oh SNaP: skills, needs, and passions

at the end of my short series on jobs, automation, and the future of work, i started to map out what every individual in a society like that would need to know. my jungle partner, ross, and i think about this set of info along three axes: skills, passions, and needs. this, on its own, doesn’t solve all of our problems. but without it, we definitely can’t move forward.

in previous phases of the economy, production was coordinated between the needs of firms and the skills of workers. if a firm had a need (floor manager, engineer, toothpick shaver) they would seek someone who could fill that need.

as our economy evolves, i think two things will change:

1. coordination will have to include the passions dimension of individuals (because it’s better that way), and
2. our economy will actually get more productive, but less consumptive (less output, not necessarily less throughput… but hopefully also less throughput). 

ok so what does a snap assessment look like? here goes the first draft…

skills

• what do you think or know you’re better at than most people around you?
• what do other people say you do really well?
• what have you gotten paid for in the past?
• what activities can you do for which other people are willing to barter resources?

needs

• what do you need to live for the next seven days? month? year?
• what things would allow you to spend more time doing what you’re passionate about?
• what things would allow you to better focus on improving your skills?

passions

• what do you do when you’re bored at your current dayjob?
• what activities can get you into flow (what can you start doing and be so into it that you lose track of time)?
• what do you always want to do but instead don’t because you’re too busy?

some other details:

• every person’s snap profile is dynamic. people’s needs change over time, as do their skills and passions.
  
• all profiles are a composite of self-generated information and community-generated and community-verified information. if you think you have singing skills, but no around you does, it is unlikely that you will ever be able to use your singing to get your needs met.
• also, firms (and by firm i mean generic entity: could be a household or a company or a school district or a government or more) will need some sort of comparable profile. it probably won’t have the same metrics, but in order for the coordination to happen at all, firms (and work seekers) will need to know what they need and also have to offer.

ok so it needs work. but there’s no better place to start than at the beginning, right?

ps - i realized in the middle of writing this post that snap (skills needs and passions) is a better acronym. i went back and rewrote it after my 10 mins of writing was up.