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Having trouble getting past this part of her bio: "and counsel to anyone who employs Millennials." Really? Are they that bad? I've had nothing but good experien

Having trouble getting past this part of her bio: "and counsel to anyone who employs Millennials." Really? Are they that bad? I've had nothing but good experiences and nothing, I repeast, nothing like any of the other supposed experiences the media seems to go on about. Seriously, they don't run up credit card debt like my parents or my friends do.

InclinedPlane 13y ago
It's classic generation gap bullshit, just like always. Oh man, the kids these days! I'm generation X myself and I well remember all the crap our generation got growing up. How we were dumber than the last generation, less ambitious, lacked principles and morals, etc. And yet if you look at reality you see that gen-x has caused a revolution in business with an explosion in startups, freelancing, independent projects, innovation, etc. (just look at kickstarter, for example). And they've been far more pragmatic and humane about issues such as gay marriage, LGBT acceptance, race relations, and drug use (e.g. ending the war on drugs) than even the baby boomers and far more than the "greatest generation". Additionally, through my friend group and volunteering I have a lot of interaction with "millenials" and as far as I can tell the hype about them is vastly overwrought. Sure there are some who are demanding, but that's true of all cross-sections of humanity, whether by age or any other metric. There are just as many who are hard working, ambitious, generous, and so forth. Also, I'd like to point out how much of a raw deal a lot of millenials are getting. When I went to college in the mid to late '90s it was possible for my middle class parents to pay tuition to a very good state University out of pocket without incurring any significant economic hardship. Today that's almost impossible, acquiring a college degree is not only much more necessary these days it's also far more expensive, and very difficult for most folks to do so without going into significant debt. Add on to that the horrific state of the job market today, especially for people just entering it without experience. And it's not a whole lot better at the high end either. It used to be that in the tech world you could ride a rising company's growth as a fairly late employee and working for only maybe a decade or so would net you enough savings just from stock and stock options to allow you to retire fairly rich. Now the market is very different and employee compensation is different and that sort of thing just isn't the norm any longer. You can make a damned good living, but you don't have the life and career options that were possible in the past. Which means that a lot of the most talented folks are forced to take on a lot more risk in order to acquire the same sorts of rewards. Which is good and bad but it's certainly not easier.
- freyr 13y ago
  It's a joke. Perhaps a half-joke, since if you poke at a millenial, you risk getting a defensive, whiny, humorless diatribe in response. For the record, I am a millenial.
- tsotha 13y ago
  >I'm generation X myself and I well remember all the crap our generation got growing up. How we were dumber than the last generation, less ambitious, lacked principles and morals, etc. Are you kidding? We had it easy. I can remember people saying "Thank God you aren't baby boomers. We're sick of those narcissists." You're right about the millenials being screwed by the university system, though. There's a whole generation of college grads who'll be paying off student loans well into middle age.
jmagoon 13y ago
Here's a nice response to all the millenial baiting out there: http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2013/images/07/09/bors-millennial-comicstrip4.jpg http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2013/images/07/09/bors-millenni...

InclinedPlane 13y ago

It's classic generation gap bullshit, just like always. Oh man, the kids these days! I'm generation X myself and I well remember all the crap our generation got growing up. How we were dumber than the last generation, less ambitious, lacked principles and morals, etc. And yet if you look at reality you see that gen-x has caused a revolution in business with an explosion in startups, freelancing, independent projects, innovation, etc. (just look at kickstarter, for example). And they've been far more pragmatic and humane about issues such as gay marriage, LGBT acceptance, race relations, and drug use (e.g. ending the war on drugs) than even the baby boomers and far more than the "greatest generation". Additionally, through my friend group and volunteering I have a lot of interaction with "millenials" and as far as I can tell the hype about them is vastly overwrought. Sure there are some who are demanding, but that's true of all cross-sections of humanity, whether by age or any other metric. There are just as many who are hard working, ambitious, generous, and so forth. Also, I'd like to point out how much of a raw deal a lot of millenials are getting. When I went to college in the mid to late '90s it was possible for my middle class parents to pay tuition to a very good state University out of pocket without incurring any significant economic hardship. Today that's almost impossible, acquiring a college degree is not only much more necessary these days it's also far more expensive, and very difficult for most folks to do so without going into significant debt. Add on to that the horrific state of the job market today, especially for people just entering it without experience. And it's not a whole lot better at the high end either. It used to be that in the tech world you could ride a rising company's growth as a fairly late employee and working for only maybe a decade or so would net you enough savings just from stock and stock options to allow you to retire fairly rich. Now the market is very different and employee compensation is different and that sort of thing just isn't the norm any longer. You can make a damned good living, but you don't have the life and career options that were possible in the past. Which means that a lot of the most talented folks are forced to take on a lot more risk in order to acquire the same sorts of rewards. Which is good and bad but it's certainly not easier.

freyr 13y ago
It's a joke. Perhaps a half-joke, since if you poke at a millenial, you risk getting a defensive, whiny, humorless diatribe in response. For the record, I am a millenial.
tsotha 13y ago
>I'm generation X myself and I well remember all the crap our generation got growing up. How we were dumber than the last generation, less ambitious, lacked principles and morals, etc. Are you kidding? We had it easy. I can remember people saying "Thank God you aren't baby boomers. We're sick of those narcissists." You're right about the millenials being screwed by the university system, though. There's a whole generation of college grads who'll be paying off student loans well into middle age.

jmagoon 13y ago

Here's a nice response to all the millenial baiting out there: http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2013/images/07/09/bors-millennial-comicstrip4.jpg http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2013/images/07/09/bors-millenni...