When meeting new people, and observing their respective talents, I am increasingly amazed at the degree to which many of them grasp and are fluid with technologies that fit only into my buzzword dictionary. More and more people appear to be active practitioners of technologies such as Machine Learning, Internet of Things, Industrial Control Systems (ICS) and High-Performance Analytics, as examples. Additionally, I am positively astonished by their collective ability to context-switch from one extreme to the other and relate these seemingly disparate technologies to modern challenges. Please note that my source of amazement comes from the fact that historically, big data examples were derived from such disciplines as discrete component circuit analyses or network routing topics. Artificial Intelligence emerged as a topic, but most who focused on it were viewed as operating at the fringe of science. The problems being tackled today, are, however, things we only dreamed of back in the day. That perspective prompts this question: Is it time for a Mojo upgrade? If you are an Entrepreneur or technologist who was educated or trained with legacy technologies and processes, the world will quickly pass you by if you do not embrace modern ways of thriving in today's technology landscape. Note that while the underlying goals are solid and have not noticeably shifted over the past several decades, the means of achieving the business goals have drastically changed. Old-school practices are hardly a match for many of the methods in use today. Static surveys to gauge customer sentiment, for instance, have given way to very sophisticated recommender analytics that track customer interests, while concurrently pushing products to the browsers of those same customers to extract whatever remaining funds are still in their respective pockets. Election outcomes, in some cases, may be predicted before the first actual vote is cast. This is based on high-end statistical modeling of the electorate and their collective behavioral patterns and interests. These examples are just slivers of the types of capabilities that are in heavy use in today's business world. If you are lagging the crowd, have no fear! There are numerous online outlets that offer insights and instruction on understanding and navigating the space. Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs), for instance, present excellent ways to quickly get up to speed and melt into today's hottest new technologies and methodologies. Additionally, meet-ups have become a new social norm to meet and collaborate with people with similar interests to your own. Bring your laptop, grab a brew and learn alongside people in a relaxing and nurturing atmosphere. Lastly, if you are the hands-on type of person, go to the vendor sites and take them up on their offers to train you on their systems. You get a limited version of their commercial product and they teach you how to use it! Can life get any better? Oh, and I failed to mention that these learning avenues are mostly free of charge. Just in case you do want to stay in the game and thrive, maybe now is the perfect time to upgrade your Mojo!
