Has Knowledge Scarcity Disappeared?
Hey everyone,
Today, I want to talk about something that’s been on my mind quite a bit lately. The concept of knowledge scarcity, or more specifically, how it doesn’t really exist anymore.
The Old Model: Education = Access to Knowledge.
For decades, the process of building a career looked like this:
- Graduate high school
- Go to college or university
- Learn specialized knowledge
- Get paid for having that knowledge
It was a knowledge economy, and your value was tied to how much specialized information you had access to. In other words, we USED to be paid for the knowledge we acquired through University, or through learning the craft by doing. The reality though, is that this OLD model is waning...and waning very quickly.
The Shift: Instant Access to Everything.
Now, that knowledge (which people used to spend 4–6 years acquiring) is available instantly.
You can now do what were once complex tasks, and ones that required specific knowledge workers to help you with.
- Get accounting help from GPT in seconds
- Analyze legal contracts with AI-generated insight
- Learn how to code, edit video, design logos, or write business plans on demand.
- Basically anything that is a "knowledge" task.
In short, knowledge is no longer scarce. And when something becomes abundant, its value shifts and becomes worth a lot less. Conventional knowledge is no longer as valuable as it once was.
The Big Question though, where does the opportunity live now if knowledge work is becoming delimiting in terms of it's overall value.
- Is it in human interaction and communication?
- Is it in creativity and connection?
- Is it in leadership, storytelling, and empathy?
- Is it in curation, rather than raw information?
These are the big questions that keep me up at night, and keep me excited about the future. The shift is here, and it is one that many are not going to be ready for (and one that many have no idea is coming).
But it's here. It's not just coming, it is FREAKING HERE!
So I want to leave you with a BIG question.
Are Knowledge-Based Roles Still Relevant?
What do you think about the future of:
- Accountants
- Lawyers
- Researchers
- Teachers
Will these roles evolve? Will they be replaced? Or will they become even more important, but in a different way?
I’m not here to drop conclusions. I want your thoughts, your feedback, and your perspective on where the world is heading. This is the new internet age (powered by artificial intelligence), and it’s up to us to figure out where we fit into it.
Looking forward to hearing your take on this.
Recent Comments
67
A very thought-provoking subject and many insightful comments already from the WA community. I would just add from my perspective and experience of about 46+ years in work and now retired. (my profile picture is from nearly 50 years ago) - certainly in technical fields, a thorough grasp of fundamental principles is essential and will likely remain essential for someone to be reliably productive in a work setting. In the hiring decisions I was involved in down the years, this was always something I was looking to get a handle on, among all the other regular qualities such as values, emotional intelligence etc - whether the candidate had a thorough grounded understanding of the main principles in their field whether that was engineering/technical, accounting, architectural or whatever. I never had to hire a lawyer. IMHO that kind of grounded knowledge base will always be necessary. I am sure we can all imagine various disaster scenarios if that knowledge is lacking, so no need to elaborate further.
Cheers
Andy
I would say that communities and human connections will still exist. I agree, we should embrace and adopt the new technology but use it to help us to improve our lives and evolve.
Like all the "revolutions" that existed before, we will adapt to this one one as well. I know that lots of people in different kind of professions fear for their jobs and I understand. It's something new we leave in and as humans, we tend to reject something which is new or we do not understand it.
Some professions will cease to exist, some will have to readjust, but in the end all professions will be impacted in a way or another.
The time will tell.
Having been in the IT industry for over 20 years, I can tell you that as a network engineer/administrator having the knowledge at hand right now is still very important.
You might get through an initial job interview by giving the simple answers they are looking for; however, when you are in a technical interview, live on webcam or in person then AI is not going to help one bit.
Your answers will have to come from what you have learned through study or experience on the job. If my job could be done by relying on AI or google search alone, then I'm going to be replaced by AI or software completely. That day will come, I'm sure.
Google search is relevant when trying to understand a problem you haven't seen before but there again if you are part of a team doing an install within a certain time frame there isn't time to be googling constantly when performing an install.
You need to be proficient at what you are doing and using Google is only a very small fraction of the time needed to do the job.
Cheers!
🍺
With my Drama Teacher's hat on, I'd say that knowledge on its own is irrelevant, but knowing how to use that knowledge is so much more important. Therefore, education will need to change to encompass more critical thinking, problem-solving and creativity rather than just rewarding people who can regurgitating facts.
With my Online Entrepreneurial hat on, I'd say that the changes offered by AI allow for more people to access more information in more specific niches than ever before. If you want to know how to change the filter on a specific make of air conditioner in a specific car, you can probably find a YouTube tutorial on that nowadays. And more power to the people who can do that now themselves, so there is a lot of opportunity to tap into here.
With my Spirituality hat on, I'd say that this is the continuing evolution of the human spirit out of the age where "knowledge was power" and only existed in the hands of the "chosen few." The freer availability of more knowledge will allow humanity to get up from its knees and operate on a more equitable playing field rather than living in fear that we are not good enough, don't know enough, or don't deserve to live a fulfilled and happy life!
All in all, I'd say we're living in very exciting times!
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It is very scary that if one wants to find something all they have to do is look into an AI feature . Going to school isn’t worth anything anymore. As someone who is in personal development I know that AI is going to take over peoples jobs and certain things are not going to exist anymore.