Work Different

CHAPTER 8Skills Are the Real Currency of Work

Upgrade Alert

Apple nerds like us fondly remember the company's halcyon era when, every 12‐ish months, Steve Jobs, his Reality Distortion Field, and his black turtleneck would slap on a headphone mic, take the stage in Cupertino, and hype the latest Apple product. Sometimes Steve was intro‐ing a whole new item—an iPhone, an iPod, an iPad—while in other instances, it was an upgrade of an existing product line.

Back in the day, wholesale tech upgrades were a relative rarity; today, however, it feels like Apple unveils a new iPhone every two weeks. The constant equipment turnover is simultaneously exciting and frustrating: exciting because new tech is oftentimes a blast—and frustrating because upgrading is a tiresome necessity if you want to stay current.

But we suck it up and make the change because, while our fun new toy usually has some fun new features, we can't play with our toy until we move our data from the hard drive on our iPhone 58 MegaPro to our iPhone 59 SuperDuperPro. Waiting too long to make that change can lead to error messages courtesy of incompatible apps, phone slow‐downs, FOMO, and the general sense that something's…off. Sure, we'll get by for a bit, but while everyone else is up‐to‐date and on point. It'll soon become clear to us (and to everybody in our orbit) that we've fallen behind.

This all is analogous for an employee in need of a skills upgrade. Unfortunately, and unlike with our tech, we don't get nudged ...