1-10 The Changing World – Matching Aspirations with Opportunity

Horses have been horses the way we know them today for hundreds of thousands of years. In previous evolutionary times, people just ate them, along with buffalo and pretty much any other big game they came across. But about 6,000 years ago, when people figured out that horses could actually be ridden instead of just eaten, the human world started changing dramatically. Suddenly, people could get from place to place a lot more easily, a lot more easily. And this had profound effects on the development of human societies. For example, in the late Middle Ages, the Mongol Empire grew to be one of the largest empires in history, in part because of the tough, scruffy Mongolian horses they used in battle. This is why some argue that the simple idea of the stirrup on a horse’s saddle, which gave much greater stability for the rider, was as important an invention as the printing press. We can see the power of the horse even in the recent centuries. In the 1700s for example, in the Midwestern plains of the United States, an extraordinary people came into prominence, the Native American group known as the Comanche. They commanded vast swathes of land in what is now Texas, New Mexico, Colorado, and Oklahoma. The Comanche took the culture of the horse to one of the highest levels in human history. Their equine expertise astonished all who knew them. They could outride pretty much anyone, hooking their legs across their ponies’ backs and firing arrows under their ponies’ necks, keeping their enemies at bay, while using their horse as a protective cover. In the 1700’s in fact, all around the world, there were a myriad of jobs that related to horses. Blacksmiths were needed for horses’ shoes and to fashion stirrups and bits. There was a demand for wagon, cart, buggy, plow, and harness makers, riders, drivers, couriers, herders. Even if you weren’t making or doing something directly related to horses, you still needed to be able to handle a horse, whether you were a monarch, a mercenary or a minister. Horses were an important part of almost everyone’s lives, as important in some ways as the computer or smartphone is today. But of course, eras and cultures change. From the horse, we eventually transitioned to the automobile, and all sorts of technologies begin to arise based on the internal combustion engine, from snowmobiles to bulldozers, to jet aircraft. Communications began to play a powerful role too, with the emergence first of the telegraph, then the telephone, and then television, satellites, and of course the Internet. And electrical power and safe, clean sources for that power are still of prime importance. So we’re living nowadays in a world that’s very unlike that of the 1700s. But what our development sense then shows is that people’s abilities to learn new things and to grapple with new ideas, to make mindshifts, are the key element in producing vibrant and creative societies, and in helping people to live to their full potential. It’s important to be able to match your aspirations and passions with the opportunities that surround you today, as well as the opportunities that will unfold in the days, months and years to come. You want to look at yourself, your career, your knowledge base, with the same sort of big picture perspective that we’ve just used to consider the development of human societies over the last few centuries. One idea in particular is especially important, which is that whatever skill set and knowledge base you may already have related to your career, your family and children, or your hobbies, it’s vital to keep in mind that we’re living in a world where at least some passing knowledge of computers, technology, math and science is as important as the knowledge of horsemanship was in centuries gone by. Everyone needs passion in their lives, things you like and enjoy and are good at, but an important part of what we’ll be talking about in this MOOC is broadening your passions. That is, we want to encourage you to explore new directions in learning that might not have felt comfortable for you before. If you’re a natural techie type, we want to encourage you to broaden your passions and skill set into non-technical areas. Maybe public speaking, or writing, or art. If you’re a non-techie type, we’d like to encourage you to go the other way, towards gathering some analytical and technical skills in your arsenal. Whatever your age and whatever your previous training, you want to be able to be flexible and open, and to be able to change and adapt in today’s much more rapidly changing world. Mindshift is a MOOC designed to provide a framework for your change, even as you remain true to yourself.