Rate of Change

We all know that the world is changing. But have you ever thought about how fast is the rate of change? A presentation at “Creativity or Conformity? Creativity in Higher Education” Conference at University of Wales Institute Cardiff, by Rodney Hill, professor in Teaching Excellence at Texas A & M University, got me thinking:

By 2014, your iPod will hold the contents of the Library of Harvard University.
By 2017, your iPod will contain the US Library of Congress.
The twentieth century alone features more turning points in the history of mankind than the previous five centuries put together.
At the 2007 rate of change, the entire 20th Century would take place in 25 years.

Half of what students learn in their freshman year about the cutting edge of science and technology is obsolete, revised, or taken for granted by their senior year.
A third of the jobs that will be available in 2015 have essentially not been invented yet.
Two thirds of the jobs that will be available in the world by 2020 haven’t been invented yet!
In less than 20 years, the majority of college graduates will be working at jobs that
don’t even exist today!

“In just the space of a few years, we went from competing with firms down the street to competing with firms across the globe. Our core competence and focus is now on all those things that cannot be digitized.” (The World is Flat, Thomas Friedman)
Knowledge Creators are the only people whose jobs cannot be outsourced.

The person that cannot understand and accept the possibility that their discipline or domain might come to a sudden end will not fare well in the 21st century.

Maybe my questioning of architectural practice is justifiable after all :) For Rodney Hill’s full paper, click here.