A man who does not learn does not deserve to earn

I am a business man. I am in the business of selling my skills and knowledge to the highest bidder. Unfortunately I operate in a market that is customer driven and where the bargaining power of customers is extremely high. The market is also skewed in that demand for certain kinds of knowledge and skills is higher than that of others. The problem is aggravated by the fact that I am limited in the knowledge I can develop. I am not athletic enough to sell my sporting skills, I lack certain critical body parts that would allow me to sell my body and I am not creative enough to sell my imagination. For a long time the only thing I could bring to the negotiating table was academic and professional qualifications. That was enough to get me where I am now, which is nowhere, but is not enough to take me further or even keep me where I am.

I used to be an IT kind of guy but now I have been reduced to a lowly user. I could write a half decent C and Java program now all I do is talk to people and nod my head like an idiot as I pretend to understand what they are talking about. My work has become boring because I do not learn anymore. Things are so bad I have not opened google for over a month. I use Firefox but the only benefit I enjoy from using it is tabs. As I look at my task bar (or is it status bar, I forget) now the only things I have open are Lotus, Word, Excel and Power point. That is all the software I use. If Sun released a new JDK I would be the last guy to know. A few weekends ago, Sam mentioned in passing that MSF (is that the right acronym?)have delayed release of their new OS. I didnt know that was happening.

I work with a bunch of accountants so being an IT user is not a bad thing if you are an accountant. Although I have professional qualifications that indicate I am an accountant I dont know anything. Some time last week one of my colleagues told another colleague, issue of bonus shares is not a dilluting event they the conversation went down hill from there. 3 years ago I could have participated in such a discussion but now I cannot.

I am like a dairy farmer who refuses to take his ngomber for AI and still expects to be in business 10 years from now. An obvous solution for me is to get another job that provides me with opportunities to learn. I have even considered looking for a job abroad. But that cannot be the solution I cannot limit my development to opportunities presented by an employer. Learning should be self driven. Last year I tried to take a few more professional exams but soon realised they are a waste of time. They did not provide me with any incremental knowledge or new skills. This left me averse to formal education. I can enrole for an MBA course but I will die of boredom, probably pass but still have no knowledge. I need to try something different, something real, a doing thing. Probably take up coding as a hobby. There are a few times I find myself doing something and hoping it could be automated for example backing up stuff from my machine to a network drive or getting exchange rates from a website. Or I could enrole for a cooking class and as a bonus hang out with some chiks. Or take up capentry. I will probably just keep doing what I am doing now, the bare minimal at work and a couch potato at home. But that will leave me without sellable skills.