Along with the “Cloud Revolution” comes a whole new set of required skills for Partners and Customers. These new skills are not to be added to what you already know, instead they are to replace what you already know. Because, the things you already know… nobody will need anymore.

A One-Way Street

I don’t know what comes after “Cloud”, but I do know that it won’t be what preceded Cloud. Technology has always been a one-way street, there is never any going back. Oh sure, you can move down that street at a very slow pace, and stall the inevitable, but that is probably at your own peril. The things that today sound like “Buck Rogers” stuff, will have to be deployed by us tomorrow. The advantage goes to those who embrace, rather than resist.

Knowledge is Temporary

While technology has always moved fast, compared to other industries, it has never moved this fast! At least in the past, you had a few years to become an expert… now you have months. I don’t know exactly how much “fits” in a human brain. It would be great if our brains were like refrigerators, we put in new stuff, and toss out old stuff, but instead, it seems like we just pack new stuff on top of old stuff. Eventually, most of the stuff in our brain, is rotten. This actually handicaps us, in that we view every problem through all this stuff, new and rotten. And since the rotten has been around so much longer, it is hard to just dismiss. But you cannot solve today’s problems with rotten knowledge… or at least, it is not a sustainable business model.

The Uncluttered Brain

I was watching an episode of  “Halt and Catch Fire” last night. One of the main character’s brain is full of this rotten knowledge. His teenage daughter comes into the office and he gives her some busy-work to do. She whips up a portal on the spot! He is amazed, and she is like “duh”. It’s not that her brain was full of new knowledge, it just was not cluttered with rotten knowledge.

Some advice to Partners and Customers

Seek to add to your staff these “uncluttered brains”. I know this is not normally how we go about adding staff. We typically look for “Experience”, but past experience today, is mostly rotten knowledge. Who possesses these “uncluttered brains”? Kids. Okay, I am not suggesting that you start a kindergarten in your office, so maybe college-age kids, and regardless of whether they went to college or not. Frankly, a computer science degree from today’s universities, mostly fills a kid’s brain with rotten knowledge. Bonus Feature: They work for Less.

Don’t hate the Messenger

I am pretty sure this post is not going over to well with the older, “experienced”, crowd (I am also a member of that group). Sorry, maybe you should have been a lawyer, because in technology, precedents are irrelevant. Where you used to compete on an experience level with your peers, you will soon be losing to “uncluttered minds”. That’s right, kids that don’t know shit… including how they “Used to do it”.