I am going to refer to the thesis presented by “Monitor Fantasma“, a renowned Spanish-speaking YouTube channel focused on critical thinking and philosophy.
The Monitor Fantasma Thesis
The thesis (1) goes as follows:
“Imagine a newlywed couple buying a set of eight plates, thinking about their future visitors. However, as the years pass, they suddenly realize that the plates on top are heavily worn out, while the ones at the bottom are practically brand new. This happened because there were very few opportunities to use the entire set of dishes compared to the daily-use plates.
If we apply this to a sociocultural context, the same happens. There is an equal number of individuals in the same conditions. However, only a limited number of them are employed for the simple reason that they are more accessible – they are familiar, studied together, or come recommended – while the rest of the people are chosen sporadically…”
Monitor Fantasma
So far, I partially agree with the thesis, with the slight observation that not all individuals are in equal conditions. For example, not everyone has the same educational opportunities. However, even among groups of people with similar starting conditions, they won’t have the same opportunities in the long run.
Continue the thesis:
… This system ends up being harmful to society since, as we can see, the usual agents experience more wear and tear and, in the long run, perform worse than the non-selected ones.
Monitor Fantasma
In this last part of the thesis, I don’t find it useful to generalize that in all cases, individuals with more opportunities will perform worse for wear. Therefore, I will provide my own point of view.
Upskilling Oportunities
Upskilling is a labor trend that facilitates and promotes employability through continuous learning. In fact, the World Economic Forum sounded an alarm in January 2020 by announcing: “The world is facing a reskilling emergency. We need to reskill more than 1 billion people by 2030″ (2) .
What I do believe is that every organization (including individuals themselves) should make an effort to continuously improve their capabilities. It is evident that with the rapid advancement of technology, the professional training of individuals can become outdated in a few years or even months. In fact, the reason I decided to undertake my own “Upskilling” process emerged at the end of the year 2022 when I saw the first public version of Chat GPT. Now we all know what AI can become.
Returning to the theses of the “Monitor Fantasma”, I believe the lack of continuous learning is what will cause every individual to perform worse, and in the case of organizations, they will lose competitiveness.
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