One of the very brightest and best people I’ve had the pleasure of knowing, working with, and becoming friends with, had some news to share yesterday. He and his great wife are now parents of a beautiful child…

And it summed up how things have changed – even in the short time since my own son was born. The last update before birth was via Skype, the news and images appeared first on Facebook, and rather than everyone heading to a pub to wet the babies head, we all shared congratulations via Xbox Live.

It’s a great time to be a parent. Despite how much of politics and the media can try and achieve their aims by propagating scare stories and propping up things they shouldn’t with cash that really should be used elsewhere, the rapidly changing nature of the world means I have no idea what job or life my son will have. I’m not going to be hoping he’ll become an indentured servant to a feudal Lord, or go into an apprenticeship to have a lifelong career in one role which will never change.

Instead I’m hoping to pass on the ideas which not only seem to be increasingly important in terms of working but also living – embracing change, constantly learning, being willing to take some risks but with the knowledge of how to minimise the danger where it makes sense, connecting to trusted global networks of people with brilliance in a huge variety of ways, and helping others to achieve their aims and ambitions. To be able to effectively share knowledge and wisdom for the good of others and of yourself. To strive to make some kind of positive change for those around us, whether it’s one individual or a whole network. To always work towards doing cool stuff. To experiment. And to take advantage of the fact more information, conversation, connections and progress are enabled by new technology even as it raises new challenges to privacy, security and existing business.

And lastly – to encourage him to tinker with technology and particularly code. If only I’d made the link between my small natural ability in maths and the creativity that can be achieved with it, I might have continued with it far more, and had more of a balance with the more traditional creative outlet of writing (Which I still adore, and don’t regret pursuing – and it’s never to late to start playing around more!)

I’m immensely happy for my my friends and their new child, immensely proud of my family (for which I can take little credit), and I’m looking forward to a new era of evenings of Call of Duty accompanied by more discussion of nappies, toys, learning to crawl, walk, talk and all that comes after…