Hackers and Heroes

Hackers and Heroes by Divergence Academy President Sravan Ankaraju aims to educate readers-ideally, corporate executives, business leaders, policy makers, and the 157 million people who comprise the American workforce-on the rapid and massive technological change underway while encouraging them to prepare for the disruption this will bring in the form of chronic employment uncertainty. The idea that someone lands a job after graduating from college and stays at that position for forty years is extinct. Today's workers-at all levels-must be prepared to change jobs as tech continues to make efficiency inroads and renders obsolete certain human-powered positions. But, if we prepare wisely, we should consider this a boon, not a tragedy-but success hinges on our approach, and the right kind of education is paramount. The current model of educating and training our workforce is outmoded, and it is imperative for employers and employees to understand the forces of change underway and to prepare to meet them.

In the early decades of the 21st century, enabling technologies like AI, blockchain, and quantum computing evolved and continue to evolve at such an exponential rate that they are effecting unprecedented change across the globe and in nearly every industry. The industrial revolution that swept the world into the modern age will be eclipsed by the technological age currently underway, meaning millions of people could be left unemployed or left behind.

That needn't be. Workers must be willing to retool and adapt to a workplace that is going to be in a regular state of change. In other words, prepare for jobs that may not yet exist. Yet how can someone possibly retool and pivot for such a job? To do that will require agility and responsiveness as well as being fluent in the language of the digital world.

Hackers and Heroes explains this massive revolutionary shift and empower individuals to not merely survive, but to thrive in the high-speed tech and data-driven economy. There is space for whomever wishes to participate in the new tech-based economy-especially blue-collar workers, veterans, and underserved populations for whom much of the digitized world is not intuitive and has historically excluded them. Emerging technology can't run itself and no matter what happens in the future, we can safely assume that the jobs of the future will need actual living, breathing human beings to keep them functioning. Preparing for careers in AI, cloud computing, cybersecurity, statistical analysis and data science will be the best way to ensure future job security.