Our world will change more in this century than in all of human history, driven by many factors including technology, climate change, demographics and inequality. Such extreme change is throwing up unprecedented opportunities and creating an ‘adaptive challenge’ for individuals, organisations and societies. Those who can adapt to a fast-flowing, complex, volatile and uncertain world will flourish. Those who cannot will suffer greatly.There are clear signs everywhere that we need new ways to think about the world and our place in it. Our old ideas about education, lifestyle, success and happiness no longer work. How is work changing? How can you know what skills will be useful when jobs of the future are still being invented? Will ‘jobs’ even exist or are we moving to a world of projects and gig work? How do you make sense of all this and more?

In What the Heck Do I Do With My Life? Ravi Venkatesan makes the case that successful adaptation in the new century requires a ‘paradigm shift’, a different mindset, new skills and new strategies. Ravi also reflects on how we will need to live life more intentionally, making deliberate choices about who we are, what we do and how we live rather than simply being carried along like a piece of driftwood.