"Doing A Job" versus Learning

This Saturday I had an epiphany of sorts.

I sat down and made a list this weekend of all the activities that I can currently do from home with the following restrictions:

- They were things I already have in hand to do (e.g., I do not have to start out from scratch with purchases).

- They require minimal inputs (for example, gardening requires seeds, cheese making requires cheese, etc.).

My current list has a total 37 different things on it that I can do - right now - with the provided conditions above.  (Yes, I know it is a lot.  Turns out I have a great many things I can spend my time with here at home).

As I looked over this list, I suddenly realized that I - for the first time in a long time - felt like I had the time to begin to concentrate on some of these items.  Which led me to a big realization about the coming "after" of the Plague:

The World will belong the to the learning and the innovative.

I have gotten into the habit of having "a job".  Yes, there is a level of training that I have to do, a sense that I need to "get better" at what I do - but in a very passive sense.  But the most important thing was that I had to do "my job".

But now I am in a position where having "my job" is a very different thing - and very likely to change within the short term, and perhaps even more in the long term.  And suddenly, learning has become something which (again) is important for my own life and success.

Now, apply my position to the world right now.

My prediction (which, like everyone else's, not worth the cup of coffee I am drinking right now as I write this), is that by the time we are done, thousands of businesses and millions of jobs will have burned up and are never coming back again.  For millions of people, there will no more be "having a job".  That said, there will still be a market for things.  The question is how people pivot to address those markets.

The key is being a learner.  We are all going to have to learn new skills, remember old skills, and find new ways to apply them.

Yes, it is scary.  Scary for me, as I do not know what outcome of my position will be any more than millions of others.  But at the same time, what an opportunity to change my way of thinking.  To change from just "doing my job" to being a learner.  Every Day.

I cannot predict the future.  I can only prepare for it.