Replace people with robots

Via Business Insider:

Credit Suisse's analysts argue the that industrial automation — when humans workers are replaced by robots — is a bullish long-term economic theme as it boosts productivity.

…

Credit Suisse argues that the underpenetration in the emerging markets presents a big opportunity for the world to boost productivity.

Robot Density For Select Countries - Business Insider

Points:

• Example from the linked article: US has more robots, and China has more cheap labor. US is 7.5 times more productive.
• This is seen to offset the cheap labor advantage of developing countries.

Ponder:

• What should humans do to prepare?
• If even deep individual expertise becomes replaceable, is the human employment future in the ability to coordinate and integrate group efforts like projects?

Questioning the 10,000 Hour Rule

Via Business Insider:

Dedication and talent mean a great deal, but how you go about learning something can mean just as much. Technology, technique, and definition narrow the places where the 10,000 hour rule applies. 

10,000 Hour Rule - Business Insider

Points:

• “…becoming world-class in something requires 10,000 hours of dedicated practice, originated with K. Anders Ericsson and was brought to a huge audience by Malcolm Gladwell in his book Outliers.
• “…becoming world class can take much less time, less than six months if you use certain learning techniques.”
• “Sometimes generalists who haven't dedicated themselves to any one thing can be superior.”

Ponder: Servanthood involves managing three assets and augmenting that management with four multipliers:

• Assets:
• Time
• Talents
• Treasure
• Multipliers:
• Training
• Technology
• Trade-offs
• Transformation (this is what innovation and creativity can do; it can vault you past the limits of the assets you manage)

Vatican Institutes Sweeping New Security Measures In Response To Scandal

Via Business Insider:

Vatican clergy and employees will be issued with an identity card complete with a microchip-tracking device in sweeping new security measures designed to prevent a repeat of the Vatileaks scandal.

Vatican Institutes Sweeping New Security Measures In Response To Scandal - Business Insider

Points:

• “Much tighter controls have already been introduced for anyone seeking access or photocopies of the Holy See's archives, dossiers and documents.”
• “…identity cards expected to be introduced from January 1.”
• “Thousands of clerical and lay staff working inside the walls of the Vatican from the Apostolic Palace to the Secretariat of State will be affected by the tighter scrutiny that will also enable their superiors to monitor when they clock in and out.”

Ponder: Continuing expansion of surveillance technologies. The ultimate moral question will become: Who needs God when you have sensors?

Countries Where Robots Are Taking Over

Via Business Insider:

Robot sales jumped by 38 percent in 2011, and the worldwide stock of robots is estimated to be in the range of 1,153,000 - 1,400,000 units — up from a minimum stock of 1,021,000 units in 2009.

South Korea lead the way in robot density in 2011, with 347 robots per 10,000 workers in the manufacturing industry. What's more impressive is the tremendous spike in robot density; South Korea had 287 robots per 10,000 workers in 2010.

Countries Where Robots Are Taking Over - Business Insider

Key question to ask: What should workers do to thrive in a robo-centric society?

Saying No to College

Via Instapundit and NY Times:

The idea that a college diploma is an all-but-mandatory ticket to a successful career is showing fissures. Feeling squeezed by a sagging job market and mounting student debt, a groundswell of university-age heretics are pledging allegiance to new groups like UnCollege, dedicated to “hacking” higher education. Inspired by billionaire role models, and empowered by online college courses, they consider themselves a D.I.Y. vanguard, committed to changing the perception of dropping out from a personal failure to a sensible option, at least for a certain breed of risk-embracing maverick.

Risky? Perhaps. But it worked for the founders of Twitter, Tumblr and a little company known as Apple.

Saying No to College - NYTimes.com

Points:

• “…ambitious young people who consider dropping out of college a smart option have a different set of role models from those in the 1960s, who were basically stuck with the acid-guru Timothy Leary and his “turn on, tune in, drop out” ramblings. Nowadays, popular culture is portraying dropouts as self-made zillionaires whose decision to spurn the “safe” route (academic conformity) is akin to lighting out for the territories to strike gold.”
• “No wonder the swashbuckling Web subculture is suddenly percolating with whiz-kid programmers thinking like “one and done” college hoopsters, who stick around campus only long enough to showcase their skills (and meet National Basketball Association draft requirements) before bolting for pro riches.”
• “Even the staunchest critics of college concede that a diploma is still necessary for many professions — law and medicine, clearly, and in many cases, for a Fortune 500 executive, too. But that’s the point: how many more lawyers and middle managers do we need?”
• “…the explosion in student debt is the next subprime crisis. There is now $1 trillion in outstanding student debt, with $117 billion tacked on last year alone, according to calculations by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Tuition levels have quadrupled since the early ’80s, according to the Student Body Scholarship Association.”
• “THEY can also nourish their minds from a growing menu of Internet classrooms, including the massive open online courses, or MOOCs, which stream classes from elite universities like Princeton. This guerrilla approach hits home with young people who came of age seeking out valuable content free on Napster and BitTorrent.”

Ponder:

• The backlash is coming from a realization that a college diploma is this era’s high school diploma only crushingly expensive.
• Will this be the renaissance of the certificate? Certificates are faster and more focused.

Sun, sand and root canal: Medical tourism booms in Costa Rica

Via Instapundit and Reuters:

Around 40,000 medical tourists visited Costa Rica last year, compared to 36,000 in 2010 and 30,000 in 2009. Most of them are American and Canadian, according to the country's tourism institute, ICT.

Of that number, almost 15,000 of them traveled for dental care, said Massimo Manzi, director at Promed, the council for international promotion of medicine in Costa Rica.

Manzi estimates that medical tourism brought in $196 million to Costa Rica's health industry in 2011, with patients spending an additional $84 million in hotels, meals, travel and shopping. That makes for a total of $280 million spent on medical tourism in 2011, compared to $252 million in 2010.

Sun, sand and root canal: Medical tourism booms in Costa Rica | Reuters

Opportunity for a new kind of travel agent?

The Online Research Guide for your Dissertation and Thesis

Via Lærd Dissertation:

Lærd Dissertation helps you through the
dissertation process, guiding you step-by-step
from dissertation topic to final written product.

The Online Research Guide for your Dissertation and Thesis | Lærd Dissertation

In case you’re working on a dissertation, this looks like a useful reference site.