It has been a challenging few days around our World as we were witness to a tragic shooting at UCLA, the inferno in Syria seemed to have no end in sight and Iraq continues to be on the brink. I did find it laughable as Arkansas Senator Tom Cotton was at it again in regards to the Iran Deal after his discredited move over the infamous letter that was ridiculed by of all people, The Foreign Minister of Iran.
As I am working away on these thoughts, I am listening to live feed from NDTV on riots in one of the largest states in India, Uttar Pradesh. I also found it distressing as two senior Police Officers lost their lives--It is always tragic when law enforcement officers give their life no matter where they live. I am also seeing reports from Paris about the River Seine swelling to levels not seen since the 1930's which has forced the Louvre to close and for priceless art to be moved to higher ground.
It is not easy to be positive. The alternative is simply not acceptable. It is in this spirit that I supported the #Outsiders team as the latest Thought For the Week was published and the Friday Musical Interlude was also released. ut, I wanted to make sure a sense of positive momentum continued as #outsiders 2.x featured the latest edition of Thought For the Week and the Friday Musical Interlude.
As I have been assessing our World, I was quite amazed by a bit of a reaffirmation on the need for true "soft skills" necessary for our World as outlined by Geoff Colvin of Fortune with this advice to College Graduates:
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| June 2, 2016 | |
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| To all the brand new college graduates who majored in a liberal arts field, I have a message: If you want to be a leader, you did the right thing. This is a controversial message at a time when every village and town seems to be offering coding classes for kindergarteners and America’s dearth of STEM majors is conventionally viewed as a serious problem. None of that is wrong. Coding is becoming the literacy of the modern economy, and everyone should be conversant with it. Companies in energy, IT, and other fields want to hire more good STEM majors than they can find; of course they want a larger supply. Along the way, liberal arts have become desperately uncool except among a band of earnest evangelists who argue that it’s a solid foundation for whatever else a young person may want to do. The thing is, the evangelists are right, especially with regard to leadership. “Look, the Army for a long time, many of the services have been looking for some very technical-type majors coming out of schools to deal with the technically advanced army that we have,” Lt. Col. Peter Godfrin, who heads Harvard’s Army ROTC program, told the Harvard Gazette recently. “But just from the conflicts that we’ve seen in recent years, the technological advances only get us so far. We need to be able to communicate and negotiate with folks; we need folks at the highest levels who can think through complex problems because … unfortunately, warfare is a human endeavor.” Colin Dickinson, a Navy officer who majored in economics, told the Gazette, “I can honestly say that I have drawn upon my learning in everything from marine biology to the tales of Homer in my attempt to best serve my sailors and lead them to success.” What’s true for the military is true more broadly. David Kalt, an entrepreneur whose latest venture is an online musical instruments exchange called Reverb.com, wrote yesterday in the Wall Street Journal that “our chief operating officer is a brilliant, self-taught engineer with a degree in philosophy from the University of Chicago. His determination and critical-thinking skills empower him to leverage the power of technology without getting bogged down by it. His background gives him the soft skills – the people skills – that make him stand out as someone who understands our customers and knows how to bring the staff along.” Kalt spent years urging students to major in computer science and engineering rather than liberal arts. But his recent article is called “Why I Was Wrong About Liberal-Arts Majors.” Advice on choosing a major obviously isn’t useful for new graduates, so here’s a message for students about to enter college: College isn’t trade school. Whether you major in a liberal arts field or STEM or anything else, you emerge not with the skills that will make you successful at a specific company but rather with a foundation for more learning. As advancing technology takes over more of the world’s left-brain work, the skills of deep human interaction, of leadership, are increasingly in demand. What a liberal arts education gives you – critical thinking, clear communication, the lessons of Homer – is growing more valuable, not less. |
Recode interview with @karaswisher and @waltmossberg https://t.co/BDqQ7RreV2 via @YouTube— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 2, 2016
It is also the NBA Finals. The team at Pandora sent this out to all the subscribers and I thought this might be cool for all to enjoy as the fight between The Warriors and the Cavaliers ensues as I wish all a fabulous weekend:
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| Partying for the NBA finals? These stations are a swish for any gameday event. |
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