This morning I read David Brooks’ NY Times column on having a ‘protocol society’ – briefly, that our economy is no longer marked by the production and manufacture of stuff, instead it’s dominated by the protocols, regulations, the means of dealing with regulations and laws that allow the distribution of stuff made somewhere else. What interested me in his article was the inclusion of ideas – software, drugs – that take a huge investment to create the first item, but after that the manufacturing cost is negligible: so, the manufacturing and distribution contracts and property rights are all in service to the monetizing of that intangible idea.

I will tell you right now that I don’t have an inkling on what new field will coalesce this century. If I did, I’d be trying to sell it.

But I have noticed a few things:

One, your graphic design degree is not safe. Nor is your HTML knowledge, your CSS knowledge; your programming genius is totally dwarfed by some kid in Seoul who’s working for half your salary. Google is making on-the-fly translation easier than ever. I also have a feeling that the designer/programmer’s day is adorned with abominable interactions with the most frustrating clientele.

Two, there is a great lack of actual [computer/web] skills training for someone between business manager and programmer. I hate to think there will be a job like this, but maybe. I also think that the traditional programmer/ designer/ marketer/ advertising hats will be cut up and sewn hodgepodge back together. Businesses in trouble gut advertising budgets first. So-and-so’s nephew can make a website (yes, a terrible one). I think there will be a place for the hack of all trades who can set up a social network but also measure its effectiveness. I think you’ll see business managers that can also do simple graphic design; I think you’ll see librarians who know how to admin a social network. Meanwhile, everybody’s best friend should be http://lmgtfy.com/.

Three, get used to a recombinant degree/recombinant degrees. Oh, I need a dash of copywriting? And a pinch of economics? Ever so little psychology. Definitely a photography class or two. Maybe we won’t go overboard on any field of study, because how many people are actually squarely aligned with their degree and using a good extent of their skills in that area (minus technical skills people and doctors)?

Because everyone thinks they know what people think, and everyone thinks they understand how their product would sell in X market, and everyone thinks they can write and literally everyone thinks they are photographer. So why not actually know? Why not have better answers for more questions without feeling completely devastated when bosses don’t seem to care about the grave empirical and statistical mobiles you could whip up to get the exact answer in a few months? Why panic when someone hands you a camera at a soiree? Learn it all. Be a hack of all trades.