Meta-Skills, Combination Of Hard And Soft Skills

What's an actual skill?
What's an actual job?
Given the warp speed timeline we've entered in the modern era, a lot of concepts have to be redefined to fit with the times or at least become understandable in a modern context.

A job is a way to provide a service and get paid for it. Traditionally, this is given a strict and well defined context and anything that doesn't fit into that context isn't considered an 'actual' job even though one is getting paid for it.

For example, a banker is a job, a YouTuber not much so. Yet, both provide a service and get paid for it. In certain cases, the latter earns more than the former.

A skill is a way of doing something well to get a precise or specific result. Skills are something we can learn and get better at with practice(and time).

In the modern era, there's this new invention that has upended the skill process, learning it faster than we can and becoming better at it more than we can.

Of course, I'm referring to artificial intelligence. If you think about it and for the most part, a skill is basically a framework to achieve a particular outcome.

AI can learn, execute and refine a framework in many ways that we presently can't because of our limited mental bandwidth.

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What Are Meta-Skills?

Like a tree with many branches, meta-skills are simply a combination of many individual skills. I prefer to categorize it as a combination of hard and soft skills, since most skills fall into either of the two.

Traditional jobs usually require one or two sets of skills. Modern jobs required more than just that. Taking the example of the banker and the YouTuber from a modern perspective, they seem like polar opposites only on the surface.

The banker, suit pressed, navigating the volatile world of finance, while the YouTuber, camera in hand, surfs the ever-changing waves of the Internet.

Yet, beneath the surface, a common thread can be discovered that connects them, which is the ability to leverage a blend of hard and soft skills. I think this is just a prerequisite to thrive in the modern era irrespective of the job one holds.

The banker doesn't only need to know their spreadsheets and regulations etc, but he also need to be great at negotiation skills and stress management to keep his clients and himself calm when the market throws a curveball, for example.

With the YouTuber, good editing software and SEO are definitely crucial, but it's the developed creativity and storytelling that will captivate their audience and keep them coming back for more.

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The Meta-Skill Advantage

Essentially, modern jobs have a lot more on their plate in terms of skills needed to execute them properly. Over time, this individual skills change into meta-skills, whereby the whole becomes more valuable than the sum of its parts.

This is another aspect or way of defining meta-skills, in that it is not only a combination but also a transformation of skills.

AI may outperform us in specific tasks, but I think its achilles' heel lies in its one-dimensionality. It excels at crunching numbers, generating text, and even mimicking human emotions, but it lacks the fluid adaptability and multilayered understanding that define meta-skills.

We, on the other hand, can intuitively synthesize disparate information and navigate ethical complexities, and even connect with people on an emotional level. This is where our multifaceted meta-skills become the trump card that will always elude even the smartest of AIs.


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Posted Using InLeo Alpha