3 ms·

You also have to factor in that not only are older generations further into their lives than us (I'm generalizing) younger people, with possible wisdom gained,

You also have to factor in that not only are older generations further into their lives than us (I'm generalizing) younger people, with possible wisdom gained, but they are also of a different generation, raised in a different environment and with different values. That's a bigger issue to me than the fact that they're older. Of course the older generation will always be more conservative in some respects (or at least has been in recent history). Part of that is the effects of becoming older ("wisdom"), part of it is survivorship bias, and part is just that society changes, and young people now are more liberal/left-wing/"woke"/etc on average than somebody who became an adult in the 70s or 80s.

ChrisMarshallNY 7y ago
Speak for yourself, young person. I was born and raised overseas, and have spent my entire life embedded in many very different cultures. I come from an ivy-league family (I'm the redneck engineer) that has been almost entirely dedicated to some fairly intense public service. Most of them could have become quite wealthy, but chose to do Service, instead. I have written open-source software, for decades, dedicated to helping some of the most downtrodden folks on Earth recover from devastating personal circumstances. It has not made me one single dime. In fact, it has cost me many thousands. And we're all pretty darn liberal. Being mixed up with dozens of different cultures all your life tends to do that. My experience is that many of the younger folks in my industry are incredibly materialistic. I suspect that's par for the course. It didn't start with this generation. Once we get a bit older, we may come to reflect, and discover that so many things that were of great importance when we were younger, don't mean diddly anymore. As for my relationship with technology; I learned to write software that lasts decades. Almost every project I've ever done has been designed as a legacy.
- pikelet 7y ago
  No need to take it personally, they never claimed that 100% of older people are that way.
  - ChrisMarshallNY 7y ago
    I take it that you have not had the...lovely...experience of being an older person in the tech industry, then?
- blaser-waffle 7y ago
  > My experience is that many of the younger folks in my industry are incredibly materialistic. I suspect that's par for the course. It didn't start with this generation. I suspect that is selection bias. IT and programming have been reliable ways to make north-of-median-income for decades now, since the .com boom in the 90s. This ties in with the rise of the Bro Programmer meme for the same reason -- it's where you to to make money. Hell, you're posting this on HN, which is the news site for a startup incubator -- which is ultimately about making founders and investors tons of freakin money. Obviously you're going to see a bias to getting that $$$ here
  - ChrisMarshallNY 7y ago
    > it's where you to to make money. That's a bit sad. I do it for love. I absolutely love designing and implementing software. It's nice to be able to make a living, but all I need to do is keep the lights on, while I do what I love. That's a rare privilege, in today's world.

ChrisMarshallNY 7y ago

Speak for yourself, young person. I was born and raised overseas, and have spent my entire life embedded in many very different cultures. I come from an ivy-league family (I'm the redneck engineer) that has been almost entirely dedicated to some fairly intense public service. Most of them could have become quite wealthy, but chose to do Service, instead. I have written open-source software, for decades, dedicated to helping some of the most downtrodden folks on Earth recover from devastating personal circumstances. It has not made me one single dime. In fact, it has cost me many thousands. And we're all pretty darn liberal. Being mixed up with dozens of different cultures all your life tends to do that. My experience is that many of the younger folks in my industry are incredibly materialistic. I suspect that's par for the course. It didn't start with this generation. Once we get a bit older, we may come to reflect, and discover that so many things that were of great importance when we were younger, don't mean diddly anymore. As for my relationship with technology; I learned to write software that lasts decades. Almost every project I've ever done has been designed as a legacy.

pikelet 7y ago
No need to take it personally, they never claimed that 100% of older people are that way.
- ChrisMarshallNY 7y ago
  I take it that you have not had the...lovely...experience of being an older person in the tech industry, then?
blaser-waffle 7y ago
> My experience is that many of the younger folks in my industry are incredibly materialistic. I suspect that's par for the course. It didn't start with this generation. I suspect that is selection bias. IT and programming have been reliable ways to make north-of-median-income for decades now, since the .com boom in the 90s. This ties in with the rise of the Bro Programmer meme for the same reason -- it's where you to to make money. Hell, you're posting this on HN, which is the news site for a startup incubator -- which is ultimately about making founders and investors tons of freakin money. Obviously you're going to see a bias to getting that $$$ here
- ChrisMarshallNY 7y ago
  > it's where you to to make money. That's a bit sad. I do it for love. I absolutely love designing and implementing software. It's nice to be able to make a living, but all I need to do is keep the lights on, while I do what I love. That's a rare privilege, in today's world.