5 ms·

An eye opening rationale for something that's clearly been happening my entire life (50+ years): people are more selfish, less educated, less responsible, and l

An eye opening rationale for something that's clearly been happening my entire life (50+ years): people are more selfish, less educated, less responsible, and less kind than ever before.

heavenlyblue 5y ago
Or you just got lucky with the environment where you were a child and didn’t realise how you were preferring to spend time with worse people over time, blaming the environment for it.
- mimixco 5y ago
  It's not the environment. It's people's behavior. I hate to pull the old card, but lots of boring social qualities are ever so hard to find today: punctuality, thoroughness, courtesy, and in general just "giving a damn." Anyone who lived before about 1980 will know what I'm talking about. The problem is so pervasive that it isn't even noticeable. And now grown adults with high school level mentality and professional development having children who are also adults and were, of course, raised with the same bad ideas. Have you never heard the complaint that there's no service anymore? No loyalty anymore? And no good communication anymore? It's something old people say and it's true.
  - halfnormalform 5y ago
    It wasn't possible to contact people in real time after they left their home. We had to be punctual or else it would be a big deal.
    - mimixco 5y ago
      It's still a big deal and the selfish and rude idea that it wouldn't be costs businesses a lot of money and it makes relationships a lot less pleasant. People aren't rude about time (other people's time) because we have cellphones. It started before that. But they did make it worse!
      - deleted 5y ago
        [deleted]
  - staticman2 5y ago
    The article presents the 75 year old Donald Trump as the iconic "petulant child". The majority of senior citizens voted for him. Unless you are older than 75 it hard to take seriously the implication that your generation was in any way superior.
    - mimixco 5y ago
      This article seems to be really tough to grasp because that's the opposite of what it says and several people seem to have taken that meaning. The premise of the author is that today's grownups are terrible (adolescent behavior and attitudes) because of the changes brought about by high school becoming a thing. He's complaining about my generation, not saying it's better. The "better" (behaved) people are over 75 or dead.
  - ikr678 5y ago
    Loyalty is no longer rewarded, so there is no incentive toward loyal behavior (at least in the workplace). Same for other professional services - businesses regularly offer discounts to new customers but not existing ones. Why should I stick with my bank, insurers or credit card when there are more advantages to churning?
    - hinkley 5y ago
      If you lived through the 80’s you should know that not only is loyalty not rewarded, but the breakup was quite traumatic.
lrdswrk00 5y ago
Adam Smith warned extreme division of labor would result in humans that were unimaginably stupid. After figuring out the fundamentals of physics in detail the last 100 years, what else is there except engineering replacement technology and the same old utilitarian day to day? It’s clear that more people are educated but we’re still clinging to that division of labor meme hard, and turning grads into dumb ass data entry chimps.
- runawaybottle 5y ago
  It never occurred to me that software is making an entire subclass of data entry workers. Type shit into our app, that’s your job.
  - mattcwilson 5y ago
    Not quite. (Extremely cynical take follows) Software is reducing the amount of data being collected non-digitally and inefficiently; compressing redundancy out of the process in the form of data structures and normalization. That’s only going to be the case long enough for ML-algorithms plus approve-button-pushers to be even more efficient. The current wave of college educated data entry positions is a side-effect, not the terminal goal. Ultimately we’re on track to replace most degree-havers with CAPTCHAs.
- machinehermiter 5y ago
  I am just not sure people are more educated at this point. For sure not kids graduating high school this year. We have the technology that anyone can take classes at the best schools ever created by humans for free but the average person wants to watch a guy eat a 100 hotdogs for time or a video of someone else reacting to the hot dog video.

An eye opening rationale for something that's clearly been happening my entire life (50+ years): people are more selfish, less educated, less responsible, and less kind than ever before.

heavenlyblue 5y ago

Or you just got lucky with the environment where you were a child and didn’t realise how you were preferring to spend time with worse people over time, blaming the environment for it.

mimixco 5y ago
It's not the environment. It's people's behavior. I hate to pull the old card, but lots of boring social qualities are ever so hard to find today: punctuality, thoroughness, courtesy, and in general just "giving a damn." Anyone who lived before about 1980 will know what I'm talking about. The problem is so pervasive that it isn't even noticeable. And now grown adults with high school level mentality and professional development having children who are also adults and were, of course, raised with the same bad ideas. Have you never heard the complaint that there's no service anymore? No loyalty anymore? And no good communication anymore? It's something old people say and it's true.
- halfnormalform 5y ago
  It wasn't possible to contact people in real time after they left their home. We had to be punctual or else it would be a big deal.
  - mimixco 5y ago
    It's still a big deal and the selfish and rude idea that it wouldn't be costs businesses a lot of money and it makes relationships a lot less pleasant. People aren't rude about time (other people's time) because we have cellphones. It started before that. But they did make it worse!
    - deleted 5y ago
      [deleted]
- staticman2 5y ago
  The article presents the 75 year old Donald Trump as the iconic "petulant child". The majority of senior citizens voted for him. Unless you are older than 75 it hard to take seriously the implication that your generation was in any way superior.
  - mimixco 5y ago
    This article seems to be really tough to grasp because that's the opposite of what it says and several people seem to have taken that meaning. The premise of the author is that today's grownups are terrible (adolescent behavior and attitudes) because of the changes brought about by high school becoming a thing. He's complaining about my generation, not saying it's better. The "better" (behaved) people are over 75 or dead.
- ikr678 5y ago
  Loyalty is no longer rewarded, so there is no incentive toward loyal behavior (at least in the workplace). Same for other professional services - businesses regularly offer discounts to new customers but not existing ones. Why should I stick with my bank, insurers or credit card when there are more advantages to churning?
  - hinkley 5y ago
    If you lived through the 80’s you should know that not only is loyalty not rewarded, but the breakup was quite traumatic.

lrdswrk00 5y ago

Adam Smith warned extreme division of labor would result in humans that were unimaginably stupid. After figuring out the fundamentals of physics in detail the last 100 years, what else is there except engineering replacement technology and the same old utilitarian day to day? It’s clear that more people are educated but we’re still clinging to that division of labor meme hard, and turning grads into dumb ass data entry chimps.

runawaybottle 5y ago
It never occurred to me that software is making an entire subclass of data entry workers. Type shit into our app, that’s your job.
- mattcwilson 5y ago
  Not quite. (Extremely cynical take follows) Software is reducing the amount of data being collected non-digitally and inefficiently; compressing redundancy out of the process in the form of data structures and normalization. That’s only going to be the case long enough for ML-algorithms plus approve-button-pushers to be even more efficient. The current wave of college educated data entry positions is a side-effect, not the terminal goal. Ultimately we’re on track to replace most degree-havers with CAPTCHAs.
machinehermiter 5y ago
I am just not sure people are more educated at this point. For sure not kids graduating high school this year. We have the technology that anyone can take classes at the best schools ever created by humans for free but the average person wants to watch a guy eat a 100 hotdogs for time or a video of someone else reacting to the hot dog video.