We might be ‘out of touch’, but us old-timers are worth listening to

When did you realise that you were out of touch? That there are things happening that you either do not understand or of which you have never heard? Or perhaps you’ve even marvelled at your failure to be aware of what constitutes the big issues of 2024.

Are you increasingly quiet during meetings at work that seem to be dominated by “phygital” convergence, quantum computing, hyper-personalisation, or collaborative ecosystems?

Tetris puzzle video game going strong at 35

I have to confess, that I was not across the United Nations Foundation Big Five issues for 2024. Their panel of experts in a blog listed as number one that, “crises are converging everywhere and all at once”.

They suggest we think about the end of the game of Tetris when the pieces are falling so quickly you can’t see what’s coming. I have certainly sat in meetings where not only were the pieces falling quickly, but I was not even sure whether they were Tetris pieces or whether someone had just emptied their rubbish bin into the pattern.

Third on the UN’s list is the broken financial system and “antiquated power dynamics”. Wikipedia states that Elon Musk is worth about $188 billion. The average annual wage in Australia is about $98,000, according to Australian Bureau of Statistics figures for November 2023.

In other words, Musk is worth more than what 1.8 million Australians earn in a year, or the whole of South Australia. One person, worth more than the earning power of a whole state, even if you do include the high rollers of Unley Park.

This is not an anti-progressive argument, rather an argument for rigorous evaluation of all ideas, old and new, rather than uncritical acceptance.

This is how things creep up on us to make us feel out of touch. One billion sounds a lot, but it is about as hard really to appreciate as phygital convergence or quantum computing. We just accept these things, like “generative Artificial Intelligence” without really exploring the implications of what these mean.

Being out of touch at work or more generally is unfairly associated with older folks, but rarely are we aware of the location of the tipping point. When do we get complacent that the old ways are the good ways?

I’ve no idea what the age cut off is now, or even if there is one. Being out of touch cannot simply be attributed to age or an increasing refusal to be open to new ideas. It can also be the result of failing to communicate ideas, values and wisdom, culture if you will, to those who come after us.

It is easy to embrace ideas that are encountered for the first time if you have no pre-existing framework of beliefs, evidence, history or values against which to evaluate the incoming information.

When the information is raining down like manic Tetris pieces, the chances of it being uncritically embraced increase. If you want to change things, get rid of or disparage all the old-timers who might be able to provide the critical frameworks required for a proper debate.

All too frequently, what is rather patronisingly described as resistance to change, being out of touch, or having an emotional reaction to change is actually a failure of those accused of resistance to have advocated sufficiently for what we already have.

This is not an anti-progressive argument, rather an argument for rigorous evaluation of all ideas, old and new, rather than the uncritical acceptance of “innovation” for its own sake. Sometimes they really do pave paradise and put up a parking lot. And to use a hated expression regarding the previous sentence “If you know, you know”. The rest are out of touch!

Dr Jim Bright FAPS owns Bright and Associates, a career management consultancy, and is director of evidence & impact at BECOME Education an Ed Tech start-up www.become.education. Email to [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @DrJimBright

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