Forget ‘hello world’, say ‘hello wealth’

ABOUT a decade ago, some young and unfortunate soul made the mistake of asking me for career advice.

“Learn to code,” I’d said breezily. “Knowing programming languages is as essential as knowing the English language,” said I, whose knowledge of programming amounted to printing “Hello world”.

I hope he ignored me and became a data centre technician or a professional pickleball player instead, because boy, has my career advice aged poorly.

Today, a shiftless writer like me could produce an app without knowing a lick of code, thanks to artificial intelligence (AI). This app wouldn’t be the slickest or best-designed one, but that will be little consolation to anyone staking their future in tech.

It’s not that programming jobs are going to vanish, but what is vanishing across the white-collar world – in tech and non-tech jobs alike – is the possibility of your job remaining recognisable with each passing year.

In February, writers at the Brookings Institution had observed how those who are higher-educated or better-paid are more exposed to generative AI (GenAI) tools, for better or for worse. At the same time, however, GenAI is “currently not equipped to handle the manual work of manufacturing, the skilled trades, construction and many in-person service industries”, they noted.

This doesn’t imply that university degrees will be worthless, but that the advantage gap between a college education and other paths to the workforce is narrowing every day.

That’s a heartening development. Not everyone is suited to the confines of higher education and the rigidity of standardised testing, and we should be seeking to narrow this advantage gap further.

And the main leveller of advantage, I believe, is increasing financial literacy for students, no matter their aptitude or inclination. It should begin as early as possible, too, before they get mass-herded into generic socio-economic pens designed by bureaucrats.

In fact, I’d argue that we should be rather ambitious in this regard. By the time someone joins the workforce, they should be well acquainted with the Rule of 72, understand the concept of passive income and already have a stock brokerage account, no matter how little money is in it.

As I understand it, students here learn the value of savings and being responsible consumers, which is a good start. But there is plenty of room to do more, the world over. Among 14 member countries of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, almost one-fifth of students lacked even basic proficiency in financial literacy.

Whatever the colour of our collar – whether we’re being replaced by AI, undone by a physical injury or watching our jobs go to a cheaper market – understanding money will be our first line of defence in a world where our expendability is a fact.

This understanding will increase the odds that workers participate in capital markets and partake of the spoils, instead of being at the sole mercy of employers and some godforsaken chatbot.

Also, how financially savvy anyone is should have nothing to do with whether they went to a name-brand school or happened to major in finance. Gravity is no respecter of persons, and neither is compound interest.

Of course, mastering your financial destiny won’t insulate you from all hardship, but it will help. And if you’ve taken career advice from a journalist, you will need all the help you can get.