NEW HAVEN, Connecticut -- As a college professor, I hear a lot of career concerns. As my students prepare to enter working lives that will last 50 years or more, practically all of them try to be futurists in choosing the skills in which to invest. If they pick an occupation that declines in the next half-century, they may deeply regret it.

They know that a mid-life career change is difficult, so they want to make the right choice while they are very young.

From what my students tell me, there is a widespread fear of "commoditization" of jobs in the modern, information technology-driven global economy.