When Steve Jobs died in 2011, his admirers paid tribute around the world.
This kind of turnout was usually reserved for rock stars, not a CEO.
Yet this age arguably belongs to those who build the future.
According to the Forbes list of the richest people in the world in 2021, 7 out of the
top 10 made their fortune in engineering.
Amazon’s Jeff Bezos.
Tesla and SpaceX’s Elon Musk.
Microsoft’s Bill Gates.
Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg.
Oracle’s Larry Ellison.
Google’s Larry Page and Sergey Brin.
It’s hard to think of an engineer from the seventies who was super well-known.
Yet today’s engineers are household names whether we love’em or love to hate’em.
Musk even guest-hosted Saturday Night Live which is usually reserved for famous actors
and artists.
He’s a new kind of celebrity with such a huge Twitter following that he’s a walking
advertisement for Tesla.
In fact, Tesla doesn’t spend money on advertising which I talked about in another video.
So, how did engineers become cool?
They used to be known for building public infrastructure like bridges and dams.
Necessary for any functioning society but not something that would normally attract
crowds.
Then, Jobs came along.
He didn’t have a technical background but he had his hands in everything at Apple including
engineering.
The world changed when he put the internet in everyone’s pocket with the introduction
of the iPhone in 2007.
The late Apple CEO built a following by creating personal inventions that excited people.
Since then, engineers have continued to create products that are in your personal space - be
it a smartwatch or social media - which has in turn made them famous.
And the appetite for such products is only growing.
Engineers are expected to experience a 3 percent job growth in a decade which is on par with
average while the demand for software developers is predicted to soar 22%.
They’re the ones responsible for writing and designing code to develop apps.
In other words, creating the products we crave.
An increasing number of people are choosing the profession.
In India, 30% of students pursued a degree in STEM: science, technology, engineering,
and mathematics which produced almost 2.7 million graduates in 2018.
Where I live, in Canada, enrollment in math, computer, and information sciences has increased
47% comparing a recent academic year to an earlier one.
In a previous video, I mentioned that engineering degrees are now more common than MBA degrees
amongst the world’s top-performing CEOs which makes sense given some of the biggest
companies are tech giants.
There’s also the belief that engineers rise to the top because they’re good problem
solvers.
Google’s former chief financial officer Patrick Pichette once pointed out that “Google
is really an engineering company, with all these computer scientists that see the world
as a completely broken place.”
Engineers try to solve the most pressing issues of the day using technology.
Musk is a self-taught engineer who wants to reduce pollution with his electric vehicles
and is confident the century-long dominance of the internal combustion engine - otherwise
known as “ICE” is coming to a close.
Well, I don’t think there will be an ICE industry long-term.
There are still, like, some steam engines made somewhere but, like, they're just,
basically, sort of, quirky collector's items.
That will be the future of the internal combustion engine (ICE) car.
At the same time, people like him have warned of a dark side to technology.
He believes super-intelligent machines could pose a threat to humanity and has called for
government oversight of artificial intelligence, fearing AI will surpass humans in intelligence in
the way we outsmart cats.
Smart machines are expected to eliminate many human jobs.
FedEx has now teamed up with a robotics company to test out autonomous delivery vehicles.
Amazon runs cashier-less grocery stores and wants to deliver packages by drone in under
30 minutes.
The World Economic Forum says the rise of automation will result in a loss of 85 million
jobs by 2025 yet in the same breath adds 97 million new jobs will be created such as
AI and machine learning specialists and data analysts.
There’s also the argument that future technology will redefine the meaning of the traditional
workweek.
More than 100 years ago, people worked 70 hours a week on average.
With the industrial revolution and labor laws, it’s now down to about 35 hours.
The former head of British Petroleum, Lord John Browne, remarked: “Why do we then define
work as a 35-hour week?
Why can’t it be 17-and-a-half?”
Behind these forces of societal change are engineers who dream big.
Bezos’ space venture Blue Origin has dreamt up space colonies straight out of seventies
science fiction.
Though the plan hasn’t won over a fellow billionaire who has a different vision of
humanity in space.
Musk’s SpaceX expects Mars to be colonized by a constant flow of humans traveling aboard
Starships.
So long as we have a desire for new adventures and new things, engineers will continue to
build the future and enjoy all the attention that comes along with it.
At the core of an engineer is exceptional skill and ability.
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For Newsthink, I’m Cindy Pom