Human capital will go where it is wanted, and it will stay where it is well treated. It cannot be driven; it can only be attracted.
The information revolution has changed people's perception of wealth. We originally said that land was wealth. Then we thought it was industrial production. Now we realize it's intellectual capital. The market is showing us that intellectual capital is far more important that money. This is a major change in the way the world works. the same thing that happened to the farmers during the Industrial Revolution is now happening to people in industry as we move into the information age.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote highlights the shift in the understanding of wealth from physical assets to intellectual capital in the information age.
Walter Wriston's quote emphasizes the transformative effect of the information revolution on our perception of wealth. It illustrates how society has evolved from valuing land and industrial production as primary sources of wealth, to recognizing the importance of intellectual capital as the most critical asset in today's world. This shift marks a significant change in economic dynamics, signaling a move from tangible to intangible value in the marketplace.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion on the future of work, this quote reminds professionals to invest in their knowledge and skills.
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Changes and progress very rarely are gifts from above. They come out of struggles from below.
We ought to approach this challenge [of global warming] with a sense of profound joy and gratitude: that we are the generation about which, a thousand years from now, philharmonic orchestras and poets and singers will celebrate by saying, they were the ones that found it within themselves to solve this crisis and lay the basis for a bright and optimistic human future.
Change is the sum of the universe, and what is of nature ought not to be feared. But one gives it hostages, and lays one's grief upon the gods. Sokrates is free, and would have taught me freedom. But I have yoked the immortal horse that draws the chariot with a horse of earth; and when the one falls, both are entangled in the traces.
The flames kindled on the Fourth of July, 1776, have spread over too much of the globe to be extinguished by the feeble engines of despotism; on the contrary, they will consume these engines and all who work them.
One of the most predictable things in life is there will be change. You are better off if you can have a say in the change. But you are ignorant or naive if you don't think there will be change, whether you want it to or not.