Skills, Motivations, and Relevance

Copyright © Dr. Stephen H. Dawson, DSL 2023

Published
May 02, 2023

Scope

Presentation of a formula and how it is a reflection of societal continuance based on cited current events from decreased academic learning.

Overview

This article is written in first person. It is not a rant. It is intended to communicate the value of academic learning as the basis for building any society. This article sets aside the concepts of worldview, religion, and spirituality to focus only on the need to understand the detriment to society today is based tangibly on the reversal of academic learning progress in all societies. The intended outcome is to illustrate the source of the harm, how to resolve the harm, and considerations of the repercussions from what will occur if the harm does not end. The message is communicated through presentation of a contextualized formula.

I am not speaking of the disabled. The condition of unable does not equal the condition of unwilling. My work with the disabled affirms there can be genuine obstacles to learning. However, I am also fortunate enough to have witnessed firsthand how many people with learning or physical disabilities overcame their obstacles and learned more than anyone could have imagined they would when they began their learning journey. I am humbled and challenged to be a better person by their success.

This article is written from the belief the terms they and we do not exist. The article is structured from the clear understanding there are only individuals in different forms of temporary association with other individuals. A result of this understood belief is the concept of equality never has existed, does not exist today, and never will exist.

Here We Go

I know. Education is not popular today. It is an out of favor ideology. A recent article addressing the foundations of education brought greater understanding to me of why education is failing in all measurements of all societies in the world of today. This out of favor ideology was popularized to a large extent starting in 1979 by way of a society well-known for academics. I was in this crowd for about three weeks in my youth before I realized I would have an even more difficult life than childhood if I were also ignorant in adulthood.

The similarity to the violence portrayed in this video and the declining trend of intelligence in many societies today has a direct relationship. It is a cause-effect relationship. No education, no intelligence, no peace, resulting in violence. Learning today is either going or has gone out of style for the majority of humanity by their willful choice. The choice to not learn, except for the disabled, resides somewhere between laziness and intellectual cowardice. I am not talking about street smart versus book smart. I will not drown you with a dozen academic citations proving my assertion of a clear declining trend in reading-writing-arithmetic skills is present in not only the developed nations, but also in developing nations. Here is a doozey of an article to prove the assertion that will most likely gain the attention of anyone who is not incoherent.

Reading since the 1990s is being replaced by audio and video. Writing since the 1990s is being replaced by typing and speaking, often reusing the words written by either someone else, a computer program generating the text, or both. Arithmetic since the 1990s is being replaced by avoidance. I never saw reading-writing-arithmetic skills only as part of learning through my early schooling years. The skills are far too valuable to confine to anyone's preschool to high school days.

There is a story about a guy who had the exact opposite problem identified in this article. He was unhappy with this lot in life. He struggled with his ability to think critically.

The person who complains and brags in same breath is often the person who gossips in their next breath. A greater struggle to think critically is where the proverbial rubber meets the road for anyone with lesser learning in reading-writing-arithmetic skills. Do you see this rub suffered by the character of Will Hunting in your life?

John Wayne is credited with a well-known phrase as part of his notoriety, but there is no solid evidence he said it as the originator. "Life is tough, but it's tougher when you're stupid." The statement has no bearing on the aspects of either race, gender, manhood or womanhood, body shape, sexual orientation, academic degree, cognition level, social group, income level, worldview, social philosophy, or political philosophy. The statement accredited to Wayne is a manifestation of truth. I addressed the topic of truth in a previous article when I discussed the thespian as an advancement of its prior article to teach on the topic of truth.

The Formula

I learned many years ago I cannot sell what no one wants to purchase. Sell, in the form of a product, a service, or labor in exchange for compensation. I then learned motivation to polish a skill helps sell the skill. However, popularity often overrides the reasoned purchasing process. Let's talk about popularity another time. Here is the formula I see trashing the societies of today.

Skills + Motivation = Relevance

A simple example of a common occurrence should help you comprehend the formula quiet quickly. How many times have you seen a musician performing who did not seem too skilled at the art of music but was quite popular as a musician? Their skill was low, but their motivation to perform music was high. So, their relevance to the audience was high enough for them to be popular as a musician. Let's step through the formula using this musician performance example to help bring the formula to a clear understanding for you.

Skills

The instrument must be tuned to sound well in relationship to the other instruments used during the performance. Well is a relative term. The instrument of voice is included in this reasoning. The instrument has notes, specific locations in the sound spectrum. The idea is to sound particular notes at a particular time to have a particular result. So, music is the combination of sound and time. The look of the performer is not questioned in this logic, only the sound rendered by the skills of the musician in comparison to when they render their sounds. Elvis Presley was a successful performer, but not a successful musician. Clearly, the act of performing music has much more going on than producing a particular sound at a particular time. Perhaps it is the look of the performer that draws the audience. Perhaps it is not their look, but what they represent.

Motivation

The interest to learn the instrument alone does not bring success in playing the instrument as desired. The motivation to perform music involves much more than only the instrument producing a particular sound at a particular time. There are countless examples of performing musicians who are legends in their work for playing their instrument not only out of tune but also playing out of time. Clearly, the desire of the audience to hear the out of tune musician play their instrument out of time must be a motivation of something other than tuning and timing. Otherwise, the particular tuning and particular timing is what the audience wants to receive. Each person in each audience wants a different experience from the performing musician. So, there is no constant here other than the performing musician having enough relevance to each person in each audience to add up to enough of a result of their combined skills and motivation to be determined as meaningful. Let's talk about meaningful another time.

Wait!

I hear you shouting at me. "I said popularity a few lines back, and now I am talking meaningfully. What is happening with these two terms?" They are each subjective results of relevance.

Relevance

The desire to hear the musician out of tune, who is perhaps also out of time, or vice versa, by an audience willing to pay money to hear the musician perform is the exact state of many societies today. These audiences either need or want a person, a performer, who can do arithmetic, write, and read pretty well but are willing to pay for workers who sound terrible and deliver either too slow or too fast. This combination is called paying an unqualified worker who does not deliver their assigned productive work output. There is nothing wrong with this scenario playing out, pun intended, until the end of time. What is probable is the day will come when the musician is no longer relevant, the audience moves on to hear another musician, and the musician who cannot play their instrument either in tune or in time no longer has income. This course of events is called a loss of employment with no income replacement by some form of government assistance.

Harm Source

The cause of folks not wanting to learn today is caused by their belief income will arrive without possessing enough reading-writing-arithmetic skills. How much reading-writing-arithmetic skill does one need to qualify as enough? The answer is enough skill to receive their desired income. Do you believe the band Pink Floyd has gained money for decades because they support the position education is unnecessary because of a tune they sold? Pink Floyd is well-known as a band that did quiet well in tuning their instruments together and playing their instruments in time with one another. They each learned the reading-writing-arithmetic skills they each needed to obtain and posses the income level they sought as a band.

Harm Resolution

The way, the only way, to stop being harmed by the choice not to learn is to start learning. Those who care more about popularity than their income will struggle with this action, but there is no way to get around it. Learning is a choice. Stupidity comes for free.

Repercussion Considerations

What happens if learning continues to decrease? Then it is reasonable to believe societies will continue to fail. What happens when any society fails? Ask your local librarian to recommend some history books to you about how anarchy has played out in the past.

Confidence

I am pushing 60 years of age. Some of those my age share with me their discomfort from their lack of assurance they will be able to retire because of the many changes occurring in the global economy today. They often keep silent, but their silence only helps them for a while. I often hear they are scared of running out of money and unsure they can gain more skills at this point in their lives to increase their income. They should be scared. They have big problems from not having enough skills at this point in their lives. They do things such as recreation to help them feel better today instead of being scared. Those things do not help them gain the reading-writing-arithmetic skills they need to increase their income.

I am certain I have much more to learn to do what I see I need to do in my future, work I have not yet begun to accomplish. My success at this point helping to form the profile of me is far from complete between now and my here after. Life is never static, unchanging. Life is always dynamic, always changing. How confident are you that you have all the reading-writing-arithmetic skills you need between now and the day you die?

A declaration that does not match demonstration is nothing but empty words. I could tell you to act now because things in this world will be more different in the next five years than anything anyone can imagine today, but I will not. The world will watch China and Russia advance on the world stage as never before history. I could tell you to do it for the generation that comes after you, but I will not. Who needs a parent or a grandparent to give their lineage anything to help them, right? I could tell you how much you need more education than you think you do to finish your life, but I will not. You know this already. What I will tell you is this: learning reading-writing-arithmetic skills is a never-ending journey. It is a matter of where you stand today with these skills in comparison to where you need to be with these skills. This gap is the only measurement that has any meaning when considering your tomorrow. I recommend you bump up any learning estimate you have by at least 20% more than the highest level you can foresee today.

Society means being educated as a citizen, not only educated to succeed in the workforce. No citizenship means no mental ownership, and no care for the components that comprise success. These are the attributes of a failing society. These are the attributes that are common in the developed countries of today and are becoming more common in the developing countries of today.

The Fourth R

So, what is the fourth R? Many pertinent options could be used to answer this question. Responsibility. Requirement. Reason. Research. Relationships. Why relationships? Society is based on interpersonal relationships. Do you want to be at a place in your life where you are trying to relate to anyone who cannot read, write, or accomplish arithmetic? There are many societies today racing to that exact outcome.

What Now?

I recommend you reread this article a week from now. I then recommend, after your second reading of this article, you ask yourself how many times in the past month you have not understood something you needed to read, struggled to form a message you needed to send, or were unable to interpret some calculation of some numbers you needed to understand. Then, ask yourself how many times those events played out over the past year. Then, ask yourself how likely it is someone younger than you will come and work your job for less compensation. Finally, ask yourself how convinced you are the company you work for is not going to either close or be acquired, where your pension is gone forever.

Conclusion

If stupid is as stupid does, then do something different. Do the smart thing. Improve your reading-writing-arithmetic skills. Stupidity in old age where society has failed is not a combination I wish on anyone.

Stephen Dawson is an executive consultant of technology and business strategy, serving significant international organizations by providing leadership consulting, strategic planning, and executive communications. Contact him at service@shdawson.com.