E53 Dr Rod Wallace - Drowning in Potential

BS With Bob Schmidt

https://rodwallacephd.com/
The BS Bob Schmidt podcast talking entrepreneurship, business and marketing. This week's guest is economist, consultant and author Dr. Rod Wallace and Telluride that the one class that I got the lowest grade in in college I just graduated and that in April was economy are economics and it's weird because I like the class. I studied hard in the class but the teacher didn't allow stem open books only got a B in the class. I'm very sorry to hear that, Bobby. We can do better, but of course we can ride your business strategist. What is a business strategist actually do the work for planning and so you know, the book of what might I let you know we want to grow in Europe and Asia and we want to shrink in. You know our presence in South America, but the really interesting part of that is taking a step back and saying what's really going on in the world because that plan. We want to grow in Europe and Asia should be based on what's really going on in the world and that's the interesting part where we say okay why is it that okay that it seems that technology growth as measured by an economist has shrunk since 1980. Or it's been a lot slower 1980 than it had been before 1980. Even though you look at all the amazing stuff that come out like computers in cell phone and artificial intelligence and ego. What now the most amazing technology ever and were scared of email people being replaced by machines. And yet, the economists say that economic growth has slowed. During that time I said we want to grow and then we want to shrink we want to grow what we want to grow our presences as American businesses going to grow our what they deliver. It couldn't we talk about it. GDP, which is basically the total value of everything produced in the United States are you thinking we got 270 million people in the US, something like that and if we produce no 50 thousand dollars of stock per person that better than if we only produce $25,000 of stuff for person to talk gross domestic product that's what the GDP is as or try to grow okay because I was sure to try to make it is simple as possible because when people are listening you know sometimes your heads in the cloud. Sometimes there you know it's it's kind of on his background. Sometimes there be no pain will close attention so try to make things as simple as possible for people that are listening well the part that's really saying is that we have an increasing number of people that are going to college and are getting educated, and that that seems like it's fantastic and back at night, but the same point we are in a country where more than half of the public universities one third of the senior people in the last year cannot make a cohesive argument but cannot assess the quality of evidence in the document or interpreted table door, going to school forever. It's just that we don't seem to be necessarily learning a whole lot. The whole time were doing so would you suggest we do in place of that. I think what we need to do is first and foremost understand more clearly what it is that were trying to get out of our educational system. Right now we have everyone is is going through and improving little pieces of the educational system and we have a bunch of teachers that are really awesome and that most of them care about Arctic art, our kids, not all of them but most of them do. And then we have a really cool programs that are designed to take kids into the behind. Grade level and bring them up to grade level with other programs that are designed to take kids are younger physically and mentally handicapped in and mainstreamed in each one of those things is really awesome. The problem is when you combine them all what you have is you have yelp, the teacher is trying to help these five first-graders who are behind first grade level. Enter like 17 digit code into the computer to take their weekly standardized test and the rest of the school just going to classrooms is going haywire. We had to be much clearer about what we want from education and once we do that, then we can ask a developer that would do that well will masses that I mean I hate to say this word but eventually segregate kids and put you know the kids a little bit smarter in this group little kids that are not as smart in this group and consider trailing in this group rather than a specific solution. I think the more important they will what the purpose of education is it just like to teach our kids a certain set of skills. If so, then having different kids in different classroom probably makes it makes good sense. On the other hand, if the purpose of education is to really help people collaborate and work together and that that's the most important thing that we want from our school system than having all kinds of different kids in the same classroom is going to be helpful because it divides different challenges than we have. Otherwise, it really depend on the goal of what is a school for Rod Wallace as our guests were talking about his book drowning potential. What's your book about Rod my book is about the impact of digital technology on American society and what really happened is that as we use digital technology. Computers and cell phones is change the nature of our interactions with each other you think about you. You see all the pictures of people sitting around a table with their cell phone cell phone rather than actually talking to Kelly right and those types of things have. It is much broader than because what's happened is that we have both become more distant from each other, which is young people sitting on the table. We also increase the complexity of our world in incredible ways in, and some awesome ways. You know, we now have three different types of submissions that are specialists in different types of ways of studying the human heart that that's pretty cool. I mean there's all these people who are specialist on your little part of the heart challenges but now we have the a nurse in the average urban hospital have to work with the hundred 30 different types of specialists and if that collaboration doesn't work well then our health system doesn't work well away. Our American health system doesn't work well and so even though we have this awesome technology that's available and truly spectacular. What we can do the lifespan of the American people has actually shrunk the last two years will I read something about that. Just the other day about how it has shrunk. But a lot of that is due to the fact that there's so much opioid addiction out there and heroin addiction is out there. I guess her automobiles are the same at math and things like that that but the drugs have basically taken us down a couple notches it is that can what you're seeing is well. I will definitely definitely in. But you have to go another step deeper. Well, what is the reason why some of these you know that suicide is another major reason for the increasing suicide. So what is increasing suicide and an increasing Oak Court opioid abuse really related to coming to the fact that people have less and less relationships with each other in meaningful ones. If you think about three different factors a close human connection with somebody else. Obesity and tobacco use. Which one do you think is actually the most indicative of how long you're gonna live. I would say the human interaction. Honestly, I really and is where were having trouble with human interaction because were not sure how to apply that digital technology in a way that really brings us together. That is part of the or a big chunk of the reason why were running into problems with you how the opioids and suicides and you know it's very difficult to say that all that because now there's lots of closet but one of the big ones is that word were losing the human connections were increasing the complexity of our world. We can't figure out you know where were trying to go in the world and has some pretty negative unintended consequences. Rod Hadley's… How do we how do we stop the unknown addiction to the phones and the addiction the electronics in the you know everything else and go back to playing games on a Saturday night with the family around the of the kitchen table on part of it is exactly what you decide. I mean, in your own family that we have that the choices of things stop at a phones are allowed at the dinner table and we can play games but as a society we actually have to shift and think about the types of tools that we used to work together a little bit differently because 10,000 years ago, humans created the agricultural technology. What we learn how to farm and it may seem independent of how we structure society, but it's really connected that before farming. You and I would've been no generalists, and we would hundred coyotes one day or something. And if we fail big deal will gather berries. The next but with agriculture working at farm and we can spend like month on one crop. And if we felt like our family like a star, still working as specialize in farming and so we need to develop all kinds of economic systems and social systems to support one person being a farmer in the other. Another person being a bureaucrat and another person being a better etc. and we created specialization well now 10,000 years later really get a specialist so we have all kinds of people that are specialist on the ice in my Rolodex I got a guy who's really good at at helping people with public relations and for their plumbing and HVAC businesses will that is quite a specialized niche so but how do we all work together. That's where were running into problems and saying how do we get all of these groups are specialist work together and collaborate and so the talk about education little bit ago. It's about making sure that we understand where, as a group were trying to get to and use all of our meeting,