How to prepare kids for the modern work world ? \ stacker news ~Education

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How to prepare kids for the modern work world ?

437 sats \ 16 comments \ @stack_harder 20 Nov Education

With times and tech changing so fast, what are your thoughts on preparing kids for the future of work, in general?

When I was coming up to university age, jobs like electrician, plumber etc were seen as kind of low-class jobs, now people in the UK with these skills (and not only) are laughing and the graduate office class are getting gutted (although they started getting rekd by outsourcing long before AI).

I feel like jobs maybe involve anything physical (that can't easily be done by chat gpt / AI) would be an ok bet for now.

Recently it seemed like STEM was pretty popular and programming, although i see that it's still hard for programmers to get a job out of university.

Influencers are still viable if a person has rizz, although the fact all kids want to be tiktokers or YouTubers is somewhat worrying.

My kids are still young and i don't really plan on forcing them into something, but would like to share my thoughts on career directions when the time is right

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65 sats \ 4 replies \ @justin_shocknet 23h

times and tech changing so fast

Nothing has changed wrt what kids should be thought, the primitives are as old as time.

Ability to self-teach through reading and comprehension
Principles of technology like mechanical leverage, basic physics, and napkin-level math
Communication
Problem solving techniques
Mindfulness, time management, and focus
Discovering their natural talents
Financial literacy (this is the most time-fluid thing on the list)
Taking calculated risks

Do not teach your kids to be employable, because they'll at some point need to unlearn that and it will be painful.

Teach them to be useful, ephemeral education culture is fiat.

0 sats \ 3 replies \ @stack_harder OP 5h

really makes you wonder why none of these things are taught in school, the curriculum should literally be built around them imo

0 sats \ 2 replies \ @justin_shocknet 3h

State schools are the manifestation of a bunch of bad incentives, and they're meant as a last resort... Think of them as an orphanage not the standard

0 sats \ 1 reply \ @stack_harder OP 2h

i think of them more as a place for the kids to make friends, not really bastions of learning (although that's kind of what they should be)

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @justin_shocknet 2h

That's the psyop a lot of people use to justify them, homeschool groups and sports etc are much better outlets.. higher caliber peers in an environment that's not industrially structured

The real reason public school is so common is economic, people feel they can't afford to homeschool (if they can even afford to have kids) because the states been waging war against it

15 sats \ 1 reply \ @Bee_Aye 12h

anything with numbers is decent bet. outside of the specific trade, i plan to encourage my daughter not necessarily to do something specific, but rather i want to make sure that her framework is to not be a w2 wage slave. i want her to strive to be entrepeneurial. if you gotta get a job, thats ok to learn skills or stack some cash but your plan should be to always be moving towards self sovereignty ; that w2 job should be temporary. getting stuck in a shit w2 job and becoming burned out / run down/ feeble is what i hope to help her not do.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @stack_harder OP 5h

i also think the framework is key, although if my kid wanted to be in a wage job but she loved it, like being a scientist or something, i would be totally ok with that

32 sats \ 1 reply \ @BlackDog 20 Nov

Excellent question. Me as father of two young teens (and working in IT and ML and sitting in EU) is thinking a lot about this. My conclusions are:

learn English (and may be Spanish). OK, we have all of this AI translation now, but you should be able to communicate around the world.
learn skills (job) you can use world wide. IT is among the best, can be done remotely but yes, there is high competition (double edge sword). Please not select some really local job (as weird mother tongue language dialect linguists).
be the best in your skills, which implies to learn new things all the time (to be on the edge).
it is good to combine 2 areas .. this makes you quite unique.
critical thinking, reasoning = math, logic. on the other hand some creativity is also needed.
physical job is very OK. (if the above is met)
understand health and money (keep you healthy and "rich"), do not let others and state to screw your life.

Why? Because the world is changing faster and faster. The time where you was OK with stuff from you school (even university) for your entire life is history. If you want to be competitive, you need to learn. I see it on myself in IT. I'm doomed by youngsters. Why? Because I do not think EU will be good and safe place for their entire life. These times passed. So they should be ready to relocate = have compatible skills.

Now the most difficult part is how to implement this. But I cannot force them, so I'm explaining it and reasoning and doing gradually smaller and smaller decisions in their life. I'm trying to identify their strong abilities and emphasize them. Also randomly challenge them with new things so they can explore some new skills they like.

Am I doing it right? No. :) I just hope they will not screw their life by a single very bad decision totally :).

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @stack_harder OP 5h

this makes a lot of sense. my kids are growing up with 3 languages, English as the main so there's that, plus they're girls, which makes something easier and some harder.

we're also in the EU and it does seem that, generally speaking, most EU countries have few job prospects and everyone just tries to go to Germany to try and make some money, but Germany is somewhat fucked too.

still, i suppose we come back to basics and do our best, especially by trying to build them a fat btc stack that can help them later

32 sats \ 1 reply \ @bief57 20 Nov

This reminded me of the time from 2010-2014 when everyone wanted to be a DJ. I even remember a lot of comments made by older people like: "there will be no more doctors or lawyers, now everyone wants to be a DJ", I also remember many months and mockery regarding that. 10 or 15 years have passed since then and the factory (university) of professionals still exists, it was just a stage, a wave that became fashionable and is now over. Regarding the youtuber or tiktoker dream, it is stronger because there are really people making a lot of money thanks to it, thanks to selling their privacy and sometimes selling the dream life, even my 7-year-old daughter told me that she wanted to make videos for YouTube, video of her playing, motivated by the videos of a Mexican girl who uploads videos every day promoting toys, I had to explain those things to her and she already went down the fever of being a "YouTuber". I also understand the thinking of those people who say they prefer to make content for these platforms and not have a classic job, since they would earn much more money by making videos than being a labor slave for little money, to that we must add that access to university education is becoming increasingly impossible. I was reading on X a guy who said he required the services of a blacksmith, he spent a lot of time searching until he only found a man of that profession and he ends by saying "now all the young people are delivery people and tiktokers" "when that man dies, will there be no blacksmiths in my city?" The million dollar question is, how will this be solved?

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @stack_harder OP 5h

i think we could say this about OF too, a young hot girl might think , why not just do this and make a ton instead of working a regular job for peanuts.

quite scary.

as for things like blacksmiths, perhaps if they mostly vanished, the remaining ones would get paid a lot more and it would then entice people back into it.

like how now, i see these videos of like, bricklayers, getting paid 200 pounds a day when it's cold etc. crazy money.

tiktok then, ironically, showcases these other professions and people start doing tiiktok + job.

Man do i miss the simpler times of even ten years ago when none of this was an issue and not every person was trying to be a hustler or content creator.

42 sats \ 1 reply \ @suraz 20 Nov

It’s heartwarming to see how much we, as parents, care about our kid’s future in this complex modern world. As parents, it's important not to impose our own choices on our children regarding their future careers. Instead, we should allow them the freedom to choose their own paths and passions. Questions like what they will do? and how they will adapt? are truly important and worth reflecting on in today’s times.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @stack_harder OP 20 Nov

i think it was probably always a bit terrifying but the pace of change happening now really adds an extra layer of anxiety for parents

10 sats \ 0 replies \ @denlillaapan 20 Nov

I feel like jobs maybe involve anything physical (that can't easily be done by chat gpt / AI) would be an ok bet for now.

Indeed, indeed.

If your job isn't physical or you can't explain it to a five-year-old, it isn't a job and probably shouldn't be done.

10 sats \ 1 reply \ @OT 20 Nov

I think they need to find their field of excellence and work on getting into the top percentile. I think that's all you can do. If you go chasing fields that you think will have jobs for the coming decades, the tech could blow all that up in a year or two. At least if they're at the top of their field there will very likely be valued and well paid.

I tend to agree that skilled physical jobs should stick around longer than software or knowledge based ones (lawyer/accountant), but that's just a guess. Robotics could end up developing just as fast.

I think having resilience, creativity, curiosity and a willingness to learn might be more important. It's also not something you can really teach though.

94 sats \ 0 replies \ @stack_harder OP 20 Nov

To an extent, although these days it's hard to say as change spreads fast and jobs get outsourced even faster.

i think you're right that resilience, creativity, curiosity and a willingness to learn are key, because those are things that can be applied anytime, anywhere.

One thing maybe i would add is the ability to get some sales skills, because it does seem if life, whether pitching to investors or going on interviews, the ability to 'sell' oneself is very important.