Essential Skills for the 21st Century

The current issue of Wired has a list of seven essential skills that might be of interest to engineers - -

1. Statistical Literacy - - Engineers should excel at this. Be sure and take a statistics class. Learn to embrace uncertainty.
2. Post-State Diplomacy - - As the world becomes evermore atomized, understanding the new leaders and constituencies becomes increasingly important. A key question - - How do you practice statecraft without states? How do you reconstruct nation-states in unstable environments and regions.
3. Remix Culture - - In a world of advanced technology based writing, aural, and video tools - - people don't start with blank pages. They start with preexisting works - - the goal being building something new out of cultural products that already exist.
4. Writing for New Forms - - You can write a cogent essay, but can you write it in 140 characters or less? Engineers need to be messengers - - and learn how to adapt your message to multiple formats and audiences - - human and machine.
5. Waste Studies - - Sustainability and efficiency will drive everything. Waste is the single biggest drag on our productivity - - and it's everywhere. How to become a smarter engineer in a limited world with bounded constraints comes center stage.
6. Applied Cognition - - You have to know the brain to train the brain. As engineers, how do we think and make decisions? How do we maintain our knowledge and continue to grow and develop?
7. Domestic Tech - - We need to get better at fixing stuff. Tech schools should be overflowing with students - - where the key question is how to apply hard sciences and engineering with our eyes, hears, and hands.