Data Religion’s Book of the Month is “The Second Machine Age” by the tag team duo of Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee. No could have said it better about the employment economics surrounding the 21^st century that impacts millions of Americans or all people around the globe for that matter. Machines have and are going to evolve our quality of life by magnitudes of efficiency as the world continues to turn. But, in contrast of the physical world being impacted by the first machine age or the Industrial Revolution, the second machine age depends “on the four categories of intangible assets: intellectual property, organizational capital, user-generated content, and human capital”.

With this age there will be winners and losers. In each group of winners, “digital technologies tend to increase the economic payoff [to winners] while others become less essential, and hence less well rewarded”. Brynjolfsson and McAfee top off their analysis and evaluation by providing solid recommendations to people who desire to be gainfully employed both now and in the foreseeable future. Computers can only do but so much as they are created by man. Furthermore, computers lack the millions of years of evolution of man, and are in actuality a lesser match for humans than one may think. However, positioning yourself as a successful knowledge worker, who will not be displaced by machines, is due in large part of your ability for, “ideation, large-frame pattern recognition, and complex communication. And whenever possible, take advantage of [SOLE’s or] self organized learning environments, which have a track record of developing these skills in people.”

This book will inspire you to take advantage of the many informal and formal learning opportunities available, many times for free, over the web. You can gain access to world-class professors from prestigious universities in ways and over mediums that were not available before. Technological unemployment is here and it will continue to grow as time passes. Will you position yourself as a winner in this highly competitive, globalized, and technologically enabled economy or will you sit on the sidelines while the game clock ticks away? The choice is yours, but you have an opportunity to make changes today in order to be successful tomorrow. Know your MATH!