Welcome to November 2022 edition of the Xth volume of Carnival of Quality Management Articles and Blogs.
The theme for the Xth volume of our Carnival of Quality Management Articles and Blogs is inspired from the editorial of the January 2022 special Issue of Prabuddha Bharata (The Awakened India) – Living a Meaningful Life in a Digital World.
For our present episode, we take up the article, Sailing Unprepared in to a Storm Called the ‘Digital Age’ by Anikethan Ramakrishna V.
Here is an excerpt from the article:
Over the time the transitions that human civilization has undergone have been with increase pace of change. But drastic changes were ‘mostly once a generation’. That gave the people necessary time to eventually reorient themselves with the change.
The digital age has been a revolution like no other in human history. Every dimension of the human society is now in constant state of rapid churn.
Our ability to find meaning in life greatly depends on the reasonable stable set of principles and ideas with which we can work towards and an identity with we can relate to. However, abundance of mostly unreliable and irrelevant information is a challenge to us in our quest for an identity and meaning. And hence the challenges in integrating the right amount of digital presence and information.
- The ‘societal’ and ‘individual perspective – Every significant change in the society has impacts at overall societal level and other at the individual level. The human tendency has always been to go with group, despite having possibly having and exact opposite point of view, at least to begin with. In the process, we tend to forget the freedom of choice that an individual has. This freedom of choice and our ability to exercise it, in many a case, is the difference between a meaningful life and one that is otherwise. Thus, the first step towards ensuring meaningful life in this digital age is through exercising the choice to participate in the digital world to the extent that is necessary and optimal for an individual.
Further readings:
Growing up in a digital world: benefits and risks
Leading concerns about the future of digital life – Kathleen Stansberry, Janna Anderson and Lee Rainie
- The challenge of ‘How much to’ and ‘How to’ communicate and participate – Historically, owing to geographical and technical constraints, a person’s interactions on a regular basis were mostly limited to the people one would meet in person or could communicate via traditional mail or telephone services. More the level of interaction, stronger was the overall sense of community. However, the seamless communications that the digital world have rapidly ushered in has trivialised the inter-personal communication.
Further readings:
How to overcome 14 common communication challenges in the workplace – Aleksandar Olic
- The challenge of ‘What to’ and ‘What not to’ be influenced by – A unhealthier aspect of information overload is to influence our ideas and actions, generally without much contemplation. Consequently, the ability to critically dwell on the idea, internalize it if relevant and then if necessary to act on it gets lost. As result, Attention Deficit and Satisfaction Deficit have gained prominence now.
Further readings:
The Challenges of Countering Influence Operations – Elise Thomas, Natalie Thompson, Alicia Wanless
How to Increase Your Influence at Work – Rebecca Knight
ADHD: Symptoms, Causes and Natural Support Strategies – Dr. Jockers
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs – Saul McLeod, PhD
In the end, one must remember that society and individuals will have to live with the on the unending exposure to the information in the digital era. It is for the individual to exercise the choice of the extent and type of information that he would like to be exposed to and how he wants to act on it. Leveraging this choice is the only means to ensure that we make life meaningful, on the daily basis as well as overall.
We will now turn to our regular section -.
We now watch ASQ TV episode on –
New Job Opportunities for Quality Professionals in Cloud Management – Alka Jarvis is the co-author of Successful Management of Cloud Computing and DevOps (ASQ Quality Press) with Prakash Anand and Johnson Jose. Along with discussing the benefits of cloud storage and how to align your cloud computing strategies with the business objectives, Alka discussed important skills quality professionals already have for getting into this new field.
We have taken up one article from Jim L. Smith’s Jim’s Gems:
The Real Value is in the Effort: The effort that we expend to reach a goal or a target is critical to our growth, both professionally and personally. Whether we accomplish the goal or target, perhaps is not the point-it is the learning, strength, confidence and fulfilment that is gained on our journey that is the real value to us and to those who surround us.
- Anything worth accomplishing usually takes long, difficult and sustained effort to accomplish
- The real value of accomplishment is in the journey toward reaching our goal.
- No matter how difficult the journey may be, it makes all the difference in the world when that journey is leading to a destination we have chosen.
- The commitment, discipline, focus and effort are indeed their own rewards.
- It is precisely the effort and the value we put into the accomplishment that gives it value to us.
- We need to commit to make the most of every opportunity and to give our best effort, and we’ll find ourselves surrounded by real, lasting value.
From the Editor’ (of Quality Magazine) – by Darryl Sealand, we have –
- Roko’s Basilisk: The Scariest Thought Experiment Ever – This thought experiment[1] posits that the creation of an artificial intelligence will lead to an all-powerful, future artificial intelligence that will retroactively punish anyone who did not help bring it into existence. It’s been described by many as the scariest thought experiment ever. The really scary part is that it is grounded in actual rational thought and game theory. … It has been associated with Blaise Pascal’s argument that one should believe in God, even if God’s existence cannot be proved or disproved through reason. Taken to what some would agree is a satirical extreme, it has also been referred to as “Believing in and searching for kryptonite on the off chance that Superman exists and wants to kill you.” ….. Whether bolstered by a legacy of fantastic stories or not, because of the progress of the technology, these kinds of arguments have thrust themselves into real-world discussions of late…. For quite some time in manufacturing, the question was, “Are robots coming to take our jobs?” The answer, then and now, is that robots and AI stand ready to do the job side-by-side with humans, who can relinquish the mundane and repetitive jobs to concentrate on the aspects of the job machines just cannot do. Which means that addressing the skills gap is just as important as it has ever been for manufacturers.
Further readings:
How to Defeat Roko’s Basilisk – Kyle Hill
I look forward to your views / comments / inputs to further enrich the theme of Living a Meaningful Life in a Digital World.
Note: The images or video clips depicted here above are through courtesy of respective websites who have the copyrights for the respective images /videos.
The world is too small? or Is it? 