Millennials are NOT slackers!

[brewcity77]

ill preface this with the fact that I have zero facts to back this claim up. I do think part of the problem may be the millennials such as myself often get higher level degrees before we start working, more so than the previous generation, whether that be a masters, PhD, or if they take their CPA exam or get a MBA.

I think there is a certain expectation when you go to college for 5+ years because advance degrees are almost necessary now, and with that much schooling there is that expectation that young professionals shouldn't be doing all the grunt work.

This reminds me of my wife's job. All these young kids come in and think they should get the prime shifts, the prime departments, and be exempt from the grunt work because they just got their degrees. Never mind that everyone else in the department has the same degree and about 20-30 years more experience.

My wife recently went back to school and earned her bachelors at age 37. She had been underpaid for years because despite doing the same exact job (seriously, same exact job to the letter) as people with their bachelors, she was paid about $8-10 less than people with similar experience because of her associates. Thankfully, after earning her bachelors, her employer rewarded her by not only getting her on the bachelors pay scale, but bumping her up a bit on the pay scale to reflect her 10 years of experience. I'm sure her 20-something co-workers would be offended to know she makes more than they do, but it's the same degree and she had a decade of experience on them. In pretty much any line of work, your experience is worth at least as much, if not more, than the piece of paper you went to school for.

Because at the end of the day, a piece of paper is all it is.

[jesmu84]

http://www.salon.com/2014/10/20/baby_boomers_ruined_america_why_blaming_millennials_is_misguided_and_annoying/

Discuss.

[jesmu84]

http://uproxx.com/webculture/best-of-howtoconfuseamillennial-tweets/

Further discussion. And make sure you read the first 4 paragraphs a couples times.

[Chicos' Buzz Scandal Countdown]

http://www.salon.com/2014/10/20/baby_boomers_ruined_america_why_blaming_millennials_is_misguided_and_annoying/

Discuss.

America is, in no way, "ruined." Therefore meaningless on either "side."

Discuss.

[Frenns Liquor Depot]

http://uproxx.com/webculture/best-of-howtoconfuseamillennial-tweets/

Further discussion. And make sure you read the first 4 paragraphs a couples times.

My favorite is "complain how everyone gets a trophy while sipping from your worlds greatest dad mug"

[Chili]

And people wonder why Xers hate everyone as they just do the heavy lifting.

[MU82]

I love anything that makes all those from one group - Boomers or Gen Xers or Millennials or "the black community" or "the LBGT community" or "white college-educated males" or Jews or whatever - one lumped-together entity.

Because, you know, ALL Boomers think alike. And all gays think alike. And so on.

Really helps advance the human experience.

[Benny B]

I love anything that makes all those from one group - Boomers or Gen Xers or Millennials or "the black community" or "the LBGT community" or "white college-educated males" or Jews or whatever - one lumped-together entity.

Because, you know, ALL Boomers think alike. And all gays think alike. And so on.

Really helps advance the human experience.

No... not all Boomers think alike... but every one of them ruined (or will ruin) the country.

[mu03eng]

I love anything that makes all those from one group - Boomers or Gen Xers or Millennials or "the black community" or "the LBGT community" or "white college-educated males" or Jews or whatever - one lumped-together entity.

Because, you know, ALL Boomers think alike. And all gays think alike. And so on.

Really helps advance the human experience.

Agree with you conceptually, but group behavior is a thing. You can't take a generalization about a group and apply it at the individual level, but recognizing there are generalizations about groups helps inform discussion when talking about policy positions.

[MU82]

You can't take a generalization about a group and apply it at the individual level, but recognizing there are generalizations about groups helps inform discussion when talking about policy positions.

Even if I give you the latter, the former is far too prevalent and quite often ruins the conversation on the latter.

[mu03eng]

Even if I give you the latter, the former is far too prevalent and quite often ruins the conversation on the latter.

pish posh.....the reason generalization ruins a conversation is because we misconstrue/misuse the concept. What I'm trying to say is that the concept of generalization is not bad and is in fact useful but because we misuse and/or are oversensitive to it's use it ruins conversations.

Put simpler, the problem isn't the concept its humans.

Related, there was a fascinating book on big data and how it is "inherently biased". I think the author is a bit sensational, but the discussion is a very valid one. Without context, generalization, big data, etc can be very destructive....but as a society we are eliminating the ability to provide the context which exacerbates the issue.

article:
http://money.cnn.com/2016/09/06/technology/weapons-of-math-destruction/index.html

book:
https://www.amazon.com/Weapons-Math-Destruction-Increases-Inequality/dp/0553418815

Side note: the author/blogger/data person referenced in the article is very good, but again I think overhyping to prove a point....again context is important. 

[Benny B]

Even if I give you the latter, the former is far too prevalent and quite often ruins the conversation on the latter.

So is it OK to throw the baby out with the bathwater?

[MU82]

So is it OK to throw the baby out with the bathwater?

Depends upon which baby.

Oh, and let me add that I hate wasting perfectly good bathwater.

[MU82]

Put simpler, the problem isn't the concept its humans.

It usually is.

[Juan Anderson's Mixtape]

The classifications of generations is a bit odd.  First, time frames are picked arbitrarily.  Secondly, there is not even a consensus of when one generation ends and another one begins.

For example, I did some quick Google searches for "range of Generation X" but found two sources with different birth years:

Source 1)  1960 to 1980 (with Millenials born from 1980-2000)
Source 2)  1965 to 1984

I was born in 1980; Source 1 could characterize me as either Gen X or a Millenial.  Source 2 would squarely put me in Gen X.

My wife was born in 1982.  Source 1 would call her a Millenial but Source 2 would put her clearly in Gen X!

Here's another exercise:  Let's say Source 1 labels me Gen X.  Then I would be catagorized with a "generation" that includes people born twenty years earlier in 1960.  But my life experience is much more similar to that of my wife who was born two years later; but we'd be different generations!

Let's look at Source 2.  Now my wife are both Gen X.  But our "generation" includes people born in 1965 while not including people born in 1985.  We'd have much more in common with people born in 1985 than people born in 1965!  See how absurd this classification system is?

Now, on a micro-level within a family tree you can observe generational change much easier.  From grandparents, to parents, to siblings, to children, to grandchildren, etc.  But even this starts to break down at some point.  My cousins and I would be considered as part of the same familial generation.  But my mom's family was fairly large so there is a huge age range for my cousins.  The life experience of my cousins over 40 are quite a bit different than the experience of my cousins under 25.

For example, I am 35 and the first one in my mom's family tree to earn a 4 year college degree.  At least 5 of my younger cousins have since graduated from college.  My 40 year old brother has also since gone back to school and earned a bachelor's degree but that's it for the older cousins on my mom's side.

So looking at my family tree you can see a shift in college education in time.  The key turning date is my birth year: 1980.  But looking at the population of a country at a whole, how do you pick that key year?  Even if you do pick 1980 to be the key year, why not move the arbitrary line one way or the other: 1979 or 1981?  Why not 1978?  Why not 1982?

[mu03eng]

The classifications of generations is a bit odd.  First, time frames are picked arbitrarily.  Secondly, there is not even a consensus of when one generation ends and another one begins.

For example, I did some quick Google searches for "range of Generation X" but found two sources with different birth years:

Source 1)  1960 to 1980 (with Millenials born from 1980-2000)
Source 2)  1965 to 1984

I was born in 1980; Source 1 could characterize me as either Gen X or a Millenial.  Source 2 would squarely put me in Gen X.

My wife was born in 1982.  Source 1 would call her a Millenial but Source 2 would put her clearly in Gen X!

Here's another exercise:  Let's say Source 1 labels me Gen X.  Then I would be catagorized with a "generation" that includes people born twenty years earlier in 1960.  But my life experience is much more similar to that of my wife who was born two years later; but we'd be different generations!

Let's look at Source 2.  Now my wife are both Gen X.  But our "generation" includes people born in 1965 while not including people born in 1985.  We'd have much more in common with people born in 1985 than people born in 1965!  See how absurd this classification system is?

Now, on a micro-level within a family tree you can observe generational change much easier.  From grandparents, to parents, to siblings, to children, to grandchildren, etc.  But even this starts to break down at some point.  My cousins and I would be considered as part of the same familial generation.  But my mom's family was fairly large so there is a huge age range for my cousins.  The life experience of my cousins over 40 are quite a bit different than the experience of my cousins under 25.

For example, I am 35 and the first one in my mom's family tree to earn a 4 year college degree.  At least 5 of my younger cousins have since graduated from college.  My 40 year old brother has also since gone back to school and earned a bachelor's degree but that's it for the older cousins on my mom's side.

So looking at my family tree you can see a shift in college education in time.  The key turning date is my birth year: 1980.  But looking at the population of a country at a whole, how do you pick that key year?  Even if you do pick 1980 to be the key year, why not move the arbitrary line one way or the other: 1979 or 1981?  Why not 1978?  Why not 1982?

Again you are taking generalizations and applying them to individuals which is a misapplication of statistics and generalization. Some generalizations will apply to you individually, some will not, but that's not the point of them.

An example of a relevant application of generalizations: Millenials will adopt technology more rapidly than will Boomers or Gen Xers......

Good application: if I have a new product I'm targeting for 18-40 years olds, the amount of effort I apply toward product adoption is lower, if I'm targeting 40-90 year olds, I might want increase my investment in adoption documentation.

Bad application: You're 35 years old so you don't need all these manuals because you'll adapt and learn it pretty quick.


Tried to use an example that was apolitical for discussion, non-thread locking purposes, as MU82 pointed out the political and cultural misuse is rampant.

[Juan Anderson's Mixtape]

Again you are taking generalizations and applying them to individuals which is a misapplication of statistics and generalization. Some generalizations will apply to you individually, some will not, but that's not the point of them.

An example of a relevant application of generalizations: Millenials will adopt technology more rapidly than will Boomers or Gen Xers......

Good application: if I have a new product I'm targeting for 18-40 years olds, the amount of effort I apply toward product adoption is lower, if I'm targeting 40-90 year olds, I might want increase my investment in adoption documentation.

Bad application: You're 35 years old so you don't need all these manuals because you'll adapt and learn it pretty quick.


Tried to use an example that was apolitical for discussion, non-thread locking purposes, as MU82 pointed out the political and cultural misuse is rampant.

I think you missed my point.  I am fully aware of the useful of applied statistics.  We used them all the time when I worked in local news.  There were overall ratings and demographic ratings.  Our station would look at several different "key" demos: sometimes we'd look at ages 18-54, then within that 25-49, then within that 25-49 females, etc., etc.  We ultimately tried to tailor our newscasts to females ages 25-49 because research showed that was most likely to be the wives and moms that controlled the families purse strings.

My point was that saying where one generation begins and another one ends is arbitrary.  I think of myself neither as Gen X nor Gen Y.  I guess the businesses and and social scientists can pick an arbitrary date and call whatever they want. 

[MU82]

I think of myself neither as Gen X nor Gen Y.

You can think of yourself however you want.

The rest of us think you're a slacker!

(See how slick I was in circling back to the OP?)

[Juan Anderson's Mixtape]

You can think of yourself however you want.

The rest of us think you're a slacker!

(See how slick I was in circling back to the OP?)

I'm a stay at home dad, so I know I'm a slacker.

[mu03eng]

I think you missed my point.  I am fully aware of the useful of applied statistics.  We used them all the time when I worked in local news.  There were overall ratings and demographic ratings.  Our station would look at several different "key" demos: sometimes we'd look at ages 18-54, then within that 25-49, then within that 25-49 females, etc., etc.  We ultimately tried to tailor our newscasts to females ages 25-49 because research showed that was most likely to be the wives and moms that controlled the families purse strings.

My point was that saying where one generation begins and another one ends is arbitrary.  I think of myself neither as Gen X nor Gen Y.  I guess the businesses and and social scientists can pick an arbitrary date and call whatever they want.

Right, and statistics are arbitrary. You create a boundary condition and see what the results are. Statistically speaking there's been analysis that the generalities work best for the birth year groupings defined. Your applying the boundary conditions to you as an individual, so it won't work.

I don't mean to be a wonk on this stuff but I get frustrated when we throw the baby out because we don't know the purpose of the bathwater.

[Juan Anderson's Mixtape]

Right, and statistics are arbitrary. You create a boundary condition and see what the results are. Statistically speaking there's been analysis that the generalities work best for the birth year groupings defined. Your applying the boundary conditions to you as an individual, so it won't work.

I only used myself as an example because I thought a real world example would be more effective than a hypothetical.  Never meant to imply what you are inferring, though in hindsight I can see why.

Anyhow, I'm not communicating my point clearly and effectively so I'm stopping now.

[mu03eng]

I only used myself as an example because I thought a real world example would be more effective than a hypothetical.  Never meant to imply what you are inferring, though in hindsight I can see why.

Anyhow, I'm not communicating my point clearly and effectively so I'm stopping now.

Not my intent, please continue and I will make sure to be less obtuse.