Understanding

Understanding is more important than ever now.
Not "understanding" the way people say when they mean compassion or empathy (although that in particular is a skill of value weighable in gold, and not necessarily because you give two shits about other people... you dont have to sympathize, but if you can empathize with them, you have something), but understanding of not just what is happening in the world around, but why it is happening.
We now live in a global society that is quickly becoming "flat" - instead of vertical tiers of ability and service, the playing field is quite literally leveling and the capabilities of a more diverse group to play major roles in the global supply chain are evening out with the likes of the United States. We cannot simply sit atop the heap, know what we want to know, and say "frag it all" to the rest, anymore.
This flattening means that not only does a company in India have the ability to play at an even, effectual, level with the top American companies, it means that small groups and companies can do the same. In today's world, a resourceful individual or small group can provide the supply of a niche product at a higher rate of production and with wider availability, and as the supply grows, so does the demand. This includes Al Qaeda, and similar global guerrilla organizations.
We have to understand these things, we have to understand these relationships. It is no longer a specialized field, niche interest of academics and analysts who shape corporate and international policy, these things have to be understood by the people it affects - you and me. "Grassroots" organizations, like Al Qaeda, understand and use that understanding to their advantage, and can hurt us with it.
The world of today, and the coming tomorrow, demand a higher level of understanding of things all across the board. A diverse and flexible understanding of the forces that shape the world, and ones role in those forces, combined with the individual talent, knowledge and flexibility of decision making and self guided learning will be the marked characteristics of tomorrows survivors. Everyone else will be washed under the tide in one way or another, cannon fodder, grist for the mill or simply the suffering "get along, gettin' along"ers.
The ability to pick up a rifle and fight effectively, the ability to play and learn at a self directed pace, the ability to work within global market structures, and the particular skills needed to be controlling factors within those markets, engineering to fourth-generation warfare tactics - if we were truly going to be ready for tomorrow, this would be the focus of the Ivy League and nations top scientific/technical schools in preparing tomorrows captains of industry, doctors, scientists, engineers, software developers and entrepreneurs.
We have to understand - our understanding for tomorrow has to be diverse, flexible and robust. It will simply be impossible to know one thing, do one thing, and have no flexibility, no diversity and no other strengths in the tomorrow of today. The more we understand, the less individual sub-topics we have to be well versed in - the more we understand, the more connections and relationships become visible between everything. Once that level of understanding is reached, it actually gets easier, you just have to keep up then.
We have to do this though, average people, because we live in a society that is fast developing to where we will almost all have to become technologically skilled to intellectual elite to survive. Our leaders, corporate execs and politicians need to develope and cultivate their understanding too. Without understanding, we will lose.
This is why if you look right you will see the link to "Global Guerrillas" and why I do end up covering such a diverse range of topics, specialized understanding just doesnt cut it anymore.