For starters, for predictions to be good (and predictive), they must rest on certain assumptions remaining stable. And, in our current world (economically, politically, environmentally, psychologically), stability is hard to find. We live in a "wobbly" world on all fronts.
I recently read a powerful piece questioning why so few people in America seem to have sympathy for Melania Trump. She has most assuredly been wronged by her husband and yet we do two seemingly inconsistent things: we question the veracity of the women who apparently had affairs with her husband (I don't doubt them actually) and we believe Melania knew her poison (so to speak) when she married the Donald.
I recently watched the brilliant documentary on Fred (Mr.) Rogers called "Won't You Be My Neighbor." If you were lucky enough to be in the generation who got to watch this TV show each week then you'll understand how big of an impact Mr. Rogers had on children of all ages, from every walk of life. He was a maverick, with balls down to here, even though his gentle demeanor was often mistaken and misperceived as weak or too passive with many calling his sexuality into question. In those precious, few minutes each week Fred Rogers addressed some pretty heavy topics like self-esteem, racism, divorce, bullying, death, fatal diseases -- with a ninja-like adeptness, to an audience of children as young as 3 years old. He taught children, each and every day, that they were special and imbued them with a much needed shot of caring and love in a world growing more and more precarious by the day. At that time.
2018: ummm, an interesting year. Can't say that I liked it very much personally, but I did learn a ton about myself and, especially, the communities I'm a part of and identify with. As I perform my annual review and retro of the year one of the most poignant lessons I've learned is that we don't treat ourselves with nearly the care that most of our executives treat their Ferraris. An expensive, inanimate object, that some would literally shoot another human in the face to preserve or keep from harm. And that's really sad commentary.
Actually cramming works to pass a test, and for millions of students that is the only goal for their education. Eighty-five percent of the students entering university in 2016 were doing so in order to get a qualification that would lead to a better job. For them, cramming works, because they have no intention to learn anything, just get a degree.
The title pretty much says it all. In my quest to help both applicants and CEOs fill top seats in a hot market I'm often aghast at the volume of crap resumes I see in the wild. Anything from inappropriate photos to long-ass "Objective" and "Skills" sections to conspicuous typos on the very resumes where people are claiming "highest attention to detail." Seriously. This is a mess.
We live in a complex world with a myriad of problems that need attention. We have what we need to seriously address them, but we have failed to develop what we most need - our human capital.