Our brains are the only reason we’re still here. It’s our only competitive advantage. It’s a resource we have in abundance, but is underutilized.
Human capital is the #1 most undervalued resource on this planet. How do we discover, extract, refine and activate it?
Let’s compare brains with another resource that is dear to us, oil. We spend a lot of time trying to find it. Once we do, we drill expensive holes into the ground to extract it. Then we refine the oil so we can use it for specific applications. Finally, we distribute it to whoever wants to pay. This is a huge market and finding new oil fields is an economic home run.
Human capital is similar in some ways. When we find an amazing idea/brain it can create an economic or scientific home run. We have schools to refine skillsets. Talent is distributed on the job market. Organizations deploy it to solve problems.
Compared to oil, there is no method to discover or extract unearthed talent and ideas. We push everyone into a standardized educational mold. We just hope these rare skills will emerge at school. But even if they do, they are not always valued or encouraged sufficiently. All kinds of socioeconomic circumstances can block you and your original work from reaching its potential.
We are not looking hard enough for people with non-traditional backgrounds and massive potential. It could be as simple as finding them and offering the tools, peers, and financial capabilities to execute. The cost to society is small but the potential upside is substantial.
Initiatives working on this are Y Combinator and Pioneer. They offer a way for anyone with access to the internet to execute their ideas and projects. I believe there’s room for more organizations funding and supporting talented individuals all around the world.
Who will build the search engine for intellectual capital?