Modern Day Darwinism & Survival of The Fittest: How We Mutate Ourselves to Adapt to the Ever-changing Talent Needs of Businesses
In this article, I explore the idea that the modern nature of employment characterized by an ever-changing landscape of what is considered “essential” or “in-demand” skill, fits well with the idea of how organisms, through mutation, become more adaptable to their environment and ultimately thrive.
First, I explain DNA and the concept of mutation in simple terms using the word game Scrabble.
Second, I explain the term “Survival of the Fittest”.
Third, through an example I explain how mutation is the driving force behind “Survival of the Fittest” in nature. The example, a famous one, is about a population of peppered moths and how they were affected from soot accumulation on the trees from the Industrial revolution.
Fourth, I raise the stakes and introduce my main idea:
“Given that mutation is a probabilistic way for an organism to succeed in its environment. Then those that don’t mutate, probably end up disadvantaged. Whereas those that do mutate are probably better off. All within the context of their immediate environment. Then isn’t upskilling oneself through education, certification or training just a form of mutation. In terms of how it helps some out-survive those that haven’t “mutated” or not upskilled themselves. Again, all in the context of their immediate environment which in this case is the industry individuals look to find employment in.”
Fifth, conclusion. We’ve always been mutating in a sense, to get an advantage in the labor market. Because our ability to earn is what dictates our survival. The only difference is that we call this mutation “upskilling”.
Mutation Simplified
Mutation is the talk of the town, mainly because of COVID. But if you’re like me, you probably heard it first in X-men. (Shout out to Wolverine |||).
Now it might not be as fancy as having retractable claws or super strength but it still is intriguing.
Mutation, more specifically, genetic mutation is any change in the DNA of an organism that may or may not confer upon it a beneficial change.
Think of it as a game of Scrabble.
You have seven letters, but not all the words you can make out those seven letters make sense. The odd chances are that you have a bunch of X’s (Playah!), some G’s (Gangsta!) and some B’s (Apiarist?). I suspect foul play.
As you can see, none of the words you can make would be intelligible.
But if you can change your X’s with, say U’s, you can make a word like BUG.
To put it together, the seven letter combination you have is like your DNA. It’s mostly just gibberish. But if you can change a few letters here and there, similar to a genetic mutation, it creates a word that makes sense, a gene (Oh! Maybe that’s why her name was Jean Grey? Google Apophenia).
And, that word will gain you some points in Scrabble. Or in the case of DNA, may offer you resistance to Malaria which would be a beneficial change.
The only difference is that DNA has just four letters — A, T, G and C — and it’s about three billion letters long. Also, mutation isn’t as straightforward as picking up letters from the table. It’s mostly random in nature, much like the words to Lil Pump’s Gucci Gang.
Survival of The Fittest & What it Means
Most have heard the saying “Survival of the Fittest”. Though most seldom understand what it really means or where it comes from.
One of the biggest misconceptions around the term is that it was Darwin who coined it. It was in fact Herbert Spencer who proposed the term, suggested to Darwin by Alfred Russel Wallace, and popularized by Darwin. Credit where credit is due, or some such notion.
The term actually expresses the idea of Natural Selection a.k.a Darwinism.
A species is able to out-survive, out-reproduce and thereby out-exist its unsuccessful relatives by displaying such a biological feature that greatly increases its ability to adapt to its environment.
Mutation Drives the Survival of the Fittest: An Example
In ye olde England, there lived two variants of the peppered moth. One dark-colored and the other light-colored. The dark-colored moths arose from a genetic mutation within the cortex gene that changed the appearance of the original population of light-colored moths.
During the industrial revolution, the trees on which these moths rested were blackened from soot. The literal smoke from the proverbial furnace of progress.
The blackened trees inadvertently gave the dark-colored moths an advantage in hiding from predators giving them a better chance of surviving to further produce dark-colored offspring. Within five decades, nearly all moths in the industrial areas of Manchester were dark.
Education, Certification & Training: Modern Day Darwinism in the Organizational Workforce
I urge you to keep an open mind as the next bit requires a bit of imagination.
There is something similar going on in terms of mutation and survival of the fittest when it comes to our need to learn and unlearn quickly and often, to keep abreast with the ever-changing requirements of today’s organizations, especially in the technology sector.
Well, how do I mean? I will use an analogy.
The peppered moths are us.
The color of the peppered moths equates to our ability to either be good at, say Python, or be good at say Data Entry but not both (A very simple example, mainly as a placeholder for a set of two skills. Both mutually exclusive).
Originally, one population needed to know Data Entry as their business environment did not require them to know Python. Computing hadn’t reached the level of maturity nearly close to what we see today. Most could and did go through their day without having to bother about Apps or the Internet-of-Things or Automation. Think of this age as the pre-Industrial Revolution.
Again, there also existed a small subset within the population of peppered moths in the form of the dark-colored variant. Similarly, there was a small subset of people who knew Python within the entire population (The logic here is that there must have been some proponents or frontrunners who laid the foundation for Python for others to build on and ultimately create the versatile system we see today).
Enter the Modern Industrial Revolution — the advent of Automation, AI and ubiquitous data—requiring everyone to know or at least be aware of Python (Again, keeping the example really simple).
Data Entry is obsolete now.
Think of this obsolescence of the Data Entry skill as the disadvantage of appearing light-colored in an environment that favors the dark-colored moth.
The skills are analogous to the biological features that enable individuals to get employed and therefore earn a livelihood. Our very survival is based on our ability to get employed, in a general sense. I mean you can always live like a nomad but the reason we survived as a species is because we transitioned from being hunter-gatherers to farmers (Shout out to my homies in the Neolithic Revolution). Which means we had to settle somewhere.
Peppered Moths and Today’s Workforce: A Summarized Comparison
Note: The intersection between the bell curves is the event changing the environment. The Industrial Revolution on the left and the advent of Technology and Ubiquity of Data on the right.
The Not-Conclusion
Mutation is a probabilistic way for an organism to succeed in its environment. However, it is not necessary for a mutation to be beneficial.
More often than not a mutation is silent. It doesn’t manifest into something directly observable, better yet inherently advantageous.
Not all mutations produce beneficial changes, but all beneficial changes are a result of mutations.
In that sense I dare say that not all education, certification or training is beneficial. But all benefits must amass from these (in a general sense).
So then upskilling oneself is a form of induced mutation, in terms of how it helps some out-survive those (gaining an advantage as a candidate for employment) that haven’t “mutated”, i.e. not upskilled themselves.
Again, everything must be viewed in context to the immediate environment.
What I mean is to say that until and unless the soot had covered the trees in ye olde England, there was no benefit to the mutation within the Cortex gene of dark-colored moths. It was a disadvantage.
And by extension, unless there was a demand for Python as a skill due to the technology boom, there was no advantage to learn the language to gain a better chance at employment.
Richard Dawkins, one of the great evolutionary biologists, proposes the idea of the extended phenotype. He says that genes determine not just how our body functions, but phenomena way beyond, including architecture, the financial and legal systems.
Given this perspective, this idea of looking at upskilling as a form of mutation is not easily dismissible. Food for thought.
On a parting note, I consider this article not written in vain if I have helped you to, at the very least, understand DNA and Mutation in a relatively simple way.
If not, well then, it is what it is, or some similar unwise wisdom.
It is the job of a thinker to think. And, the only proof of a thought had, is when it is shared.
