Grim reality

This is actually about Saturday the 30th. A very insightful guy from FMI told us all about the differences in values and motivation between my generation - the baby boomers - and the Gen Xers, i.e., those born in the U.S. between 1961 and 1981. Okay, that stuff I more or less understood.

But then he went on to describe the Millennials, a.k.a. Generation Y and the Internet Generation, which includes those born between 1981 and 1999, more or less. The differences he described in values and motivational factors were stunning. Suffice it to say I need to revisit that explanation in a good book on the subject. Only then will I be able to determine how to deal with these people.

Okay - maybe this is a start - I found a couple of references online that seem to have some promising explanations. What I'm finding is not very comforting, but at least it's a start at explaining why they seem so out of touch. Turns out maybe I'm the one who's out of touch. Anyway, give 'em a look - the Generation Y blog and an article from 2000 in Hotel Online. Or better yet, start with this PDF from late 2006. Come to think of it, peaceful coexistence with these people could be a lot like my living with my '87-vintage son.

Incidentally, there is an interesting table of the U.S. generations accompanying the Wikipedia entry for Generation_Y.