To say that my, or any generation is unique was not my intention. You're absolutely right that society is a flat circle of the same economic trends repeating over and over. I also can't stand the malaise that many twentysomethings seem to share about the world without considering the same hardships have existed for centuries. What really worries me though is how easily distracted we've become to inequality inherent in the system. When I was born the middle class was alive and flourishing. The job that barely covers my apartment now could provide a house then. You could find higher education that wouldn't put you in debt 100K and an actual career upon graduation. A 26 year old with a half decent living could actually consider being a father without fear of one misstep blowing it all away. We are not special little snowflakes but you can't ignore that opportunity is a dying animal. What happened to decent work for decent pay? The social contract is broken, in my opinion, a way never before seen. Don't get me wrong, we've still got plenty going for us. It is up to us to suck it up just like past generations to make it better. My point is the gap is getting wider. The pitfalls deeper.
The gap is definitely wider and the pitfalls are definitely deeper. That's not a generational thing, though. The generational thing is that everybody else has 20 or 40 years on you and since they lost their entire retirement funds in 2008 they aren't leaving the jobs you're supposed to be filling. That's another thing that kinda bugged me about your link, although I couldn't make the point until now: the author makes cracks about "working on apps while Rome burns" or some such shit when, in fact, "making apps" is exactly how you get ahead. All these old coots that can barely check their voicemail on the Androids their kids insisted they get aren't about to figure out how to make a living on a 22MB, 99 cent download. They're making their money filing TPS reports and collecting a pension. So fuckin' disrupt, yo. Do exactly the shit the old people don't know how to do and buy them. And recognize that malaise is a justifiable response to a stacked deck with no recourse. "Hipsterism" is exactly what happens when there are no opportunities and too much education. People pop out of it eventually, they just need to figure out how. "I'm unsatisfied but I don't know how to fix it" is a much more useful emotion than "I'm disappointed but complacent."
Have you ever read Don't Call Yourself A Programmer, And Other Career Advice?They're making their money filing TPS reports and collecting a pension. So fuckin' disrupt, yo. Do exactly the shit the old people don't know how to do and buy them.
You’re in the business of unemploying people. If you think that is unfair, go back to school and study something that doesn’t matter.
If you haven't posted that for general discussion you have been remiss. That's a great piece of writing.Engineers in particular are usually very highly paid Cost Centers, which sets MBA’s optimization antennae to twitching. This is what brings us wonderful ideas like outsourcing, which is “Let’s replace really expensive Cost Centers who do some magic which we kinda need but don’t really care about with less expensive Cost Centers in a lower wage country”.
Yep, in 2013. Pitty we don't have a way to bump posts =( That and this shaped a lot of my direction in what I ended up working on in college:A more general statement of the preceding paragraph is "remember that programming is done in every technical and scientific area". If you loved to write about genetics, for example, you wouldn't major in Writing at college (assuming they even had such a major) but instead would major in Biology. If you loved to write about life in Roman times you'd major in History. Computer programming [as distinct from Computer Science] is a bit like writing. It is used almost everywhere, it is something that you get better at with practice, but it isn't necessarily a fit subject for study on its own, especially if you don't want to be bored out of your skull for four years.
It's true that people are retiring later and later. The crash in '08 hit everyone hard. Well, almost everyone. Social security is getting further out of reach. Of course they can't leave. They're broke. We're all broke. You say "they aren't about to figure out how to make a living on a 22MB, 99 cent download" but they've been filling out TPS reports their whole lives. They don't want to be there they have to be. Meanwhile a kid is clawing for the same job for probably half the pay. Not that it really matters because the job probably won't exist another few years anyways. We all can't code. Not all of us are that smart, our schools are terrible. The middle class of any generation survives on jobs that are dying out. How are we going to "pop out" into opportunity that isn't ever coming back? Of course it's a stacked deck and the chips are down but at least you used to have a chance. Today it feels less like blackjack and more like dice in the alley. We're not even allowed in the casino anymore. That is a class problem. It will eat this country and all countries like it away to the core. We're not unsatisfied. We're barely hanging on. And most of us are too scared or hypnotized or dumb to do anything about it. The game is rigged. The dream has become a nightmare.