Here’s a dilemma.
What if the thing you’re good at is not needed? What if your hard-earned skills are making the climate crisis worse? What if you’re great at hammering, but the task is to drill a hole?
This is a road many tech and climate entrepreneurs are unwilling to tread.
And I can understand it. Having spent the majority of my life working in tech, specifically in software as an engineer, product designer, and marketing executive, my natural instinct is to “turn my skills towards climate change.” This would mean building, designing, and marketing software intended to “solve” climate change. It’s almost unthinkable to do anything else.
But let’s run a small thought experiment.
Let’s say that instead of studying computing science and AI I had done my undergraduate degree in petrochemical engineering because society’s career guidance led me that way. And let’s say that I had then worked for an oil company for twenty years, with perhaps the best of intentions, furthering my education and building solid networks in the industry. Along the way I worked hard, treated my teams well, and became an expert in my field.
Now I am told that I need to start from scratch and build a new career because what I’m doing is killing us all.
I am certainly one of those telling people in oil, gas, and mining that they need to stop what they’re doing asap. But if I am to ask people to fundamentally question and change their identity then its only fair that I should also be prepared to question mine and the role that that identity plays in furthering the various crises we are in.
People genuinely interested in helping solve climate change and its root problems can’t just blindly grab the nearest hammer and start bashing away without checking first whether sustainability problems are, in fact, nails.
In the hundreds of conversations I’ve had with founders, startups, and investors this is a recurring theme. “I’m a genetic engineer, therefore I want to find a way to genetically engineer a climate change solution.” “I’m a roboticist, therefore I want to find a way to automate sustainability.” “I’m a marketer, therefore I want to market our way out of the climate crisis.” “I’m an innovation professor, therefore I will teach people how to innovate their way out of climate catastrophe.”
I am not by any means suggesting that we throw out all our hard-earned knowledge.
Absolutely not.
I am suggesting that we look a little deeper at our skills. Human skills, not skills as narrowly defined by a career path or academic degree. I don’t have a PhD and I haven’t successfully exited a startup. But when I look at people who have what I’m most impressed by is not the subject matter or the bank accounts, it’s the ability learn difficult topics, research new ideas, find intrinsic motivation, maintain energy.
And most importantly to pivot when needed or when the evidence dictates it.
Photo by Moritz Mentges on Unsplash
Leave a Reply