Healthcare Trends In 2014: Fill & Download for Free

1. Connectivity and Convergence:By 2020, there will be over 5 billion internet users, with over half of them accessing the internet over handheld tablet devices and 80 billion connected devices worldwide. This connectivity will spread to our daily lives bringing the three silos of work, home and our surrounding environment into one seamless experience termed by Frost & Sullivan as “connected living.” Connected living will involve digital assistants that guide our everyday lives, music that seamlessly moves from our homes to cars as soon as we shut the house door to our house to start our commute as everything will sit in a cloud that we can access anywhere anytime. A new range of technology enabled services such as smart lighting, mobile working solutions, and smart governance will define and shape our everyday experiences.This connectivity will push other sub trends, like big data to create market opportunities for new products and services; some that already here today, like social sentiment analysis, open innovation, new insurance business models and micro personalized marketing and medicines.2. “Bricks and Clicks” will become the retailing norm of the future, with every retailer expected to have an online identity as well as a brick and mortar presence by 2020. Nearly 19 percent of global B2C retail will happen online, with online retail sales expected to reach $4.3 trillion by 2025, resulting in the emergence of virtual stores, virtual hypermarkets, interactive stores, and “Click and Collect” retailing models. B2B e-Retailing which has lagged so far is now ready to take off and we will see more IPOs from e-Commerce companies than from brick stores. Even car companies will start offering digital urban stores and selling more cars online, perhaps more in the developing world as protective policies and lobbyists will hold back this market’s potential in some developed countries, like the United States.A key micro impact of this will be the focus by businesses on creating a seamless online/off-line customer journey and a unique and personalized customer experience throughout the life cycle of the product/service.3. Future of Mobility: In the future, people and organizations will want personal mobility (not necessarily cars or trucks) to travel from A to B, as journeys will become integrated with intelligent and smart technologies, enabled by a single ticket or membership to provide seamless travel on multi-modal transport systems with the car becoming an integral part of a wider transport network. Car companies will measure mobility share and not market share, as they move away from not just selling cars to also providing corporate mobility solutions, thus integrating all travel needs. Car sharing will become a commonplace model and they will become autonomous, as first pilots will be trialled by car and technology companies in a closed environment like at an airport or small community. Ordering and sharing cars with Apps will be a commonplace and legislators might need to start thinking whether they need to remove drunk driving laws or not, as the cars will ultimately drive you home on their own.4. Urbanization – City as a Customer: Mahatma Gandhi once said, “India is to be found not in its cities, but in its 700,000 villages.” Though it might have been true in the 19th century, this will not be the case in the 21stcentury, as we will see cities expanding to form mega cities, mega regions and even mega corridors, such as the Boston to Washington, DC (BosWash) corridor, which will have a population of 58.2 million and account for 20 percent of United States GDP in 2025.These “mega districts” will be so large that businesses will increasingly regard them as key focus centers for investment and put “city as a customer” as a central piece of their strategy, as opposed to nations. Some city mayors might even ask for UN seats, as they will contribute more to their overall country’s wealth currently seen through cities like Bogota, Seoul and Brussels.5. Social Trends Changing: Social trends in Generation-Y, rise of middle class, an aging population, reverse brain drain, Halal economy, a heterogeneous society, generational political change in nations like India, abolition of single child policy and hukou system in China, aging population and women’s empowerment will usher in some deep socioeconomic changes in our future society.6. Health, Wellness and Well-being: If we follow the logic of the Kondratieff cycle, this is the next biggest mega cycle stretching all the way to the 2050 and beyond. The definition of healthcare will change as economies struggle to afford healthcare costs, which will affect 20 percent of a nation’s GDP in a developed world. Focus will shift to mass prevention and diagnoses and to wellness aspects of the mind, body and soul.7. “Innovating to Zero” is the mega vision of a “Zero Concept” world where we will shift focus and develop products and technologies that “Innovate to Zero” in real life, thereby bringing social innovation to the forefront. We will have cars with zero emissions, zero accidents and zero fatalities. Cities and buildings will want to be carbon neutral, just like Copenhagen wants to be first carbon neutral capital of the world where one could even have a carbon neutral beer in a carbon neutral brewery, and spend a night in a carbon neutral hotel. Organizations are already taking this as a key vision for business as seen by Atos developing a “zero email” or “zero inbox” strategy (which will be great for when you are back from a long holiday)!8. Smart is the New Green: “Green” was a mega trend of the last decade and while it will continue to be important, there will be a shift towards “smart” products, which are intelligent, connected and have the ability to sense, process, report, and take corrective action.Smart products will be everywhere around us from smart clothing, watches, phones, to smart buildings and smart cities. The smart city market in particular will take off with the industry expected to be worth $1.5 trillion by 2020. Smart city market participants will assume one or more of the four main roles in the ecosystem: integrators (the end-to-end service provider); network operators (the M2M and connectivity providers); product vendors (hardware and asset providers); and managed service providers (overseeing management/operation)9. Value for Many: The emergence of a global middle class of 4 billion people and a connected community on the internet of 5 billion will allow entrepreneurs and businesses to “make one, sell many,” a concept that will be ever more important and usher in a new business model of “value for many.” The concept implies that businesses can produce and sell the same product or service to the masses in both the developing and developed worlds using either a platform like the internet or through developing an affordable products strategy. The most interesting feature of the “value for many” business model is that it drives innovation across a whole spectrum of industries, from low-cost flights to low-cost affordable healthcare products for the masses, to selling and scaling your business to the global market from day one.10. Future of Energy: The energy industry will converge with several related industries to develop efficient and environment friendly solutions. Key trends we will see in this area will be the Smart Grid, the future 'Energy Internet', the contribution of shale gas in the U.S. gas supply to surpass 40 percent in the 2030s, deep sea drilling for oil to become 20 percent of global oil production and technology for deep sea exploration to expand to deep sea mining. We will see more micro grids and energy storage technologies leveraging electric car batteries second life, and possibly also, for the first time, space-based solar power satellites that beam electricity to the earth.This article is based off of a recently completed Frost & Sullivan analysis titled, “World’s Top Global Mega Trends To 2025 and Implications to Business, Society and Cultures (2014 Edition).”source :- The 10 Social And Tech Trends That Could Shape The Next Decade

Q. Why can't we all grow 7 feet tall?A. Humans increased in stature dramatically during the last 150 years, but we have now likely reached the upper limit. The average height of a human man will probably never exceed that of basketball player Shaquille O'Neal, who stands 7 feet and 1 inch tall. Most geneticists believe that the improvement in childhood nutrition has been the most important factor in allowing humans to increase so dramatically in stature. Although some of the variation in height can be put down to genetic differences, it is not thought to be a dominant factor. Tall people tend to have a longer life expectancy, with a reduced risk of heart disease, but there is some evidence that they are at greater risk of certain cancers, such as colorectal, postmenopausal breast and ovarian cancers.Lead scientist Majid Ezzati, from Imperial College London, told BBC News: "About a third of the explanation could be genes, but that doesn't explain the change over time. Genes don't change that fast and they don't vary that much across the world. So changes over time and variations across the world are largely environmental.”Good standards of healthcare, sanitation, and nutrition are thought to be key factors, along with the mother's health and nutrition during pregnancy.Why are we getting taller as a species?Why are some people taller than others? Scientists finally have an answerWhy some nationalities are getting shorter while the rest get tallerSwedes outgrown as world's tallest peopleCheese or genes; Why are the Dutch so tall? Four Possible AnswersTHE SCIENCESWhy are we getting taller as a species?This answer comes from Michael J. Dougherty, assistant director and senior staff biologist at Biological Sciences Curriculum Study in Colorado Springs, Col.Image: SportsLine USA, Inc.TALLER THAN SHAQ? Humans increased in stature dramatically during the last 150 years, but we have now likely reached the upper limit. The average height of a human man will probably never exceed that of basketball player Shaquille O'Neal, who stands 7 feet and 1 inch tall.Anyone who has ever visited a home built around the time of the Revolutionary War along the back alleys of Philadelphia or Boston has been struck, metaphorically if not literally, by the characteristically low ceilings and small door frames. Even houses built in the early 1800s can make a person of average height by today's standards wonder how the orignal occupants managed to stay conscious long enough to participate in an industrial revolution and a civil war.For most people, contemporary buildings do not prompt similar claustrophobic concerns. The reason for this difference, as many people have correctly guessed, is that modern humans are taller than those from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. In fact, over the last 150 years the average height of people in industrialized nations has increased approximately 10 centimeters (about four inches).Why this relatively sudden growth? Are we evolving to greater heights, vertically speaking? Before answering these questions, we need to remember that evolution requires two things: variation in physical and/or behavioral traits among the individuals in a population; and a way of selecting some of those traits as adaptations, or advantages to reproduction.For example, finches that have large, powerful beaks also have an advantage cracking large, tough seeds during periods when small, soft seeds are scarce. As a consequence, large-beaked birds are more likely to eat better, survive longer and reproduce than small-beaked birds. Because beak shape is an inherited trait (one that is substantially influenced by genes), more successful reproduction by large beaked birds means that the genes predisposing finches to large beaks are transmitted to the next generation in relatively larger numbers than those genes encoding small beaks. Thus, the population of finches in the next generation will tend to have larger beaks than finches in their parent's generation.Let's use this basic operating principle of evolution to predict, retrospectively, the direction of change in human height if evolution were the cause of the change. We know from studies conducted in industrial England that children born into lower socioeconomic classes were shorter, on average, than children born into wealthy families. We also know that poorer families had larger numbers of children.Given those initial conditions, what would evolution predict? The average population should have become shorter because the shorter individuals in the population were, from an evolutionary fitness perspective, more successful in passing on their genes. But this did not happen. Instead, all segments of the population--rich and poor, from small and large families--increased in height. Thus, natural selection, the process whereby differences in reproductive success account for changes in the traits of a population, does not explain why we are taller.If evolution doesn't explain height increases, what does? Most geneticists believe that the improvement in childhood nutrition has been the most important factor in allowing humans to increase so dramatically in stature. The evidence for this argument is threefold:First, the observed increase in height has not been continuous since the dawn of man; it began sometime around the middle of the nineteenth century. In fact, examinations of skeletons show no significant differences in height from the stone age through the early 1800s. Also, during World Wars I and II, when hunger was a frequent companion of the German civilian population, the heights of the children actually declined. They only recovered during the post-war years.Such data are consistent with recent research indicating that slow growth induced by temporary malnourishment can usually be reversed. Chronic underfeeding during childhood, however, permanently affects stature and other traits, including intelligence.Second, the trend toward increasing height has largely leveled off, suggesting that there is an upper limit to height beyond which our genes are not equipped to take us, regardless of environmental improvements. Interestingly, the age of menarche, which is also influenced by nutrition, has shown a corresponding decrease over this same time period. Some scientists believe that the increase in teenage and out-of-wedlock pregnancies in the developed world may be an unanticipated consequence of improved nutrition.Third, conditions of poor nutrition are well correlated to smaller stature. For example, the heights of all classes of people, from factory workers to the rich, increased as food quality, production and distribution became more reliable, although class differences still remain. Even more dramatic, the heights of vagrant London boys declined from 1780 to 1800 and then rose three inches in just 30 years--an increase that paralleled improving conditions for the poor. Even today, height is used in some countries as an indicator of socioeconomic division, and differences can reveal discrimination within social, ethnic, economic, occupational and geographic groups.For those hoping that humans might someday shoot basketballs through 15-foot high hoops, the fact that the increase in human height is leveling off no doubt will be disappointing. For those who understand, however, that our genes are merely a blueprint that specifies what is possible given an optimal environment, a limit on height is just one of many limitations in life, and certainly not the most constraining.With environmental variables perhaps near their optimum, what are the prospects for evolutionary increases in height as a consequence of changes to our genetic blueprints? Apply the methods of the thought experiment above and see.Why are some people taller than others? Scientists finally have an answerResearchers analysing more than 700,000 people's DNA find 83 genetic changes accounting for height difference.By Andrew Gregory Political Editor 1 FEB 2017LIFESTYLESome of the 83 genetic variations discovered affect height by as much as 2cm (Image: Getty)by TaboolaScientists have finally discovered why some people are taller than others. They found 83 genetic variants affect height after analysing the DNA of 700,000 people. The genetic changes account for height differences of up to two centimetres. Previously identified common variants linked to tallness are much weaker, each of them typically adjusting height by less than a millimetre.The new international study, published in the journal Nature, is the largest investigation to date of genetic factors associated with height. A number of the variants - alterations in the chemical sequences making up DNA - flagged up previously unknown biological pathways involved in skeletal growth.The world's tallest man, 8ft 1in Sultan Kosen poses with the world's shortest man, 2ft 5in He Pingping (Image: Getty)One of the signposted genes, STC2, makes a protein that acts as a brake on human height. Scientists believe it could provide a target for new treatments for growth problems in children.British researcher Professor Panos Deloukas, from Queen Mary, University of London, who co-led the study, said: “The new genetic variants we found are rare in the population but their large effects on human height have revealed important new insights into human skeletal growth. The identified genes will be helpful in predicting a person’s risk of developing certain growth disorders.“There is also the hope that we may one day be able to use this knowledge to develop a precision medicine approach for dealing with growth disorders.” Colleague and co-author Dr Andrew Wood, from the University of Exeter, added: “Our latest discovery means that we can now explain over a quarter of the heritable factors involved in influencing a person’s height.More than 700,000 people had their DNA analysed as part of the study (Image: Getty)“How the body grows from a 40-50cm baby into a perfectly proportioned adult three to four times the size, and how this occurs such that some of us end up being over half a metre taller than others, is a fascinating but poorly understood aspect of biology.”In 2014 scientists involved in the research project, known as Giant (Genetic Investigation of Anthropometric Traits), identified nearly 700 height variants after analysing the complete DNA of 250,000 people. However such genome-wide association studies that cast a net over the whole of a person’s genetic code are not good at capturing uncommon genetic variants having large effects.For the new study, the researchers used a different method to test for a catalogue of nearly 200,000 less common genetic variants known to alter the function of protein-coding genes. Data from a total of 711,428 people highlighted 83 uncommon variants that exerted a strong influence on adult height. Of these, 51 were “low frequency” variants found in less than 5% of the population, and 32 were rare variants found in less than 0.5%.Professor Guillaume Lettre, one of the chief investigators from the University of Montreal in Canada, said: “Of these 83 genetic variations, some influence adult height by more than two centimetres, which is enormous. “The genes affected by these genetic variations modulate, among other things, bone and cartilage development and growth hormone production and activation.”Why some nationalities are getting shorter while the rest get tallerVariations of height across the world are largely environmental.Image: REUTERS/Wolfgang Rattay 26 Jul 2016Keith BreeneBoth men and women have grown taller over the last century, with Dutch men and Latvian women now inching ahead of the rest of the world.Growth spurtThe research, published in the journal eLife by the NCD Risk Factor Collaboration, shows that back in 1914 it was the Swedes who were the tallest people in the world. Since then Dutch men have risen up the rankings from 12th place to 1st with an average height of 182.5cm.Latvian women, meanwhile, rose from 28th place in 1914 to become the tallest in the world a century later, with an average height of 169.8cm.Other notable increases are South Korea’s women who have shot up by more than 20cm on average, and Iranian men whose stature has increased by 16.5cm.The study looked at the average height of 18 year old men and women in 200 countries between 1914 and 2014.European countries dominate the height chart, but the data also suggests that growth trends in the West may be levelling out.Lower downAt the other end of the chart, the smallest men on the planet are to be found in East Timor at an average 160cm.The world's smallest women are in Guatemala, as they were in 1914. The average Guatemalan 18-year-old female is 150cm tall.What’s behind the difference?Although some of the variation in height can be put down to genetic differences, it is not thought to be a dominant factor.Lead scientist Majid Ezzati, from Imperial College London, told BBC News: "About a third of the explanation could be genes, but that doesn't explain the change over time. Genes don't change that fast and they don't vary that much across the world. So changes over time and variations across the world are largely environmental.”Good standards of healthcare, sanitation, and nutrition are thought to be key factors, along with the mother's health and nutrition during pregnancy.What goes up, can come downThe role of nutrition is thought to be a key explanation for the fact that, although over the century there has been an increase in height in every country surveyed, in some places people are have been getting shorter again.“One reason for these decrease in heights in Africa is the economic situation in the 1980s,” Alexander Moradi of the University of Sussex, told the Guardian.The scientist, who was involved in the study, believes that the nutritional and health crises that followed the policy of economic structural adjustment in many African countries, led to many children and teenagers failing to reach their full potential in terms of height.Health impactsResearch has shown that height is correlated with positive health outcomes as well as a few negative ones.Tall people tend to have a longer life expectancy, with a reduced risk of heart disease, but there is some evidence that they are at greater risk of certain cancers, such as colorectal, postmenopausal breast and ovarian cancers.Swedes outgrown as world's tallest peopleHow tiny they must look to a Dutch person! Photo: Henrik Montgomery/TTnews@thelocal.se@thelocalsweden26 July 2016Forget the myth about the tall, blond, modern Viking. Swedes are not the world's tallest.They may have been the tallest people in the world a century ago. But in the past 100 years, Swedish men and women alike have seen themselves outgrown by several of their European neighbours, according to new findings published in medical journal eLife on Tuesday.Some 800 researchers from global health science network NCD Risk Factor Collaboration, in association with the World Health Organization, mapped out the height of 18-year-olds in 187 countries and tracked their average growth curve between 1914 and 2014.They found that Dutch men are today the tallest, towering over others at almost 183 centimetres. The most impressive women meanwhile, measuring on average 170cm, are to be found in Latvia. A hundred years ago the two countries were only 12th respectively 28th tallest in the world.Swedes of both sexes, however, who measured more than 171cm respectively on average 160cm a century ago, have tumbled from first place to 15th for men and 17th for women.Of course, they haven't so much tumbled as been outperformed by others. Swedish women have grown to 166cm today and men to around 180cm. Many other nationalities have simply grown faster.While still shorter than Europeans, Iranian males have enjoyed the biggest height gain in 100 years, from 157cm to 174cm. For women, it's the South Koreans, up from 142 to 162cm.The smallest men in the world are found in East Timor (160cm) and the smallest women in Guatemala (140cm a year ago, just below 150 today).Researchers said the reasons were largely down to environmental factors – such as healthcare, nutrition and sanination – rather than DNA."About a third of the explanation could be genes, but that doesn't explain the change over time. Genes don't change that fast and they don't vary that much across the world. So changes over time and variations across the world are largely environmental. That's at the whole population level versus for any individual whose genes clearly matter a lot," lead scientist Majid Ezzati, from Imperial College London, told the BBC.Tall people are said to enjoy longer life expectancy. But last year a study found that they are also at greater risk of developing cancer, so there appears to be some good news for the Swedes after all.The world's tallest women in 2014 (1914 in brackets)1. Latvia (28)2. Netherlands (38)3. Estonia (16)4. Czech Republic (69)5. Serbia (93)6. Slovakia (26)7. Denmark (11)8. Lithuania (41)9. Belarus (42)10. Ukraine (43)17. Sweden (1)The world's tallest men in 2014 (1914 in brackets)1. Netherlands (12)2. Belgium (33)3. Estonia (4)4. Latvia (13)5. Denmark (9)6. Bosnia and Herzegovina (19)7. Croatia (22)8. Serbia (30)9. Iceland (6)10. Czech Republic (24)15. Sweden (1)Why Are People So Much Taller Today Than Historically?Cheese or genes; Why are the Dutch so tall? Four Possible AnswersBy Ceren Spuyman February 19, 2018We don’t know if you paid attention to this detail yet, but let us break the news: People from the Netherlands are tall, in fact, they are the tallest! (At least the Dutch men are -together with the Latvian women). The average height for Dutch men is 1.86 cm (over 6’) whereas an average American is 1.76 cm (5’9”). “Why are the Dutch so Tall?” you might ask. Well, we’re wondering the same thing and here are 4 possible answers to that question.Why are the Dutch so Tall?Reason 1: Natural SelectionTo kick start our possible reasons to why the Dutchies are so tall, we have natural selection. The idea of natural selection is simple: with time, there were more and more Dutch with tall genes.Scientists think that natural selection with good environmental conditions (such as surrounded by cheese we’d say- see Reason 4 for our full take on it) might help to give an idea. To say it with the words of Gert Stulp who is a specialist at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine:“Height is very heritable – taller parents tend to have somewhat taller children than shorter parents. Because taller individuals would have more offspring in the next generation who would be taller, the average height in that generation would a bit taller on average than the preceding generation, if all else is equal.”Which brings us to our second season!Reason 2: SexThis is where things get steamy: one of the answers to our question “Why are the Dutch so Tall?” might be: sex!According to a study by LifeLines, tall men (accompanied by an woman of average height) have the most children. For example, the men with the most number of kids were seven centimetres above the average height. To put it statistically, they had 0.24 more children on average than the least fertile men, who were about 14 cm below the average height.LifeLines got to this conclusion by looking into the lives and health of more than 94,500 people who lived in the Northern parts of the Netherlands between 1935 and 1967.Say what now? There you have it: Apart from being quiet satisfied with their sexy time, they are good at making babies as well! (wink)Reason 3: Snooze timeWe all love a good ol’ snooze time. Our hectic lives and busy schedules are making it impossible to get a good night’s rest sometimes but nothing beats a good sleep. That’s why some people think that this might be the reason why the Dutch are so freaking tall!We can’t talk much about catching a snooze as an adult but we have some reasons to believe that there is a strong connection between getting enough sleep as a child and growth. How? Well, in order to grow, your body needs to get growth hormone. This is a hormone synthesised naturally by the body and it helps your body with “building” tissues such as muscle, skin, tendon and bone. This means the result is better muscle tone, faster healing and an increase in height.This is why sleep is so important when it comes to growing. Because our body produces growth hormone when we are asleep. Thus; the more deep sleep we get, the more we will grow up (between the ages of 19-27).Reason 4: Cheese!Finally, (as suspected) one of the biggest reasons why the Dutchies are as tall as they are: Cheese! If you are looking at the screen with an amazement, hear us out. It is no surprise that the Dutch surely love their share of dairy products. Cheese shops every corner, stalls and stalls of cheese being sold at the city market twice a week and don’t let us start with the huge dairy section in every supermarket just for cheese. Not satisfied?Visiting Gouda, Alkmaar or Edam Cheese markets might draw a better picture where you can take your pick from rows and rows of cheese all ready to be sliced into goodness. Delicious!Without diving more into the world of cheese, let’s get back to the relation between cheese and how tall the Dutch are.The national cuisine of the Netherlands is mainly about dairy products, potatoes, seafood and meat. Many households serve fresh vegetables alongside chicken, or beef, all year round. Their breakfasts are sometimes yogurt with muesli or 1-2 boterhammen made with cheese and/or sliced meat and milk is still a favoured drink next to their breakfast or lunch well into adulthood. Same boterhammen also made the most preferred lunch in the country (with milk on the side). Some habits die hard.Eating a dairy rich diet undoubtedly helps when it comes to growth and supplies children with the energy that their bodies need to reach such towering proportions. BUT, is this the answer to our question “Why are the Dutch so Tall?”, scientists believe yes, but not entirely.

Software engineering is going to continue to grow as a sector. And as more and more people become software engineers, the overall average salary will likely go down. My advice is to specialize in skills that will become popular in the future. Easier said than done, I know. But as CEO of Scalable Path, a software developer network, part of my job is these trends (languages, frameworks, etc.).I do this so we can make sure we have those skills in our developer network to keep up with demand. But you can look at them to decide what to focus your career on!The hardest roles to fill are for new and trending technologies because there are often few people with these skills - and even fewer that can prove they have commercial experience in them. Correctly identifying and learning these skills will have a big impact on your future income potential.That being said, you’re likely also looking to maximize your job potential now. Understanding what is trending is key if you want to think long term…So here are my thoughts on which skills to learn:HTML & CSSOlder skills, like HTML and CSS, are not going away anytime soon, but they are becoming commoditized. There are many developers out there that can do a good job writing HTML. So while there is little chance of it becoming defunct overnight, the competition has driven down the prices here. It is this process which will, over time, bring down the average wage in the industry.JavasScriptWe are always hiring developers with knowledge of Javascript. I believe its market share will certainly increase over the next half-decade. There is just so much momentum here that even if the tide changes, legacy systems mean JavaScript will still be dominant in five years. JavaScript-based frameworks are also, logically, going to remain popular. Having experience in one of the above could double your hourly rate. Yet many developers are worried about spending time learning a new framework in case it is not widely commercially adopted. While there is a risk here - Ember, for example, seems to have fallen out of favor - your time is far from wasted. Frameworks tend to evolve iteratively and learning a new one is not a drastic commitment.PythonPython is definitely trending up and has been for years. It’s a popular language for machine learning, AI, and IoT. It took over from R as the primary language for scientific research a few years ago and has been going from strength to strength. Due to its flexibility and speed, I expect it to become one of the fastest growing languages in the coming years.Let’s look at some of the trends that will be powered by software engineers:Being fluent in Python and JavaScript will set you up for almost all the trends I discuss below. (When there is another language needed I will mention it.)Artificial Intelligence: AI is becoming a catch-all term (in the way ‘algorithm’ has been for the last few years) but overuse (and often inaccurate use) of the term does not mean its impact is not real! I am also bundling machine learning under this heading, as it is simply a way of achieving AI.Artificial Intelligence will continue drip feeding into everything we do. One area I am fascinated by is how it is likely to get good enough that you will be able to ‘speak’ a loosely defined design idea to a UI tool, and it will generate the mock designed screens from those requests.What you should learn to develop AI:PythonRLispPrologJavaAugmented Reality: Talking about the UX/UI space, this has actually been static for a long time. Since the touchscreen revolution really. The near future should be fascinating for user interface designers as AR is successfully navigating the move from Sci-Fi to reality. This is happening partly because the costs are dropping, which is generally a sign that we are near wide adoption. We are likely to see mobile adopting AR more and more since the two mesh naturally together. This is why I see AR becoming more popular ahead of VR (see next section) - end users don’t need new tech. That and both Apple and Google have released their own AR developer.What you should learn to develop AR:ARCore framework with JavaARKit Framework with Swift or Objective CVR: While we are not seeing many VR projects yet, it is, without doubt, a fascinating area. If it catches on with the wider public, this tech could drive some wildly innovative changes to our daily life. Predicting such change is fraught with difficulty, of course. Like AR, we can’t imagine where it will take us, nor do we know if/how it will mature. What we do know is that it will start with headsets. Now lighter in weight and lower in cost (less than $200), headsets are priced to become mainstream. With the assumption that they don’t suffer the same fate as Google Glass, we may be only a few years away from similar societal changes the iPhone/app store brought.What you should learn to develop VR:JavaScriptJavaC++C#IoT is only just starting to come into common parlance. It aims to create a network of connected devices, from keyrings to home appliances, that collect and analyze data so they behave in a smarter manner. Nest is a common example of an IoT device. The roll-out has been slower than expected because of issues with commercializing IoT data. But as these hurdles are cleared, I expect to see the technology used in many Jetsons-like ways. For example:Doors that recognize you and unlock.Fridges that order your favorite food before you run out, or encourage you to eat healthier.Gardens that water themselvesDevices that won’t let you forget themThe 1st gen devices like Alexa are going to evolve and become ubiquitous. But they will certainly extend beyond the home into:CarsCities and Public SpacesHealthcareIt’s definitely a growing sector. We don’t see many IoT projects yet. I think this is because a lot of it is sitting within Google and Amazon and there is little startup work out there.What you should learn to develop AoT:PythonJavaScriptBlockchain: Whether or not you buy into the long-term blockchain and crypto space, there is no denying it is a huge and growing sector. You just need to look at the $100 million VC’s just pumped into CoinBase to know there are a lot more developer roles in this area. This is, without doubt, the fastest growing space for us.What you should learn to develop on the Blockchain:PythonC++JavaScriptSolidityNot all changes will be as visible as AR and VR though. Much of the ‘magic’ will happen behind the scenes.Big Data: It’s not all Python and JavaScript. Another skill shortage lies with Hadoop developers. Again this is due to the rapid increase in demand for it. Which in turn indicates it will play a big part in the next few years. It’s closely linked to the increase in big data analysis trends. Businesses will want to analyze more and analyze faster. So these trends will continue to grow as pretty much everything I am discussing in this answer is trying to collect and analyze data to better sell your goods and services.Quantum Developers: While fascinating, the development in the quantum computing world are unlikely to result in many roles for ‘quantum algorithm developers’ in the near term. That being said, both Google and IBM believe they will hit the ‘quantum supremacy’ milestone this year. This is where a quantum computer processes an algorithm that a traditional computer could not within a human lifetime. How long it will take to bridge the gap between that achievement and full error correction is still very uncertain.I hope you find this information useful for developing your skill set and moving your career forwards - best of luck!