The essay focuses on political language, which, according to Orwell, "is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind." Orwell believed that the language used was necessarily vague or meaningless because it was intended to hide the truth rather than express it. This unclear prose was a "contagion" which had spread to those who did not intend to hide the truth, and it concealed a writer's thoughts from himself and others. Orwell encourages concreteness and clarity instead of vagueness, and individuality over political conformity.

wikipedia

This 3-leg article is to blow the wind for the 2 trends: less emphasis on paper chase and encourage life-long learning. However, I can't stand the example, which is about a formal VP who was doing well in the electronic sector before he was made redundant, being used inside the article. There are also mentioned of some economic sectors diminish in importance and new ones emerge.

Are you implying electronic sector is a sector that is being diminished or outright in decline as mentioned in the article? Then, what the heck are we training students in the area of electronics? And what do you expect the VP, who was earning $20,000 monthly salary, to switch to a new sector and still earning the same amount.

Why the VP was paying so well? Is it because he was as good as an electronic engineer, who process 'deep-skill', who have to roll up sleeves to do research, design and development work? No, he is being paid for his management role that entails getting things done through others, rather than doing it himself. He is not supposed to play the technical role, which should be taken up by the engineers. Let ask ourselves, in Singapore, deep-skill or management earn more? If you are an engineer, do you earn more than your manager? If you are a manager, do you earn less than your engineers? And why deep-skill in Singapore don't earn as much, or command as much respect, as in other countries such as USA or Germany? And most likely, his technical skill couldn't compare to a junior engineer who was paid a salary of 3, 4K per month. Even if he was once a deep-skilled engineer, he will lose his skills if he didn't practice his skills. He was also being paid because of his 'local knowledge' of his present company and industry, plus the loyalty and seniority due to the number of years of service for the company. In the national service time, we had this title called 'local sergeant' for the instructors in BMT (basic military training). But if this instructor was to be posted to a combat unit, he was no more a sergeant. You are only useful or worth the money when you are in your current environment.

Do you expect the VP, while working as a regional VP in sales and marketing, to learn a new functional role such as human resource or accounting, or learn a new skill using skill fund, such as software engineering, nursing, casino, politic, town management, gardening by the bay or etc.? What the VP can do is to try to jump ship when the current ship start to leak. Jump to a ship that is likely in the same industry, so that your existing knowledge and networks of the industry are valued. He could have taken over as the captain of the ship. He also could have try his luck and jump to a ship that provides iron rice bowl. Hope you know what I meanJ But how many people will change job when things are OK?

If there is a crisis in the company, it is a good opportunity and a pragmatic move for the company to get rid of the overly or highly paid, which partly or mainly due to seniority and loyalty, engineers and managers. You will then need time to find a ship that is willing to pay for your skills but not the loyalty. Please remember don't join a ship that is willing to pay for you previous loyalty, because it will soon sink, unless they are funded by tax payer money. There is likely going to be a gap - either big or small - between your previous salary which consists of seniority rewards, and current salary which is purely for your usefulness for the new company. So, between the option of wait long long, being paid less or irrelevant job scope, a choice must be made. But, even if you wait long long, it is highly unlikely to get a pay that is as good as your previous one.

I don't see the VP has to jump to any non-electronics sectors unless there are writing on the wall that warn us not to enter electronics sector. I thought everyone is buying at least one smart phone nowadays? The messages from the news are that we are so shortage of engineers (electronics sector included) that we need to import or invite more foreign engineers or foreign talents. Please, we are still training students for the electronics sector.

There are so many talks about life long learning and upgradding. When there is an economic crisis, you just have to say the solution is skill upgrading and learning, and you can't be wrong. This article describes upgrading from another frame, which is that upgrading could be useful in finding employment even if it don't improve your skills or productivity.

Tim Harford

The Story of Stuff, originally released in December 2007, is a 20-minute, fast-paced, fact-filled look at the underside of our production and consumption patterns. The Story of Stuff exposes the connections between a huge number of environmental and social issues, and calls us together to create a more sustainable and just world. It’ll teach you something, it’ll make you laugh, and it just may change the way you look at all the Stuff in your life forever.

This is another utube video about resposible comsumption.

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