Wasting Talent

Evolution is something we should always have in the back of our mind but we should always also remember that it can be horribly wasteful and inefficient. We should learn the positive lessons from the world about us but we should do our best to avoid the negatives.

In particular the social sciences should not try too hard to mimic evolution. That especially means politicians who should do their best to reduce the effects of natural selection.

Our biggest waste is talent. We fail to identify what we need and who would be best to meet that need. We all work too long and too hard when we could work less and be much more productive and efficient because we do not optimise. Take women who have had children and the flexibility of the work force. We waste all of that knowledge and experience because we have not adapted our working practices to meet what is needed. We can change where and when we work, how we work, what hours we work, we can change our economy, we can do whatever we want. We just have to think bigger and we have to use the opportunity of the current down-turn to realign what we do.