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'Get stuff done': President Obama shares why his simple career advice for young people works

"Whoever is running that organization will notice. I promise.”

via Anthony Quintano/Flickr

Former president barack Obama walking down the street with his coat over his shoulder.

If you’re looking for career advice, there are few better people to ask than former President Barack Obama. After all, he got the most prestigious job in the world after only spending four years in the U.S. Senate and seven in the Illinois State Senate.

Obama clearly knows how to work his way up in the world.

Now, he’s investigating what it means to have “good” work in his new Netflix show, “Working: What We Do All Day.” According to Netflix, the show explores compelling ideas and issues about labor and work, while focusing on the lives of individuals in various professions.

Obama sat down with LinkedIn Editor-in-Chief Daniel Roth to talk about employment-related topics, including the role of work in our lives, disruptions in the workplace in the new Millenium, and the coming AI revolution. During the 15-minute conversation, Obama shared his most important career advice for young people, and it was simple, especially for such a thoughtful, well-spoken man. The former president said, “Get stuff done. Just learn how to get stuff done.”

He then unpacked what he meant by his simple motto.

“I've seen at every level people who are very good at describing problems, people who are very sophisticated in explaining why something went wrong or why something can't get fixed, but what I'm always looking for is, no matter how small the problem or how big it is, somebody who says, 'Let me take care of that,'” Obama said.

“If you project an attitude of, whatever it is that's needed, I can handle it and I can do it, then whoever is running that organization will notice. I promise.”

Obama is spot-on with his analysis. You can talk about things all day, but what really matters is taking action and making things happen. Maybe that’s why his campaign slogan in 2008 was a simple three-word phrase about taking care of business, “Yes, we can.”

"The best way to get attention is, whatever is assigned to you, you are just nailing. You're killing it. Because people will notice, that's someone who can get something done," Obama continued.

As someone who has managed people at the top levels of government, Obama has a rare understanding of the importance of relying on people to carry out essential orders and knowing who to trust to get it done efficiently and correctly. When you’re president of the United States, you must have complete trust in the people you delegate work to because thousands or even millions of lives could be at risk.

Obama also added that young people shouldn’t focus on a specific job title but on things that interest them. "The people that I find are the most successful are the people who say, 'I'm really interested in computers and figuring this stuff out,' and they end up being a Bill Gates," he said.

People will be happier with careers that are rooted in their interests because they’re doing what they love. We only get 24 hours in a day. Most people sleep eight, work eight and enjoy eight for themselves. Everyone loves sleeping and time off, but you can be happy 24 hours a day when you love your job.

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Heroes

7 unreal photos of America's 2 newest national monuments.

On his way out the door, President Barack Obama is leaving America with two brand-spanking-new national monuments.

Gold Butte, Nevada. Photo by Ron Mader/Flickr.

The areas surrounding Nevada's Gold Butte and Utah's Bears Ears Buttes, which include hundreds of thousands of acres of canyons, fragile rock formations, and ancient Native American structures, are now protected by executive order.

The designations were controversial — many local politicians opposed the measure, describing the designations as federal overreach, while others, including Native American tribes, were thrilled.

"We have always looked to Bears Ears as a place of refuge, as a place where we can gather herbs and plants and as a place of sacredness," Navajo Nation President Russell Begaye told The New York Times.

Part of what sets the new monuments apart are hundreds of Native American petroglyphs — pictorial art and writing from centuries before the European colonization of the Americas — carved on rocks and written inside ancient structures within.

The newly christened Gold Butte National Monument is full of petroglyphs like this one.

Some of the pictograms were defaced with graffiti and bullet holes during rancher Cliven Bundy's standoff with federal authorities in 2014. The new designation will give additional protection for the ancient art and writing.

Newspaper Rock, which lies within Bears Ears National Monument, includes hundreds of petroglyphs like the one below — carved by Puebloan people over hundreds of years, beginning as early as two millennia years ago.

Modern Native American scholars believe the etchings include family symbols, territory markers, and religious iconography.

Photo by Rick Bowmer/AP.

The Moon House, also in Bears Ears and so named for the full and crescent moons on the interior walls of the structure, was likely built in the 13th century.

The structure contains numerous examples of Native American pictography inside, where archeologists believe as many as 30 people lived. The house is incredibly fragile, and only a few daily permits to see the building are currently issued.

Photo by Rick Bowmer/AP.

The house is located in McCloyd Canyon, a steep hike that gives way to this stunning view of the house under layers of rock.

Photo by Rick Bowmer/AP.

Mule Canyon, Utah, contains these Anasazi dwellings and granaries, known collectively as the "House on Fire."

Photo by Rick Bowmer/AP

Of course, the national monuments are also full of just-generally spectacular rock formations untouched by ancient construction, art, or writing — like this one in Gold Butte.

Jeff Sheild/Las Vegas Review-Journal via AP.

Some local residents remain, understandably, concerned that monument designations will close down possibilities for recreation and development in the areas. But the importance of preserving these American Indian treasures, and the land they occupy, is impossible to overstate.

Ensuring that art, writing, and buildings are around for future generations is critical to building a United States of America that owns the full breadth of its history.

Thanks to our Native American forebears, these lands contain a key component of that story. And thanks to Obama, they now belong to all of us, together.

Unfortunately, photos can only show so much.

So ... who's up for a hike?

Heroes

The most popular science paper of 2016 is from ... Obama? Yup. And it's about Obamacare.

Can you guess which science story was the most talked about in 2016?

As you can see, hot sauce is amazing and needs to go on everything. Image from iStock.

It's a tough one — there were a lot of great science studies. We had the paper that linked Zika and birth defects, for instance. Plus there was the evidence of Einstein-affirming gravitational waves, the mysterious Planet Nine, and that time scientists tried to teach a computer Go.

But there was one story that ruled them all, according to the U.K. firm Altmetric. They analyzed over 17 million mentions of nearly 3 million pieces of research, tracking not just how they were received in the scientific community, but how they were talked about by the news and social media.

So who won? The freakin' president of the United States of America.

President Obama at South by Southwest in 2016. Photo by Neilson Barnard/Getty Images for SXSW.

That's right. It's Obama. Back in June, Obama published a real, scientific, peer-reviewed article in the Journal of the American Medical Association. The paper, "United States Health Care Reform: Progress to Date and Next Steps," was kind of a report card on Obamacare.

It's free to read, but boiled down, it basically said that based on an analysis of public data, the Affordable Care Act had positive effects on insurance coverage, access to care, and overall health. Of course, there were still some significant gaps that future policymakers could fix. Basically, the paper gave Obamacare a B+.

The paper dominated Altmetric's analysis, garnering their highest score ever, largely fueled by a gigantic public reaction.

It's kind of cool to see this marriage of policy and science. It's also an awesome reminder that Obama is a giant, unabashed nerd.

This paper made Obama the first president to ever write a proper scientific paper while in office. That said, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush have published opinions in the past, and, weirdly, it turns out Thomas Jefferson was really into writing about giant sloths.

No, seriously. There's a species of extinct giant sloth named after him. Photo by Robyn Beck/AFP/Getty Images.

This end-of-the-year surprise feels especially apropos considering how much of a talking point Obamacare was during the election and the fact that its future seems uncertain at this point.

But nevertheless, nerds unite. 'Cause science geeks: It turns out we've got friends in high places.

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Lawyers' Committee
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If you're horrified by the thought of a Muslim registry, consider this: It already exists.

A dormant 2002 program could be brought back to life with disastrous results.

On Monday, Dec. 12, hundreds of Muslims and allies took to the streets of Washington, D.C., to take a stand against a possible Muslim registry.

The march, organized by MoveOn.org, Desis Rising Up & Moving, CREDO, and others, saw participants travel from the U.S. Department of Justice to the White House to urge President Obama to take action to prevent his successor, President-elect Donald Trump, from creating a Muslim registry.

Photo by Larry French/Getty Images for MoveOn.org.

"In these moments, before Trump even takes office, it's important to begin building cross-sectional coalitions — especially to protect and defend frontline communities," Iram Ali, campaign director at MoveOn.org writes in an email. "Our march did just that — it brought together a diverse group of organizations to stand with Muslim communities in a time when it's so needed."

It's easy to dismiss the idea that Donald Trump will create a registry for Muslims as farfetched — until you realize that one basically already exists.

In 2002, the newly formed Department of Homeland Security announced the creation of the National Security Entry-Exit Registration System (NSEERS). The program required noncitizens in the U.S. from 25 countries (24 with majority-Muslim populations) to register with DHS. The program created 93,000 cases, but never lead to a single terrorism-related conviction. Finally, in 2011, the Obama administration delisted the countries from the system, effectively ending the NSEERs program.

Ali and others involved in the march want the administration to take things a step further and eliminate the program altogether, writing that shuttering NSEERS "would give Muslim communities a fighting chance under the Trump administration."

Photo by Larry French/Getty Images for MoveOn.org.

But does Trump really want to create a database of Muslims?

In late 2015, Trump said he would "absolutely" require Muslims to register. When asked by an NBC reporter how his plan to register Muslims was different from the registry for Jews in Nazi Germany, he simply replied, "You tell me." He's also called for a ban on Muslims traveling to the U.S. and suggested the government should be surveilling mosques.

Sure, he's walked back some of that language from time to time. And yes, his son Eric recently told a comedian on a transatlantic flight that there wouldn't be a registry. Still, it should be noted that Trump's plan to suspend Muslim travel to the U.S. remains on his website. Even more disturbing, it seems, is what he has in store for the NSEERS program.

Photo by Larry French/Getty Images for MoveOn.org

Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach helped craft NSEERS. He's also a frontrunner to run Trump's DHS.

It was Kobach, along with John Ashcroft, who designed and implemented NSEERS, and thanks to an accidental glimpse from a recent meeting with Trump, it seems like the dormant program will be making a comeback.

In the photo below from Trump and Kobach's Nov. 20 meeting, the document in Kobach's left hand is titled, "Department of Homeland Security. Kobach Strategic Plan for First 365 Days." The first item on the list? Reintroduce NSEERS. Additionally, Kobach has outright said that the new administration is preparing plans for the registry.

Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images.

Earlier this month, 51 Democratic members of Congress called on President Obama to destroy NSEERS.

In the letter, members of the House highlight some of the big problems with the program and warn of what could happen if it returned. In short, it ravaged communities and instilled distrust.

"When instituted in 2002, the program caused widespread and palpable fear in affected communities, separated families and caused much harm to people affected by it. Boys and men were required to register with local immigration offices, were interrogated, and subjected to serious due process violation. Communities saw family members and neighbors disappear in the middle of the night, held in overcrowded jails and deported without due process. More than 13,000 people were placed in removal proceedings, businesses closed down, and students were forced to leave school with degrees uncompleted."

If President Obama were to rescind the program in its entirety, it would buy civil rights organizations and Congressional opponents of the program some much-needed time to fight back against any efforts by the new administration to start from scratch. It's something he can do before leaving office.

Organizers of Monday's protests delivered petitions totaling more than 341,000 signatures urging the White House to take action.

Photo by MoveOn/Flickr.

While the fate of the NSEERS program rests in the Obama administration's hands, there are things that everyday people can do to help our Muslim friends, family, and neighbors.

"Allies can help by taking leadership from Muslims and Muslim communities who have already been impacted by similar policies that Donald Trump is suggesting," Ali suggests. "Many of these policies aren't new for our communities — what is new is the newfound solidarity that we are seeing and that is really important."

She suggests donating to Muslim-led organizations such as Desis Rising Up and Moving and MPower Change.

Photo by Larry French/Getty Images for MoveOn.org.

The coming years will be tough for marginalized groups. That's why it's important for those of us in a position to help stand in solidarity against oppression.

This is something that goes beyond the White House or political parties, but to the core of who we are as people and who we want to be as a country. When oppression exists, where people's rights and expectation of equal treatment are at risk, that's worth fighting for. Today, Muslims are being singled out for disparate treatment; tomorrow, it could be another group.

One thing is clear: People do not belong in a database or a registry like this. Let's take a stand for what is right.

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