Thank You for Being Late: An Optimist's Guide to Thriving in the Age of Accelerations

by Thomas L. Friedman

Intelligent Assistants One of the most intriguing online intelligent assistants for the workplace that I came across in my research was LearnUp.com, cofounded by Alexis Ringwald, an adventurous young entrepreneur whom I first met in India, where she and a partner were highlighting that country’s grassroots renewable energy initiatives by touring around in a solar-powered car—with a solar-powered rock band! After doing a start-up in the States in solar energy, Ringwald got interested in the employment sector and spent six months interviewing workers looking for jobs. She discovered something she did not expect—that a majority of jobs on offer today don’t require a four-year college degree, and nine out of the top ten jobs in America by volume don’t require more than a high school degree. But she also discovered that the widespread assumption in America that anyone can get these entry-level customer service jobs by just showing up and demonstrating a pulse was even more wrong: these jobs do require basic skills that way too many applicants actually lacked. As she put it: “Even a clerk at the Gap, a hamburger flipper at McDonald’s, or a receptionist requires certain basic

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