Big Tech and what we should be learning--

What is going on with all the big tech companies? 

For most of my adult life, and especially in my teaching life, we've been shoved down the "must do computer stuff for the best jobs out there in the 21st century" road. Metric tons of money poured into STEM classes, laptops and coding and digital everything have dominated curriculum. 

And now, thousands of people have been are being laid off. 

I don't have the inside track on why, but I am curious about what these people will do to pivot to new employment. I envision them bouncing from one job to the next, as the tech dominos continue to fall. Technology and the huge companies that we all know are not going away, but it seems like there is a type of corrective going on. Simply put: did they code their way out of jobs? AI is front and center in the news lately; two more text-generating chatbots have been announced. That's another concern entirely; the algorithms that drive them scan the 'net for information, but cannot screen out faulty computations or "information"-- just wait and see what crumbling foundation our future will be built on now that we will be stepping back from building our own knowledge-schema. 

But those of us --the oddballs, the dinosaurs, the quirky sorts who actually read-- are sitting in the back row watching this all play out. So much time and treasure has been expended in developing the developers, and the humanities and liberal arts have been scoffed at. The tech-heavy curriculum advocates have long bullied and berated those who understand the value of a liberal arts education.

What now, techies? 

I think it's a both/and situation. Computers are essentially an appliance, a toaster, if you will. If you don't have the abilities to think originally and formulate interesting questions, then you get whatever it decides satisfies. We cannot afford to abdicate to the technology; it does not "know" what we need, not that we do yet, either. But our natural inquisitiveness, quirky thought patterns, and a healthy sense of wonder cannot be replaced by metal, silicon, and plastic. Unfortunately, too few students are being encouraged to develop those skills.

Have a good day,

CMG