In March this year I introduced you to A Whole New Mind. Daniel Pink’s argument goes something like this: jobs which can be done anywhere at the end of an ethernet cable (software development, call centres, accounting etc) are moving to wherever it can be done cheapest; if it can be automated it will; and we have so much of everything each individual item is worth less. Knowledge workers in first world countries like Australia, the US and Britain need to develop their capabilities in areas like design, story, symphony, empathy, play and meaning.

Apologies for the long intro to this observation—bear with me. On the weekend I was mentioning to a friend that skills that were difficult to off-shore like plumbing, bricklaying and running restaurants were good occupations to pursue but perhaps I was deluded. I was watching Today Tonight (an embarrassing admission) and there was a story about business owners importing employees from the Phillipines and while they were being paid the award wage the business owners took advantage of the immigrants lower expectations for accommodation and general living standards. So it seems all jobs are at risk and a sensible strategy for a knowledge worker is develop Pink’s 6 capabilities as quickly as possible.