The skills AI can’t replace | Dr. Pavan Soni|Innovation Evangelist

Dr. Pavan Soni (Guest): Thank you so much.

Dr. Pavan Soni (Guest): That’s a good question. I think the first thing is to understand passion. We are sitting in a world where there are a lot of career options available.

About 20–30 years back, people were not even thinking that you can stay at home all your day and still make money.

People did not imagine that one could be an entrepreneur without employing people, or people could not imagine that one could become a multimillionaire just by putting videos on YouTube.

All these options are available to us: cloud kitchen, working from home, etc. which means that because suddenly the possibilities have opened up, it’s a very interesting time in human career and human life to really look inward as to what your passion is and once you anchor your career on your passion, instead of what you ought to do versus what you enjoy doing and what you’re good at, you can open up a lot of possibilities.

The starting point has to be identifying your passion and in my opinion, what is passion is something that you do without feeling tired.

For example, if you are a person who likes creating content, this is your passion and you can do this endlessly with different levels of challenges, with different types of people, and you will keep experimenting with what good content should look like and once you are able to identify your passion, then you build mastery around the passion by either reading or by formal or informal education and once you’ve done so, then you go ahead and take the next step and try to identify what are the commercial opportunities. The starting point has to be passion.

Dr. Pavan Soni (Guest): As humans, we often over-expect what can happen in a year. We are around the corner of the year, and as New Year resolutions happen, people expect that they will be able to change themselves dramatically in a matter of one year. But by the 15th of January, they realise that nothing much has changed, whether it is about physical fitness, or about relationships, or about self-development. A year goes by very quickly, but a decade is a long period of time.

Instead of thinking at an annual level, if you can look at a decade level and you can say that in this decade I want to be a good employee, in the next decade I want to explore entrepreneurship, and in a decade after that perhaps I would like to get into spirituality.

When you break your life into decades, roughly after studying, et cetera, one is left with about five decades of life.

If you can have a decade-wise plan that in each decade what you want to achieve, not only are you able to look at things more objectively, but also you are much more realistic and you are able to balance the decade-wise planning with your other obligations of life, which is to do with your family, with your parents, your children, and your different stages of life, whatever societal commitments that you have.

I think a year goes by very quickly, but a decade is something more enduring, and putting yourself in a decade-wise cadence is a much more realistic thing to do and it gives you a bit more long-term thinking possibilities. That’s what I advocate.

Dr. Pavan Soni (Guest): I think the first thing that students need to understand is that their self-worth need not be measured on how good they look on social media, because the current generation seems to be excessively obsessed with the social equity and that too from a very narrow perspective, which is how they look on social media.

Once they understand that others’ opinion is not so instrumental in your life and your career—after all, you can still stand out without necessarily alienating people in your life, you can still have your own mind without necessarily upsetting people.

Once you understand that — and it takes a long time for people to realize and appreciate the importance of being okay by not belonging and that is very difficult, by the way, because every sneeze is posted on social media: who is going out with whom, what dress you are wearing, what food you are eating, what courses you are taking — everything is out there and slowly people are realising that it is not really required, because when you put up something, you expect people to take notice. But that notice is for a very small amount of time, and very quickly they double down on what they they doing instead of showing interest in what you have done.

If you are able to dissociate yourself and disengage yourself from the vagaries of people’s opinion is when the real learning and real development start.

That’s the first thing, which is to have your internal locus of development and the second is to understand that the younger generation has been given a longer life as compared to older generations. With every passing year, the life expectancy in India is actually going up, thanks to medical care, thanks to better lifestyle, thanks to better access to medicine and antibiotics.

Now we are living long lives, but are we living meaningful lives? because now, whatever people used to do at the age of 30, people are now doing at the age of 40, because 40 is the new 30, and people are starting companies at the age of 60.

Am I right? which means that the children should understand that they have a long life in front of them. Even if they do not become somebody at the age of 22 or 25 or 30, it’s not the end of life and I’ve seen so many people taking drastic measures because they could not somehow meet their own expectations at their year 22.

Haven’t we seen children committing suicide at various colleges in our country, at premium institutes, mind it—people committing suicide at coaching centers!

They think that if I’m not able to make a cut at a certain institute at the age of 17 or 18, life is over for me. I think that’s very myopic. What students need to understand is that first of all, their self-worth is not measured on social media, that’s the first thing. The second thing is to understand that life is really long.

I’ve seen so many people trying to rush into their life, and by the age of 40, they’re done. They’re done physically, their physical health is not supporting them. They’re done socially, they’ve alienated people in their life. They have heart problems, they have diabetes, hypertension at the age of 40.

What’s the point of that life? What have you achieved? You may have achieved a bank balance, but you’re still struggling at a very fundamental level.

Something that people enjoyed—a life that people enjoyed a couple of decades back—you are not able to enjoy that life with all the money that you have. It’s a wake-up call for people around us to understand that it’s okay not to achieve things early in life.

This whole phenomenon that you want to be a young millionaire by the age of 30 or you want to start a company by the age of 25, I think that’s fake.

We need to just slow down, recalibrate our efforts, and invest into things which are much more fundamental and I think the three fundamental things are: number one is health, that’s the most fundamental thing, because if the health is gone, a huge amount of what you could possibly do is already over.

The second aspect is to do with your knowledge: be a continuous learner and the third thing which I would like to invoke is your spiritual growth and I don’t think spirituality is something that you should reserve only at the age of 60—“when nothing works, spirituality works”—that’s not the way.

If you are not mindful of the spiritual dimension of your life as you are going through your life, you would have a lot of external success, but you will have no internal success and haven’t we seen people who have achieved so much in their life and still they’re hollow, still they’re wanting, still they’re dissatisfied?

It is because they never opened the spiritual dimension of their life. Even at a school level, at a college level, it’s a very good time for people to get introduced to the spiritual dimension—that we are one with each other, we are one with nature, and that life is not one-dimensional progress. It has to be a slightly more holistic approach. That’s what the youngsters need to keep in mind.

Dr. Pavan Soni (Guest): I think the most enduring skill, which has been instrumental in the past and will be instrumental going forward, is problem solving.

A hundred years back, problem solving was an important skill, and a hundred years from now, problem solving will be an important skill. So if a student can be a good problem solver—and what I mean by problem solving is the first step, which is about understanding the problem instead of being told what the problem is.

For example, all our studies and all our education, you’ve been given a question and we have to give an answer.

Now, certainly life does not give you a question. Life gives you a situation, and in the situation you identify what is a question which is worth solving, and of the several questions that you have, you prioritize the question and then come up with a solution. The most enduring skill is problem-solving skill, which is to do with critical thinking and creative thinking.

And if I can add to critical thinking—so critical thinking is about understanding a problem and creative thinking is about solving the problem and if we can add to these two dimensions, the third dimension could possibly be empathy. Empathy means to be able to understand other people’s point of view, and I believe that machines cannot be empathetic.

Machines are intelligent, there is no doubt about it. For example, right now as we are having the conversation, there is some AI engine that can transcribe the conversation in real time, but the AI engine can never ever substitute you or me from an empathetic perspective.

I think if people can develop empathy, people can develop critical skills—which is to question things, don’t take the given wisdom hands down—and to be able to look at things more creatively, these are the three skills that are going to push us in a good state in the world of AI.

Dr. Pavan Soni (Guest): The big misconception that people have is that creativity is innate and it cannot be developed.

Whenever we talk of creativity, we conjure up in our head the images of an Albert Einstein or a Pablo Picasso or some great person like a Da Vinci. We are not able to understand that creativity is a daily affair.

On a day-to-day basis, we can be creative. Right in the way I’m cooking food in the kitchen, I can be creative. The way I’m drafting an email, I can be creative. The way I’m organizing my day or my room, the way I’m able to look at the meetings, the way I’m able to plan my vacation — everything is an avenue for creativity.

The first thing that we need to understand: that creativity is not magical, except in the hindsight.

Creativity only in the hindsight is magical. As you’re going through the emotions of creativity, one needs to appreciate that creativity is highly accessible. We can all be creative on a day-to-day basis, and we need to be creative on a day-to-day basis, that’s another very, very important thing.

Organizations must understand that creativity is not fluke, it’s not a flash; it’s a practice that can be rigorously cultivated and we have seen organizations in Germany, in Japan, in South Korea, in Israel, in many other Western countries, in Singapore also, where creativity is inculcated as a part of the course curriculum at school level—creative problem solving. Right at the organization level also, if we can understand that creativity is nothing more and nothing less than a skill which can be cultivated, where people can be trained, where puzzles can be given and problems can be given for people to apply, I think we’ll be able to bring about a sea change.

Dr. Pavan Soni (Guest): At IIM Bangalore, where I did my PhD and where I continue to teach also, one of my focus areas has been about the right conditions in which one can be creative and I believe that creativity requires a lot of solitary time — my time alone.

In a hyper connected world where you are always online, where you are supposed to be joining meetings, where you are supposed to be live, you never get or you seldom get your time. Isolation and history is evident of the fact that no creation came out without the person being alone. When you need inspiration, you have to have people around you.

But when you need synthesis, you need to be by yourself all alone and that's where solitary walks—people walk for kilometers together. People spend a lot of time just being in isolation, cutting themselves off from across the world. Like George Orwell wrote his famous book 1984 on an island. He was cut off from the mainstream and he sat on an island in which there was no running water, there was no regular electricity, and yet he could write one of the most famous books of all times, 1984.

History has shown us enough and more evidence that creativity is not possible if you are not alone and in a world where you are expected to be connected with a lot of people, being there in the thick of things, you never get time for isolation and even the extroverted people who are rather recharged around people, they also need time to synthesize their thoughts.

Suppose I attend a conference where I listen to 10–15 speakers—don't you think that I need time to come back and consolidate and come up with my own theory basis? Otherwise, I am just a chatterbox. My mind is full of ideas, but nothing original coming out of it. That's the risk that people are running into in a hyperconnected world. The solitary time is missing.

Dr. Pavan Soni (Guest): It was intentional. I'll definitely say it was intentional.

For example, as I am talking to you right now, I am very sure that going forward I would like to dedicate myself onto the path of authoring and maybe things can change after 10 years.

Maybe I may not turn out to be a good author. Something else might pique my interest. But the critical thing is you need to be intentional about it and that's why the word, which I am trying to again and again use, is called design and not chance.

After sleeping—suppose somebody lives till the age of 75, sleeping takes away around 22 years of your life. For a solid 22 years of your life, you are sleeping and after sleeping, perhaps the second biggest thing that you are occupied with is working.

Working comes only next to sleeping. There are people who spend more time at work than with their children.

Am I right? Isn't that right? More time at work than their children. Now, if work is such a big part of your life, you can't leave it to chance. You can't leave it to the benevolence of your supervisor or your HR or some bot. You need to be able to take charge of it.

What I have discovered in my life is that the only default of life is death. It's the only default of life. If there is life, there has to be death. Job, marriage, children, house, 2BHK, car—nothing is mandatory. Nothing is mandatory in life.

The only thing mandatory in life is death. You can't cheat death. Between life and death, nothing is mandatory. Everything is optional. Try to understand that there is no obligation that if you have studied, you have to work. If you have worked, you have to get promoted.

If you get promoted, you need to have people below you. Why? Why do you have to do those things?

If I like to be a solo entrepreneur, I am okay. If as an entrepreneur I just want to have a very small amount of business, I do not want to scale my business and add more people—it's okay. As an author, if I want to write about a very specific type of books, it's okay.

There is nothing which says that an author ought to do these things or an employee ought to do these things.

As Indians, we often fall for those recipes or those templates or those cookie cutters—that as an author you should do this, as an employee you should do these, the 10 hacks or the 10 steps.

I think as an audience, if you can, instead of following those advices—including what I am trying to give you now—if you can look inward and focus on what your life priorities are, I think you will be in a very good shape.

Dr. Pavan Soni (Guest): Three things which I often hold very dear to me. The first is physical fitness. Whatever may be said and done, there will be a day where you will have money but you may not have health, and as the Dalai Lama very famously says, humans are a very funny creature because we spend a lot of health making money and then money making health.

The first is physical fitness. There is no excuse.

The second thing is called mental toughness. What I mean by mental toughness is you should be able to take insult in your life, able to take abuse in your life. For example, when I am sharing my perspective, somebody may not agree with it, and I am okay with that. What's the problem? People may agree, people may not agree—I am absolutely okay.

People saying that what nonsense was this—it's okay. What is not okay is for me not to express myself. That is not okay. As you try to do things in your life, you will end up polarising your audience. Either they love you or they hate you.

We have seen world leaders, we have seen business people, we have seen sportsmen polarising the world. Every sportsman ends up polarising the world. Either there is a GOAT for somebody and for somebody he is just somebody that they cannot stand.

The second thing, so physical fitness, mental toughness and the third thing is called intellectual honesty.

Intellectual honesty means you should at every point of time know what you do not know.

This whole philosophy of fake it till you makes it, I do not believe in it because even if you fake it till you make it, by the end of it all, you are still fake.

You are not there. You are not the person, you are not being. I think if you can be intellectually superbly honest and say that hey, I do not know this and I think this is important for me, let me just sit down, take a book and read about it.

In the last meeting, people asked me a question, and I was in a very powerful position so that I did not feel like answering the question, but now I cannot duck it anymore and just sit down and answer that question, develop the content. If you can focus on these three things, I think you can have a much more enduring career.

Dr. Pavan Soni (Guest): One of the critical practices that I would strongly advocate is the ability to be a self-learner, because I have discovered that the reason why I am able to keep my perspectives a bit fresh is because I am continuously able to learn by not necessarily getting into formal education, but by surrounding myself with intelligent people, having useful conversations and having lots of books.

By listening to interesting podcasts or biographies, or trying to expose myself to interesting constructs, I am able to be a continuous learner.

At a very early age, if you can develop the ability to learn on your own, instead of some teacher teaching you or somebody breathing down your neck or somebody trying to evaluate you.

Instead of giving the reins of learning to somebody else's hand, you have to keep it in your hand so that you are able to be ahead of yourself all the time and the only thing that should matter to people is that am I better today than what I was yesterday?

Or am I worse today than what I was yesterday? I think that is the only thing that matters in life. If there was something that used to make me angry yesterday, and the same thing does not make me angry today, I have evolved. That is the only parameter which I think matters and you are then a lifelong learner.

You are not a student just till about 20, 25. You are a student for the rest of your life.

Dr. Pavan Soni (Guest): I am writing a fourth book, and this is on innovation culture. That's what the book is about.

I am done with about 7,000 odd words, which I need to write about 90,000 words.

I am a long, long way off, but I am enjoying every bit of it because book writing is an absolutely meditative experience for me. I go into researching, reading, synthesizing, thinking about it.

It is a great experience to write, and at the same time I am also writing a fiction. It is my first fiction book, so I am dabbling in the world of fiction and trying to see if I can be a fiction writer as well. I am writing two books.

It is a corporate satire. I have seen the fakeness of the corporate world from a very close quarter, and I can call it out.

I think the corporate world is full of stupidity at times and if you can just call the stupidity out, really do serious work, we will all be in a better shape.

That is what I am trying to call out, and since I am not financially dependent on a single corporate, I can take a chance.