---
product_id: 4088027
title: "Metaskills: Five Talents for the Robotic Age"
price: "HK$254"
currency: HKD
in_stock: true
reviews_count: 13
url: https://www.desertcart.hk/products/4088027-metaskills-five-talents-for-the-robotic-age
store_origin: HK
region: Hong Kong
---

# Metaskills: Five Talents for the Robotic Age

**Price:** HK$254
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- **What is this?** Metaskills: Five Talents for the Robotic Age
- **How much does it cost?** HK$254 with free shipping
- **Is it available?** Yes, in stock and ready to ship
- **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.hk](https://www.desertcart.hk/products/4088027-metaskills-five-talents-for-the-robotic-age)

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## Description

In a sweeping vision for the future of work, Neumeier shows that the massive problems of the 21st century are largely the consequence of a paradigm shift—a shuddering gear-change from the familiar Industrial Age to the unfamiliar “Robotic Age,” an era of increasing man-machine collaboration. This change is creating the “Robot Curve,” an accelerating waterfall of obsolescence and opportunity that is currently reshuffling the fortunes of workers, companies, and national economies. It demonstrates how the cost and value of a unit of work go down as it moves from creative to skilled to rote, and, finally, to robotic. While the Robot Curve is dangerous to those with brittle or limited skills, it offers unlimited potential to those with metaskills —master skills that enable other skills. Neumeier believes that the metaskills we need in a post-industrial economy are feeling (intuition and empathy), seeing (systems thinking), dreaming (applied imagination), making (design), and learning (autodidactics). These are not the skills we were taught in school. Yet they’re the skills we’ll need to harness the curve. In explaining each of the metaskills, he offers encouragement and concrete advice for mastering their intricacies. At the end of the book he lays out seven changes that education can make to foster these important talents. This is a rich, exciting book for forward-thinking educators, entrepreneurs, designers, artists, scientists, and future leaders in every field. It comes illustrated with clear diagrams and a 16-page color photo essay. Those who enjoy this book may be interested in its slimmer companion, The 46 Rules of Genius , also by Marty Neumeier. Things you’ll learn in Metaskills : - How to stay ahead of the “robot curve” - How to account for “latency” in your predictions - The 9 most common traps of systems behavior - How to distinguish among 4 types of originality - The 3 key steps in generating innovative solutions - 6 ways to think like Steve Jobs - How to recognize the 3 essential qualities of beauty - 24 aesthetic tools you can apply to any kind of work - 10 strategies to trigger breakthrough ideas - Why every team needs an X-shaped person - How to overcome the 5 forces arrayed against simplicity - 6 tests for measuring the freshness of a concept - How to deploy the 5 principles of “uncluding” - The 10 tests for measuring great work - How to sell an innovative concept to an organization - 12 principles for constructing a theory of learning - How to choose a personal mission for the real world - The 4 levels of professional achievement - 7 steps for revolutionizing education From the back cover "Help! A robot ate my job!" If you haven't heard this complaint yet, you will. Today's widespread unemployment is not a jobs crisis. It's a talent crisis. Technology is taking every job that doesn't need a high degree of creativity, humanity, or leadership. The solution? Stay on top of the Robot Curve--a constant waterfall of obsolescence and opportunity fed by competition and innovation. Neumeier presents five metaskills--feeling, seeing, dreaming, making, and learning--that will accelerate your success in the Robotic Age.

Review: What Makes You Human Makes You Better - After becoming a belated (and avid) fan of The Brand Gap and ZIg, I believe this latest Marty Neumeier book is his most important yet. Zig and Brand Gap were smart, fast, pithy, wise and clear, designed to read and digest in the time it took to take off from Chicago and land in LA. Meta Skills requires more concentration and offers greater depth. It is more important, too. This book had depth and texture. Mr. Neumeier's skill lies in delivering complexity with a soupçon of simplicity. Few business "help" or "trend" books do this. Most simply repackage ideas appropriated from others and wrap them in their own bamboozle. What Neumeier's proclivity steals is the thunder of the FutureTrend shamans by deflating their language and watching it fall to earth where we can all get a good look at it. Straightforward is Neumeier's chief brand attribute. In Meta Skills he takes complex concepts and theories on skills and training and counts them out in five steps that will keep us ten steps ahead of the agile robot. The author draws from deep wells across a wide range of disciplines, experiences and philosophies and delivers them simply -- and enjoyably. He uses wit while tweaking his dentist's poor taste in painting and savagery when describing the horrors of the Ryan Air customer experience. I believe Neumeier's passion is reunification -- or at least the tearing down of barriers that serve to "Balkanize" us. We tend to believe certain skills, learning and people are rare experts when really most of the same skills, interests and instincts that we do. By proving emotional intelligence is as vital as rational knowledge, Neumeier offers us hope not doom. For those who create, build, design, and originate ---- this is great news. With Neumeier's encouragement we can postpone the outsourcing to Manilla (or Hal or Watson). Read this book. Then read it backwards. So long as you keep your opposable thumb (your humanity), you have a fighting chance to stay ten steps ahead of the the robots.
Review: A Great Work Deserving of a Proper Stitched Binding - In an earlier version of this review, I complained bitterly about the production quality of the book. Though the book sports a hard cover, the 287 page volume is inexpensively glue bound and I found that pages from the front matter of the book were falling loose after one week of reading. Disappointed that this serious work from an author I much admire would be falling out of its binding, I issued a bit of a rant. I must report that Marty Neumier, the author of Meta Skills, showed immediate concern for my unfortunate experience with the poorly bound copy of Meta Skills and took personal initiative to have the publisher send a replacement copy to me. A big thank you to Mr. Neumier for his concern and effort. Meta Skills is a must read. I would have preferred a durable stitched binding for the book, but rest assured that the author and the publisher are concerned with the production quality of the book and are responsive to any reports of faulty glue bindings. Now, don't delay. Go grab a copy of this terrific work.

## Technical Specifications

| Specification | Value |
|---------------|-------|
| Best Sellers Rank | #1,383,921 in Books ( See Top 100 in Books ) #3,244 in Job Hunting & Career Guides #4,802 in Creativity (Books) #12,969 in Business & Finance |
| Customer Reviews | 4.7 out of 5 stars 98 Reviews |

## Images

![Metaskills: Five Talents for the Robotic Age - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/31eGUlsFpmL.jpg)

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## Customer Reviews

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ What Makes You Human Makes You Better
*by M***R on February 20, 2013*

After becoming a belated (and avid) fan of The Brand Gap and ZIg, I believe this latest Marty Neumeier book is his most important yet. Zig and Brand Gap were smart, fast, pithy, wise and clear, designed to read and digest in the time it took to take off from Chicago and land in LA. Meta Skills requires more concentration and offers greater depth. It is more important, too. This book had depth and texture. Mr. Neumeier's skill lies in delivering complexity with a soupçon of simplicity. Few business "help" or "trend" books do this. Most simply repackage ideas appropriated from others and wrap them in their own bamboozle. What Neumeier's proclivity steals is the thunder of the FutureTrend shamans by deflating their language and watching it fall to earth where we can all get a good look at it. Straightforward is Neumeier's chief brand attribute. In Meta Skills he takes complex concepts and theories on skills and training and counts them out in five steps that will keep us ten steps ahead of the agile robot. The author draws from deep wells across a wide range of disciplines, experiences and philosophies and delivers them simply -- and enjoyably. He uses wit while tweaking his dentist's poor taste in painting and savagery when describing the horrors of the Ryan Air customer experience. I believe Neumeier's passion is reunification -- or at least the tearing down of barriers that serve to "Balkanize" us. We tend to believe certain skills, learning and people are rare experts when really most of the same skills, interests and instincts that we do. By proving emotional intelligence is as vital as rational knowledge, Neumeier offers us hope not doom. For those who create, build, design, and originate ---- this is great news. With Neumeier's encouragement we can postpone the outsourcing to Manilla (or Hal or Watson). Read this book. Then read it backwards. So long as you keep your opposable thumb (your humanity), you have a fighting chance to stay ten steps ahead of the the robots.

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ A Great Work Deserving of a Proper Stitched Binding
*by M***R on April 30, 2013*

In an earlier version of this review, I complained bitterly about the production quality of the book. Though the book sports a hard cover, the 287 page volume is inexpensively glue bound and I found that pages from the front matter of the book were falling loose after one week of reading. Disappointed that this serious work from an author I much admire would be falling out of its binding, I issued a bit of a rant. I must report that Marty Neumier, the author of Meta Skills, showed immediate concern for my unfortunate experience with the poorly bound copy of Meta Skills and took personal initiative to have the publisher send a replacement copy to me. A big thank you to Mr. Neumier for his concern and effort. Meta Skills is a must read. I would have preferred a durable stitched binding for the book, but rest assured that the author and the publisher are concerned with the production quality of the book and are responsive to any reports of faulty glue bindings. Now, don't delay. Go grab a copy of this terrific work.

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Mandatory reading for all employees in a learning organizaiton
*by M***C on January 20, 2014*

Over the last 5 years, I've read just over 100 business books. Out of all these works, I've found Marty Neumeier has proven to be one of only two 'cant miss' authors (The other is Roger L. Martin). With Metaskills, Marty has done it again. This is an exceptional book that I'd consider a must read for everyone in an organization that believes in learning as a competitive advantage. In comparison to The Brand Gap, ZAG and The Designful Company; Metaskills is a much larger book. Though there is a great deal of content, the information is presented in a similarly digestible way to Marty's previous books. Marty presents each of the five Metaskills as understandable and actionable skills that all entrepreneurs or individuals within a company can develop. This is precisely why I've suggested making this mandatory reading for all employees in a companies. The Five Metaskills (and their meaning) are as follows: 1. Feeling (Empathy) 2. Seeing (Systems Thinking) 3. Dreaming (Applied Imagination) 4. Making (Prototyping) 5. Learning (the opposable thumb of all other Metaskills) Of course, making a book like this mandatory for all employees will have implications. To properly implement all five Metaskills, a company culture will need to build trust to bring out good ideas from anywhere within an organization. These early stage hunches will require experiments to gather data and debate to extract insight. Though these are the keys to continuous innovation and sustainable growth, they also challenge status quo and cause change. However, If you believe as I do that igniting the latent passion, insights and talent stored within your organization is critical long-term success, then you will love this book. PS - Interviews: Marty was kind enough to do 2 interviews with me about this book. The first was about the book as a whole. The second interview is specific to the Metaskill Dreaming. [...] [...]

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*Store origin: HK*
*Last updated: 2026-08-11*