With the United States government having just concluded its longest shutdown in history, it is time to take a step back and realize why the United States has been a powerhouse over the past several decades. The simple truth is that it is not only control of resources that inspires civilizations to move forward but it is individuals with the freedom to do what they want that drives civilizations forward.
There are many that would argue that control of resources is critical to enabling individuals to pursue their dreams and their ideas. Indeed, there is no doubt that in the history of human civilization, the need to control resources has been a dire one. Whether it is land to grow crops or to mine metals from deep within the Earth’s core, resources have been a constant source of tension among human societies since time immemorial.
While there will always be resource competition no matter how efficient we become or what alternatives we may discover, it is not resource competition that governments and societies need to focus their energies on. Competition in the 21st century will increasingly be about maximizing individual potential not just from a pure numerical perspective but from a motivated intellectual perspective.
What do I mean by a motivated intellectual perspective? Before addressing that question, the elephant in the room that must be addressed is the fact that for too long we have looked at individuals as mere replaceable uniform widgets on a never-ending assembly line. Indeed, that mentality can been seen in the old methods of management. Seeing them merely as “fungible resources” that can be reduced to numbers on a spreadsheet is the worst possible way to manage in the 21st century.
Thanks to automation and machine learning, we don’t need humans to replicate the function of a widget on an assembly line anymore. Machines can do monotonous and repeatable tasks with more precision and fewer requirements (e.g. breaks to rest tired muscles) than a human being ever could. What the 21st century needs and what will power nation states superpower status are individuals who are adaptable, flexible and are capable of executing.
Today’s next multi-billion dollar unicorn isn’t going to come from the harnessing of natural resources but from the harnessing of human ingenuity and creativity. Indeed, from a human resources perspective, it will not be the large numbers of employees that a business can employ efficiently that will be a mark of success but how few. This is primarily due to the fact that physical labor is rapidly being replaced by intellectual labor as the primer and driver of great 21st century economies.
If intellectual labor are the primer and driver of today’s economies then doesn’t quantity still count? Doesn’t a country with more engineers and mathematicians have a superior advantage to those that do not? Yes and no. While quantity does help in the game of probabilities, the reality is how you motivate an individual to pursue intellectual curiosity is even more important than ever before. Hence the motivated intellectual.
Intellectual curiosity is not a linear or predictable thing. If it were, we as a society would be much further along scientifically than we are now. Whether we like it or not, we don’t know where the next idea or inspiration will come from. Individually, it could be from observing a Monet or it could be walking through Yosemite National Park. Anything can trigger that spark of creative genius that could be the next multi-billion dollar unicorn. One thing is certain. Enabling individuals the freedom and liberty to pursue their ideas and passions is the best thing that any government or society can do as they attempt to become the next economic superpower.
The reality is that if an individual is in a toxic environment, they will not be productive or creative. Indeed, their mind will be unable to “play” as they are constantly stressed about surviving. If one is struggling to pay the bills or is worried that they won’t have a job the next day, they will only focus on the short term instead of the long term limiting their ability to dream and ultimately pursue their version of a unicorn idea.
How does this tie back to the recent United States government shutdown? The plain reality is if an individual has to worry about whether their plane is safe or if they can hang on a bit longer financially while they wait for a government approval to open their business, that individual will not be able to think about their next great idea. They will only be able to think about surviving and that makes all of us poorer both financially and socially.
Whether you are conservative or liberal, government or, as some may prefer, a system of predictable enforced rules and regulations is required to allow individuals to not only dream but to pursue their dreams. It gives individuals the breathing room they need to think creativity and not have to worry about where they are going to get their dinner today or whether their water is safe.
So as global competition continues to heat up in terms of developing the next Silicon Valley, it behooves us to remember that the advances that we have seen in Silicon Valley did not happen in complete anarchy but in controlled chaos. A controlled chaos where individual ideas were given room to explore freely but within a regulated framework that wasn’t top down but collaborative in nature.
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