The requirement of modern society for the comprehensive quality of talents is about 2 words, which is urgently needed.

the standards of talents are never fixed. In the Warring States period in the East and the chivalry period in the West, the most valued are the warriors who are invincible and the eloquent advisers; In China's imperial examination era, to be no.1's scholars were the easiest to get ahead by rote learning and stereotyped writing. In the days when the western industrial revolution was raging, inventors who were good at changing the world with the power of machines and engineers who were proficient in their professions and worked hard became the best among all talents; Even in the last 2th century, most enterprises' requirements for talents remained at the individual level of concentration, diligence, honesty and obedience ... But time flies, and the 21st century has quietly come to us. In today's world where opportunities are fleeting and the environment is changing rapidly, more people have the right to choose and make decisions, more people need to improve themselves through continuous learning and innovation, and more people have enough space to display their talents and ambitions ... Most people's work is no longer repetitive mechanical labor, nor is it a single-handed invention and creation. People need more independent thinking and decision-making, and people also need to communicate and cooperate with others more closely. In the 21st century, what modern enterprises need most is not only "narrow sense" talents who are excellent individually or only possess certain characteristics, but also "broad sense" talents who can fully meet the needs of competition in the 21st century and have sufficient potential and cultivation in different aspects such as personal quality, knowledge and experience, cooperation and communication, innovation and decision-making. If we make a simple comparison between the characteristics of talents needed by enterprises in the 2th century and their requirements for talents in the 21st century, We can roughly get the following contrast table: the most needed talents in the 2th century are the most needed talents in the 21st century, who are diligent and eager to learn, who are comprehensive talents who focus on the combination of innovation and practice, and who are interdisciplinary IQ IQ+EQ+SQ, who have personal skills, communication and cooperation skills. Choosing a hot job, being cautious, positive and optimistic does not mean that the characteristics of talents such as diligence and sureness emphasized in the 2th century are no longer important. In fact, the requirements for talents in the 21st century will also be based on these basic individual qualities and. However, the demand for talents in the 21st century is more comprehensive and richer, and the perspective of examining talents has also shifted from a single individual level to a three-dimensional perspective that integrates multiple dimensions such as individuals, teams, organizations, society and even the environment, covering learning, innovation, cooperation, practice and other factors. Whether it is for those students who are eager to become pillars, or for those colleges and universities who are committed to cultivating outstanding and practical talents, whether we can use the three-dimensional perspective of the 21st century to understand the talent standards in the new century more comprehensively and thoroughly is a necessary prerequisite for us to better adapt to the international competitive environment in the 21st century and give full play to our talent advantages. Therefore, I intend to talk about the seven characteristics of talents facing the 21st century listed in the above table in combination with my previous experience in scientific research, teaching and R&D management, hoping to provide some useful help for young students and people who are committed to talent training. As early as thousands of years ago, students in China knew the truth of studying hard and studying hard. It is good to study hard, but many students mistakenly believe that the purpose of studying hard is nothing more than obtaining a specific diploma or superior grades. Some schools and teachers also spend a lot of energy on how to cultivate "examination machines". Some tutors even said to the students, "Try to memorize the knowledge points before the exam and forget them as soon as possible after the exam, otherwise, you will not be able to cope with the heavy courses that follow." It is extremely wrong to take exams and diplomas as the only goal of study. Today, social development is changing with each passing day, and the speed of knowledge replacement is faster and faster. Once you enter the job, it doesn't matter whether you can take the exam or remember the answers. Many jobs in the 21st century need to solve more challenging problems in a more complicated and changeable environment, which is by no means something you can cope with by rote learning. If you study only for diplomas and exams, and you don't master really effective learning methods, then even if you get diplomas and good grades, you will certainly not be able to keep up with the pace of the 21st century, and you will become an "old" laggard in your future work. So, what is the real purpose of learning? In the book "Be the Best Oneself", I put forward four realms of learning: 1. Practice makes perfect: study under the guidance of teachers, master the contents of textbooks and know the answers to questions. 2. Draw inferences from others: Have the ability to think, master the learning methods, be able to draw inferences from others, and know why. 3. Self-learning without a teacher: I have mastered the methods of self-study and self-study, and I can take the initiative to learn without the help of a teacher. 4. Mastery: You can flexibly apply the knowledge you have learned to your life and work practice, and know how to do things and be a man. Mastery is the highest realm of learning, and what is most needed in the 21st century is talents who can master mastery in learning, cope freely in practice, and are good at thinking, reasoning and application. For example, for a student majoring in computer science, learning every lesson in the classroom and systematically mastering the knowledge of mathematics, algorithms, systems and programming only lay the necessary knowledge foundation for a student majoring in computer science. In order to truly become a master in computer research and development, he must also have the ability of independent learning, independent thinking and independent innovation, and be able to organically combine knowledge, experience and methods from different sources and use them to solve specific problems in practical work flexibly and effectively. A key point of mastery is to have clear and flexible thinking. When recruiting R&D personnel, some software companies often use some seemingly bizarre "thinking challenges" (for example, "Why is the cover of the sewer round?" "Please evaluate the man-machine interface of the elevator you just used." ）。 These questions are not "intelligence tests" or "brain teasers" as many people think. Their real purpose is to test the logic and flexibility of candidates in independent thinking. If an applicant answers several answers, it proves that he is an active person. If a person's answer is illogical, or he can't answer at all, or he insists that there is only one correct answer after answering, then even if he has achieved excellent results in school exams, we will doubt whether he is a person who can only recite and take exams, but is not good at flexibility and mastery. Mastery means that you must be good at applying what you have learned to practice. If you want to achieve mastery through a comprehensive study, you must first practice more. In the IT field, many successful companies hope that the graduates who join the company have more than 1, lines of programming experience (for example, in Google, most applicants who fail to pass the interview are due to their lack of practical ability), but many China students told me that during their four years in school, they have actually written no more than 1, lines of programs by themselves. On the one hand, it shows that some schools don't pay attention to the cultivation of students' practical ability in teaching, on the other hand, it also shows that many students only know how to learn "death" knowledge, but don't know how to find or create opportunities, so as to use what they have learned in concrete practice. Mastery also means that you must learn to solve problems that you have never seen before and have no definite answers, and learn to analyze and solve problems in a creative way of thinking. In the recruitment process of Google, I found that some very good students are very good at answering some questions with clear descriptions and clear answers (for example, "How to traverse undirected graphs or directed graphs", etc.), but once they encounter those slightly vague questions that need further abstraction and clarity (for example, "How to apply common graph algorithms to interpersonal relationship modeling and analysis", etc.), it is difficult to focus their thinking on the right direction. You know, in practical work, almost every problem is vague and uncertain. It is impossible for your boss and colleagues to help you simplify the problem into the abstract form in the book in advance. Everything needs to be done by yourself, and you need to solve the problem creatively on the basis of mastery. Compared with simply learning textbook knowledge well, mastery through a comprehensive study has higher requirements for each student. But as long as you reach the realm of mastery, you will have one of the essential characteristics of talents in the 21st century, and at the same time have a solid foundation for realizing your ideals and following your interests. 2. Innovative practitioners Modern society cannot do without innovation, because innovation is the only competitive advantage that can last for a long time, whether for a society or an enterprise. Fundamentally speaking, value comes from innovation. The value that innovation and the industrial and technological revolution caused by innovation can create is far greater than the value that repetitive labor can create. Because of this, almost all modern enterprises put innovation at the core of enterprise development, and most developing countries, including China, also regard independent innovation as the fundamental driving force of sustainable development. However, there is often a tendency to "innovate for the sake of innovation" in scientific research and industry. Many R&D achievements only unilaterally pursue "leading technology" or "unique concept", and many researchers only pursue publishing papers without considering whether the innovative results can solve practical problems well and be accepted by most users. For example, in 1996, I led a research and development team in SGI company to develop a very cool and great 3D browser and won many awards. But at that time, we only buried ourselves in creation, but we didn't do a good job in market analysis and investigation to see if such a cool and great browser could be accepted by ordinary users in the market. As a result, because there is no market for this product, this innovation can't create any value for the company, and our product is equal to nothing. We had to sell the department and dismiss more than 1 employees in the department. This can be said to be one of the most unforgettable things in my life and the biggest failure I have ever experienced. The lesson from this painful experience is that innovation must serve practice, and "innovation for innovation's sake" is meaningless. When I was interviewed at MIT, someone asked me how to motivate MIT students in one sentence. At that time, I had just experienced the failure of SGI. The first sentence that came to my mind was: "What matters is not innovation, but useful innovation". We should not do something because it is "new", but rather see whether it has practical value, whether it can solve practical problems and be accepted by users. On the contrary, in the process of practice, we should not be confined to repetitive work, but should always remember innovation, promote practice with innovation and guide practice with innovation. Only by not forgetting innovation can our practical work be full of vitality and passion, and we can continuously develop excellent products. Sergey brin and Larry Page, the two founders of Google, are very good at innovation in practice. At that time, when these two magical figures of Stanford University combined the innovative webpage ranking algorithm with the emerging online search practice into a superior Google search engine, the two complementary words of innovation and practice took root in Google. Even after intense work, the two founders will never forget to invent some "novel" gadgets to add some fun to their work. On one occasion, Larry Page did it himself, installed a laptop with his own test program on a toy car that could be remotely controlled, and then squatted on the ground, directing his test car to run around the company-the purpose was to test the performance of the company's internal wireless network. Innovation guides practice, and practice supports innovation. Practice and innovation are indispensable, just like those who only know the mechanics principle and those who only know how to lay bricks and tiles can't build a skyscraper independently. Similarly, in the new century, only those who are good at combining innovation with practice are likely to achieve the greatest success.