Be more Computer Savvy

Uber's self-driving car equipped with a lot of sensors.
Copyright Forbes.com

Who among you here considered yourselves techies? Is there anyone who does not know how to use a personal computer? How about smartphone? Do you think computer skills are very important in today's fast-paced generation?

Almost everything that we do are either done through computers or managed by computers. We interact with them from the time we wake up in the morning up to the time we sleep. Even the number of sleep hours that we have are sometimes managed by computers. We are surrounded by data and information that are mostly processed by these machines. From the billboards that you see in the streets up to that tiny gadget in your hand. And computers nowadays are becoming smarter, faster, and better as more codes and data are produced and processed. There will be a time that these computers will perform much better than humans do.

According to a leading scientific "futurologist", computer power will match the intelligence of human beings within the next 20 years because of the accelerating speed at which technology is advancing. Furthermore, an academic publication titled "The Future of Employment: How susceptible are jobs to computerization" tells us that about 47% of all jobs will be taken by robots and Artificial Intelligence (AI).  Recent innovations such as Uber's self-driving cars, Apple's personal assistant Siri, and Amazon's Go Cashless Shopping are slowly replacing some of the clerical jobs.


In the job market, computer skills such as basic programming and even the simplest and most common ones like Microsoft Office skills are an added plus. One employer survey selected computer skills as the top skill sought from employees. According to a leading economic forecasting group, the top two best jobs for the future include application developer and computer systems analyst. Across the globe, the most in demand job is software developer which will pay you an average salary of around $99,000.

Improving your computer skills would bring you a lot of benefits. Mastering the keyboard shortcuts in Microsoft Excel for example will bring you a lot of efficiencies in copying, pasting, and computing large amounts of personal banking transactions that will eventually help you better manage finances. These efficiencies are even tripled if you know how to use the macro functionality of Excel wherein you can create scripts that will make the tasks of copying, pasting, and computing data automated.

It is important to note that the ultimate role of computers and machines are to help human beings become more productive and efficient. Instead of treating them as a threat, we must rise up and find opportunities to coexist and collaborate with intelligent machines. In order to do that, we need to improve our computer skills and knowledge.

You can accomplish this by acquiring a second degree related to IT, joining a data analytics group, or even as simple as watching a Youtube video that teaches about how to code visual basic. With the vast array of information available in the internet, finding great resources would be as easy as drinking your favorite coffee. The only difficulty that you might encounter is ensuring that you have the most appropriate resource that can help you achieve your learning goals.

This does not mean that we have to leave our current jobs and devote the remaining of our lives to the IT profession.  Learning a thing or two about the basics of computers would help us become more successful in our field of specialization. It is not good for us to be complacent in the face of these disruptive technologies. Remember, we should never be managed by computers and machines; we are ought to manage them. Now, who wants to learn some new computer skills?