The Richly or Poorly Show - Show Transcript

The Richly or Poorly Show
Show Transcript
shdawson-20260908.mp3
Episode 09/08/2026
09/08/2026

Hello! Welcome to The Richly or Poorly Show!

My name is Dr. Stephen Dawson, and I am your show host.

Thank you for joining me.

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The show's motto is unmistakable: RICHLY IS GOODLY!

Please consider how you define the term good as we journey through life together in your pursuit of defining the term richly in your life.

We have spent time together since December 2025, covering many topics. I started by presenting a series of episodes to accomplish Listener Relationship Formation. I then shared some of the Living Life More Richly Principles, moving on to Truth Aspects, with some Connector episodes along the way to expand on the material presented in episodes as we transitioned between topics. I then presented on the Fourth Industrial Revolution, the Seven-Part Purchase Process, the topic of Fear, and then presented on the topics of Messaging & Communication. I then illustrated through a series of episodes on Followership Failures, then spoke about Relationships, and I presented the Show Status a few times in some episodes along the way.

Today, I will begin the series on The Five Academic Skills Necessary for Success.

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I begin this series by answering the only two questions that matter in communication: SO WHAT? -and- WHAT NOW?

A good presenter can answer these two questions about the material they present to their intended audience by way of a single sentence for each question. Here are my answers for you, as a member of my intended show audience.

SO WHAT?
The Five Academic Skills Necessary for Success form one of the dominant means for you to live your life more richly from the year 2026 forward.

WHAT NOW?
I suggest you hear what I have to say to you in this series of episodes.

Now, let's step through these two sentences a bit to help you understand their impact on you.

I have said many times during The Richly or Poorly Show that artificial intelligence will be a regular part of our lives within the next ten years, most likely within the next eight years. What ground do you expect you will be standing on in the year 2034? What work do you expect you will be doing in the year 2034? If you have no idea about the answer to either of these questions, then you are not alone.

The United Nations tells us that the global population of humanity at the end of the year 2025 was 8,231,613,070 people alive here on Earth. Let's round that number to 8.2 billion people for our time together today. I have shared many times during The Richly or Poorly Show that artificial intelligence and robotics using artificial intelligence will do some of the work accomplished by humans today. I have shared many times during The Richly or Poorly Show that between 20-40% of humanity will need to retrain to be able to get a different job when the combination of artificial intelligence and robotics starts doing their job. 20% of 8.2 billion people is approximately 1.65 billion people. 40% of 8.2 billion people is approximately 3.30 billion people. As I said earlier, you are not alone in your wonderment about the ground you expect you will be standing on in the year 2034, and the work you expect you will be doing in the year 2034.

The reason it is necessary to measure all of humanity is that kids grow into working adults, and working adults become too old to work. So, the most accurate means to measure labor force changes over more than a decade is to measure all of humanity and consider percentages of the total number of people in humanity.

Now, what are the chances your work will be replaced by a combination of either artificial intelligence alone, or a robot operated by artificial intelligence? Let's consider this question to try and discover the answer.

I shared during the December 9th, 2025 episode that I knew a master welder who worked for a company called Huntington Ingalls Industries. A welder is a trade laborer, being a skilled worker. A master level trade worker is the most senior role of a specific trade. He was working in Newport News, Virginia. He was working to help build a new aircraft carrier for the United States Navy called the USS Harry S. Truman. His job paid $41 an hour to monitor a robotic welder, welding together metal parts that form the aircraft carrier. He said he never saw the robotic welder fail. Construction on the USS Harry S. Truman began in November 1993. The aircraft carrier went to sea, loaded with people and supplies, for the first time in July 1998. My conversation with that welder occurred almost 31 years ago from today.

Huntington Ingalls Industries is a large company. I invite you to take the time to do an Internet search about them to learn a bit more about them. Your understanding of some of the work they do will help you better understand the episode I present to you today.

Huntington Ingalls Industries announced on August 7, 2026, that they have started using robots to perform the cutting of metal, a trade known as machinist work, and coating the cut metal with paint, a trade known as painter work, to build all types of ships for the United States Navy.

The United States Navy wanted to be certain the work accomplished by their robotic welder that helped to build the USS Harry S. Truman held up to the strain of time on the ocean and planes landing on the ship. The United States Navy reached the decision point where they were certain robotic welders were able to do the work as required, and has moved to have robots do machinist and painting work on all types of ships for the United States Navy in addition to the robotic welding work that began over three decades ago.

The work accomplished by a robot to do welding, machining, and painting involves way more than only trade labor. There is almost every job and skill imaginable involved in designing and building a robot that operates by artificial intelligence. So, this story about shipbuilding since 1995 is one of countless examples to help you consider the ground you expect you will be standing on in the year 2034, and the work you expect you will be doing in the year 2034.

Summarizing, the entire metal structure forming an aircraft carrier can go from an architectural drawing on a computer, straight into the artificial intelligence on the electronics of the robot, and form 100% of an aircraft carrier, then paint 100% of the metal of the assembled aircraft carrier as of August 7, 2026.

Today, there are robots that can go to the bottom of the ocean and work on telecommunications cabling that connects continents, go to space and work on satellites, work the cash register of a convenience store, cook hamburgers and french fries in a restaurant, and work the front desk of a hotel to service hotel guests. The age of robotics has already occurred. The only barrier to widespread artificial-intelligence-operated robotics is the purchase price of robots, which must decrease so that more medium and small businesses can purchase and implement them.

The Five Academic Skills Necessary for Success are what I have found to be critical to living life more richly. I have spent 60 years here on Earth. I have considered the topic of living life more richly for most of those years, and arrive at the same conclusions each time I consider the skills necessary to not have either artificial intelligence or a robot take away my work ability from me. How about you?

I tell you now, without reservation, I became disheartened more than once over the years, wondering how I would ever gain the academic skills necessary to live life more richly. I came across some words a guy said almost 100 years ago. They helped me to be able to focus myself each day, so I could accomplish some type of productive work output. Here is what the guy said: "Try not to become successful. Rather, try to become valuable." His name was Albert Einstein. He was a pretty big name for about the last 50 years of his 76-year life. He was considered a pretty smart guy by many at the time.

My intent today is to help you see that learning is continuous, that learning occurs by either you or someone else who will do the job you no longer are qualified to do, that machines are taking our jobs, and that 20-40% of humanity will either be out of work in the next eight years or will go through some learning to do a job they have never accomplished beforehand.

What crowd do you want to be in? Do you want to have income, or be out of work? Do you want to have job options, or have only one type of work you can do that could go to a robot before you decide to stop working? Do you want to earn less money because a machine can work for less expense than people, specifically you?

These are big questions to consider, no doubt. I urge you to spend time this week considering how you answer them.

Do so as you look around you and see people playing with their smartphones who have no idea about current events, because they do not listen to the news, who instead only see whatever they see on Twitter-X and believe it is a fact without confirming what they are reading is a fact.

Do so as you look around you and see children who are not learning in school because we do not know how to teach the students who will not pay attention in class.

Do so as you consider your children of today or tomorrow looking to you as their parent for answers about how to gain some specific form of academic education, based on the academic abilities you have today to answer their academic questions and guide them in accomplishing their learning.

Do so as you think about the price of gasoline you have paid to fuel your vehicle over the past six months, wondering if the day will come when the cost to purchase fuel will decrease to the prices of last year.

Do so as you consider how you define the term good as we journey through life together in your pursuit of defining the term richly in your life.

Please visit shdawson DOT COM SLASH podcast and click the LINK offer. I invite you to then click the LINK Sponsors to learn about the four types of sponsors so you can help sponsor a part of The Richly or Poorly Show! I thank you for your help in funding the show's cost to assist both you and the other listeners in living life more richly!

My intent is not to scare you, but it is to focus your thinking to learn what I am about to teach you in this episode series. You will hear from me next week about how you will become irritated during this episode series on The Five Academic Skills Necessary for Success, and how I offer you help to not be irritated. You will hear from me next week about a part of the price you will pay to gain The Five Academic Skills Necessary for Success in your life. You will also learn from me next week about some of what happens to a person who does not gain The Five Academic Skills Necessary for Success. You will also learn from me over the coming weeks of how I failed to learn during my first eight years of school, how I responded to my failure of learning in the following four years, and how I had to repeat some of my learning with other teachers. You will also hear of the shock I experienced during a part of my journey to learn when the title of Dr. Dawson as an adjunct professor became a part of my life.

Please understand, The Richly or Poorly Show is not about me. It is all about you. I have no desire to blow my horn as an effort to proclaim myself. I only have the desire to help you, as a member of my intended show audience, live your life more richly. You must decide, every second we are together, that you want me to help you live your life more richly. It is up to you to either take or leave the help.

Well, that's it for today.

RICHLY IS GOODLY!

Thank you for joining me for this episode of The Richly or Poorly Show!

I have enjoyed presenting to you today.

Until the next episode, I hope you will be safe and join me next week.

Until then.

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