pretty damn good read

[nature boy]

and since most of us are part of this generation, we probably should see how it applies to us (if at all). i know it does for me, but in a different way in that i know my career isn't glamorous and high-paying, and i know that others will continually look down on it.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/wait-but- ... 30620.html

[Wetundies]

as long as you're happy with ur career, that's all that matters. Acupuncture pays peanuts, unless u overbill the MSP, but it's always fun poking ppl.

[geForce]

I can't relate to this article at all. My grandparents and parents were immigrants. My grandparents weren't part of the GI Generation and didn't suffer in the Great Depression. My parents were also typical Asian parents, plus adding to that, they weren't educated and weren't that well off. "Typical Asian" parents being that rather than telling me I can be anything, they tried to force me to be something profitable.

I didn't become wildly ambitious because of my upbringing. I do feel that I'm special, but that came about only in my adulthood after having experienced the real world workplace. I'm unhappy now, but not because the world didn't meet my ambitious expectations, but because the world tends to favour the A-type personalities, regardless of how qualified, or unqualified, in a lot of cases I've experienced.

There's actually an interesting book I read that talks about that... but that's kinda off topic and I think I'll make a separate post on that.

[Duncan]

i can't relate to most of it either. I feel like i'm the baby boom because my parents came over without much, and they still somewhat struggle in terms of making a living in this high living cost city. My expectations weren't "i can be anything i want to be" but more like "i just want to make sure i'm doing well enough because i see how hard my parents work for not a whole lot". Plus, they didn't raise me me with a sense of entitlement. I grew up thinking that i have to work hard to make ends meet because that's what my parents modeled for me. Although i do know quite a few peers who have that sense oozing out of them like no tomorrow. Passing on this and that because they believe they deserve better or thinking that they should be hired for whatever because they're just that "special" even though they have hardly any experience.

I'm on my 4th (including working for dave) job since i graduated. I can say that i'm only starting to build credibility in my career and i'm turning 30 this year. I can't imagine how fresh faced grads in their early twenties can think that they deserve to be anywhere without putting in the hard work and hours learning an industry.

I can't say that i'm unhappy, but i don't have huge expectations either. I just want to provide for my family so that they can have a decent life. I don't need to be uber rich and drive a 250k car by the time i'm 40 and fly to the moon before i die.

All that being said, i do see a lot of what the article says to be true in people i know. However, i was lucky in that i have a decent group of friends who knew the value of hard work.

[joel]

[se7entse7en]

[Duncan]

Oh, and i could be totally self biased btw. If i'm exactly like the Gen Y described in the article, please let me know haha

[joel]

there are some interesting points in the article.

i have no idea if I am a generation Y yuppy or not. i feel pretty grateful and blessed for what I have. my parents had to live a much tougher life than I did. and sometimes i am happy and sometimes i am unhappy. but I wouldn't say that I am generally in the latter category.

i don't know if this has any merit, but i find in our culture where consumerism is so rampant, it's very hard to find contentedness. almost everything is trying to convince you that the thing you don't have is the thing you need and want.

[nature boy]

actually, i think we all have that sense of entitlement. i think we all to a certain degree feel as though we should (but maybe not necessarily deserve) better lives than our parents. i think the article speaks to how our parents instil in us that we could be anything we want, but fails to mention that "anything we want" has to be a high paying job.

put it this way, think of the house you were raised in. how many of us actually bought a house that old and crappy (even for that time) as our first home? heck, i'm not even willing to buy a home because i know i can't afford one as nice as the one i'm living in now. instead (from what i understand at least), we all bought the nicest house we absolutely could afford rather than starting in a piece of crap. my parents paid off their first home in around 13 years raising 4 kids, supporting 2 grandparents, and at a time a dysfunctional uncle while making probably no more than minimum wage. of course, the market is a different animal now, but how many of us could even come close to those kinds of stats (even after "modernday conversion").

the fact is we're used to living a certain way, and none of us are really willing to downgrade so to speak, even if it means a more secure financial future.

[geForce]

I don't think I would call that a sense of entitlement though. I'd call that ambition.

I don't think I should have or deserve it, but that's what I aspire towards as a goal.

[nature boy]

i've always understood ambition to be looking into the future. as in, the steps that we take now ensure our security and financial stability for the future. if we buy the absolute most expensive things we can afford, we're not really planning for the future.

i'm not saying that all of your decisions in buying the homes/cars/clothes/toys/etc are wrong, but i'm just saying that the things we do buy are indicative of the generation that we're a part of.

[nature boy]

another writer's response to the original article:
http://aweinstein.kinja.com/fuck-you-im ... 1333588443

i lol'ed at his bluntness, however i don't know if i agree with him fully.

[joel]

[joel]

[Duncan]