A workman must first sharpen his tools if he is to do his work well
--- Confucius
The trends of human lifespan
Human lifespan continues to increase due to the improvement of sanitation, medical care, and advancement of science and technology. In 1990-1995, the global life expectancy was 64.56. Now in 2020-2025, it is 73.16. The following picture (https://ourworldindata.org/life-expectancy) gives more details on global life expectancy over the past 200+ years:
Three phases of a life
We can roughly segment the human life into three phases:
●
Learning phase (age 0 -
25)
● Career phase (age 25 - 65)
● Retirement phase (age 65+)
When we were born, we were so
weak that we were not capable of doing anything. Our parents take care of
everything for us – they nurture us, clothe us, feed us, and send us to schools
to learn skills and knowledge. This is the learning phase. We assume the first
25 years of our human lives are in the learning phase.
Then we will find a job to make a
living, to support the family. We will build up our own family and have our
children. This is the career phase. This phase is the most important phase in
which human beings as a species inherit from one generation to the next. We
assume the statutory retirement age is 65, so 40 years of your life are in the
career phase.
As we grow older year by year,
the body starts to deteriorate like how a machine gets rusty. We gradually lose
competency in the work market, and eventually have no choice but to quit our
jobs. This is the retirement phase.
Of course, there are exceptions.
The above age range cannot reflect the practices of the whole mankind – it only
illustrates a picture of the life of the common folk. Many notable figures live out their lives
following a different timeline. For example, Donald Trump and Joe Biden were elected into US presidency at the age of
71 and 79 respectively; billionaire Li Ka-Shing retired at the age of 90;
Chairman & CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, Warren Buffett, is now 91 years old;
and its vice Chairman Charles Munger is now 97 years old this year (2021).
Few of us will come to lead a
life like theirs. Most of us retire at age 65 and live up to age 80. By this
timeline, half of our lives will be in the career phase. Is it too long, or too
short? What does that mean to your whole life?
It means that this 40 years of
your lifetime, during which you create value to this world, is a result of your
first 25 years’ learning phase, and it also defines the standard of living in
your last 15 years of retirement phase, e.g., how much money you could spend
each month, how well you would live with your family and how happy you would
pass every day.
Critical periods of language development
Have you ever noticed, as we age,
it becomes harder and harder to pick up new skills? Scientists have found that
speaking a language is a nature that can only be learned before a young age
like 7. If one does not learn a language during these “critical periods of
language development”, one cannot speak or even understand human languages in
the later stages of life. This was the key finding from studies on people
raised by animals like wolves, e.g., Wild Child of Aveyron.
There are people in isolated places who live an primordial lifestyle. Scientists find that some languages don’t even have quantitative concepts. For example, studies show that the Piraha people of the Amazon “were not able to do the one-to-one correspondence when the numbers were greater than two or three.” (University of Miami. "You can't do the math without the words: Amazonian tribe lacks words for numbers." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 21 February 2012.)
So make full use of the learning
phase, it will be easier for you to pick up a skill and master it. In your
career phase, the company may give you stable jobs for many years, and you may
stop developing yourself during this long period. However, there is no
permanent job in the world. At the end of the day, you will be kicked out
because you don’t have the upgraded skills that the company needs.
Your first job
Many countries provide compulsory
and free education for primary schools and secondary schools. If you live in
such countries, you have no rush to find an employment job during this period.
After that, you have the choice to further your education in universities or go
for a job.
Some people would have no
hesitation to find a job after secondary education at a typical age of 18 --
this could be a reason why in many countries, the age of attaining legal
adulthood is 18. That is a natural choice for people in the following
scenarios:
●
Academic performance
is not good
●
Want to make money as
soon as possible
● Cannot afford the cost of university
● No preference and there is a job opportunity so just take it
However, higher education has its
pay off. Most of the companies give the basic salary according to the
educational level. For example, monthly $1800 for a secondary school graduate
while $3500 for a degree holder.
Once you take up a job, your
career phase starts. But if you are still in school, and take up a part-time
job, then you have an overlapped phase with both the learning phase and career
phase.
Change a job
After you take up a job, you have
a new role in your life, and you are making money to support yourself, and
perhaps your family as well. However, this new role needs an alteration of your
mindset. You need time to adapt to the new role, adapt to the new environment.
Very often, especially in your
first job, you may quit the job because:
●
the situation is not
satisfactory
●
the job does not meet
your expectations
●
the job does not suit
your skillset
●
too much time is spent
on the transport
●
you do not like the
company’s culture or environment
●
you are unable to work
with the boss or the colleague
● you feel dissatisfied with the salary etc.
You may then start to look for
the next job. Some may, however, choose to go back to school to continue the
learning phase for the following reasons:
●
To improve their skill
set
●
To learn new knowledge
in a different industry
●
To get a certificate
of higher education for higher starting pay
Haste makes waste
In ancient China, there was a
farmer, who was eager to help the plants grow faster. When the shoots broke out
of the soil, he helped uproot them so they looked taller. This of course killed
the plants.
This is the story behind the
Chinese idiom:
Before you look for a new job,
make sure you have the required capability for it. If not, try to learn first,
don’t be impatient.
Power of inertia
Do you remember Newton’s first
law of motion? If there is no external force, a moving object will remain at
its constant velocity and a stationary object will remain at rest. This is also
called the law of inertia.
When this law applies to your
career, the result is obvious: if you are not forced to improve, you will
slowly stagnate.. You may not even realize it until it is too late.
In the 19th century, there was a
famous 6-year rebellion in England referred to as the Luddites. Due to the
industrial revolution, weavers and artisans lost their jobs; they struggled and
in the end, went out smashing the mechanized looms. More than 10,000 troops
were deployed to suppress the Luddites.
In 1956, the invention of
containers revolutionized the shipping industry, and the world’s supply chain
became enormously efficient. However, many dockworkers in the port lost their
jobs. They went on strike but it was all in vain – they eventually had to learn
new skills for the new industry.
Remote working was once hailed by
the futurists, but when the world was suddenly attacked by COVID-19, the world
was forced to speed up the procedure. In one night, companies had to allow
working from home as a default method.
As individuals, we are unable to
stop the path of history. In this digital world, technology advances faster
than ever, we have to adapt ourselves to the trend. We need to take an active
attitude to learn from the daily tasks in our current jobs, and also keep an
open mind to learning new technology.
