Comments by "A.J. Hart" (@cobbler88) on "The Infographics Show" channel.

  1. I'm a Gen Xer. I recognize that the "world" changed much less during the 25 years preceding my birth in 1970 than it did in the five years following my graduation from college (after serving in the Army) in 1997. Having scrolled down past a few hundred replies, it's interesting to see how many of the millennials are crapping on Gen Z regarding how ill-equipped it will be once it hits the workplace. Most millennials seem to have NO IDEA how much we've had to dumb things down and lower standards in today's workplace/society to accommodate them. It was ultimately to their detriment, but it had to be done. They will "discover" how this all plays out in the coming decades.
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  2. Nah. The standards will be so low after the Millennials find themselves in positions of influence that Gen Z will be able to slide right in, then take over.
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  3. P: That's what American liberals do. They pretend to be offended for those who they deem too stupid to be offended for themselves. It's one aspect of their particular form of racism.
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  4. True. In fact, as one of the moneyed elite, I can tell you that we just had a meeting in April, and near the top of the agenda was the continued use of the sombrero. It's very important to us.
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  5. A S: It's basically a fallacy that millennials are required to have "far more skills and qualifications" now, but I know what you're saying. It IS true that - with a glut of people in the job market - employers can lazily now simply require more things of applicants simply as a way of weeding people out and streamlining the hiring process. It's a horrible way to go about hiring the best person. Every one of them with any sense (there are still a few of those left. Nine, I think) knows that they'll have to train the person to do the job anyway. Still, it's easier to only interview nine people than 200. Your disbelief of what is required of entry level grads and millennials in general can likely be chalked up to a lack of perspective. Everyone wants to believe that they're the most brilliant generation yet, and that their struggles are unique and new. But my generation was also doing multiple jobs that the previous one hadn't had to do (as you now, millennials didn't exactly invent coding), and some of us even had to have the ability to do it without calculators or Wikipedia. You're not alone in this. I once volunteered at an after-school program and the other instructors - from the generation before mine - marveled at how smart the kids were just because they were so good at navigating the internet at such a young age. I decided to test that belief by hiding the big blue "e" from the desktops of all the computers. Only one sixth grader was able to figure out how to even get on the Internet. You do not get any credit for being proficient at things that were ubiquitous while you grew up. No one should marvel at the fact that I remember how to use a rotary dial telephone. It doesn't demonstrate any unique kind of cognitive talent. Conversely, I was taking an advanced physics class a few years ago and pretty much all the students in the class were millennials. It was truly baffling, the looks I received when we were asked a question and I chose to perform fairly rudimentary division in my head rather than reflexively reach for the calculator. This by no means makes me any more naturally brilliant than any of them. The problem involved a 4.5 and a 9, for God's sake. But I knew how to do something because I grew up at a time in which we had to be able to do it and we weren't allowed to have calculators handy until trig. I also observed in those classes that the younger students were interested only in having an answer to write down. So, in a lab in with teams rotated throughout various stations, people simply copied answers from previous groups. There was no interest in the process or in learning the "why," which is what we were allegedly there to learn. It was all simply about having an answer to present. The heck with learning. That's a huge difference in wiring that becomes amplified in the workplace where expectations are suddenly placed upon you. For awhile we pretty much embraced this influx of people who didn't seem capable of dressing themselves because they still had something of value to offer where the work was concerned. Then, as the demographics of the workplace changed, the employees still weren't of the type you'd want to introduce to polite company, but they also now were fairly useless, intellectually. The thing is, they still think they're part of Version 1.0 that was an asset to the business because they, too, grew up with iPhones and had ear gauges. We laugh at them and the general state of cluelessness that seems to permeate most of the important aspects of their existence, and they cry about the unfairness of it all. So, we talk about things having been dumbed down. We've had to scale back our expectations of hires for more than a decade now. As you gain more perspective, you will begin to notice that the standards YOU hold are being allowed to slide and that instead of addressing the problem to the benefit of everyone, your employer will essentially just shrug its shoulders and let you know that this is now the latest "new norm." God help us all when the day comes and the quick keys cease to work.
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  6. TM: To be honest, a lot of the ridiculous qualifications cited on employment notices are simply there to weed out people so that lazy HR people don't have to get off their asses to winnow down the field of candidates. It's easier to receive a couple dozen resumes than 300. And considering how much training will be required anyway, it's an absolutely horrible way to go about finding the right candidate.
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  7. That's what people say when they are not actually rich. Kind of like how the homely girls are really big on making sure we know that beauty isn't everything.
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  8. KM: Every generation considers the next to have it easier and to be failures by some standard or another. I would agree that Gen X alone may not be able to "prop up" the economy, but the Boomers are still in the workforce, and if Gen Z ends up being better than the large, useless faction within the Millennials (which I have very big doubts about), we can certainly fill the ranks with them, sort of skipping past the Millennials. What to do with a skipped-over generation that leans heavily toward behaviors across the spectrum that are not particularly good for the country is another issue.
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  9. It sounds like Gen Z may actually better prepare for life than Millennials chose to.
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  10. I love how everyone forgets about Gen X. We're so blameless! :)
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  11. RG: Since you imply that you know the one true description of a millennial, feel free to enlighten us.
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  12. Why would anyone claim the Millennials are less gay than Gen Z?
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  13. MW: Well, if we only go by age, then yes, Milennials are adults.
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  14. India and Sweden might disagree.
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  15. LIAM: And yet, there is little evidence that Gen Y is more mature than Gen Z? Ask a Gen Xer how mature Gen Y folks are.
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  16. No Oregon Trail rant is ever unjustified. :)
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  17. EB: Thank you for proving that reading history books isn't your strong suit.
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  18. LS: You seem to be bringing a lot of tangental issues into things. I was simply mentioning the dumbing down.
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  19. KMA: And, as I wrote, when the day comes in which the quick keys fail to work ... well ... just how many phone numbers does a typical person Gen Y and later have memorized?
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  20. MA: Problem is, they're taking a lot longer to "grow up". This is pretty much the case with each of the past few generations, but with the Millennials it's kind of gone beyond that tipping point. When you can be on your folks' insurance until you're 26, you've officially become an infantilized people. And rather than fight the labels as previous generations did, this one tends to spend much more time whining about it and taking no accountability. I never really knew what the Gen X stereotypes were. I'd heard the slacker thing, but I think the extent of that was people begrudgingly having to accept "casual Friday" at the office. It wasn't keeping us from getting degrees and entering the job market at the typical age. We also worked when we were in our teens and in college, which is something that's gone down precipitously with the generation that came after. I agree that broad brushes aren't the greatest, but it's ridiculous that everyone these days feels the need to say, "not every member of (insert large group identity) is like this." That this is actually put out there as an actual point - rather than being something all parties already accept and don't feel the need to mention - is another characteristic we can attribute to the easily offended nature of modern society, best characterized by the Millennials. We all know that not all members of a given group are identical. But that doesn't mean that the reputation a group garners isn't well-earned.
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  21. MA: Let's not forget the flip side. The safe-space millennials are the loudest voices, as are those on the political extremes, etc. Dog-bites-man is never sexy, but lets also not forget that we are seeing tangible results springing forth from all of this. The fact of the matter is that safe spaces, segregated student unions/graduations, etc., ARE now realities to the extent in which they never were with previous generations. Of course, the same idiots who made the ill-advised move of actually taking anything any of these children said as being worth serious consideration never change the playbook. They were more than happy to try to make a high school kid the voice of a movement against the Constitution. This speaks to another dynamic, which is that millennials also get to be the willing dupes behind which the American Left can hide. Put THEM out there with their limited perspective and understanding of a given issue so that THEY can draw the fire while those basically lighting that fuse sit back and pray to God that one of them gets hurt so it can further the cause. As for the rest, we all know the general ages involved in fighting wars, etc. What I think this comes down to is basically language. It's similar to how you'll occasionally get some asshole popping up on a comment board about the U.S. and pulling "Why do they call it 'America' when there is a North, Central and South America?" out of their ass. Technically, that's true. But in the way language is actually used, the entire world calls the U.S.A. "America." Similarly, when someone talks about a "millennial," they really don't mean those of that age in general (although they'll never actually make distinctions). The millennial is almost a sub-group of Gen Y that denotes the worst of the bunch, whether it be on campus or in the workplace. It's more like you have to fit the stereotype to be a millennial than the other way around. This is probably why people often refer to whiny Gen Zs in their late teens as millennials. Archetype rather than age. If I were you, I wouldn't sweat it. As with previous generations, just ignore that shit and do things right and no one will lump you in with the group. It's worked for centuries.
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  22. Because it's not funny.
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  23. There was no apparent joke. There was only an open-ended question. It's going to have to have a bit more sprinkled in there if you want people to view it as a possible joke.
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  24. Thank God we didn't have any advertising before the 1990s.
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  25. MURDOCK: That's a popular narrative, but we have entered the age in which private enterprises like Google, FB, YT, etc., seek to control our access to information. We're now forced to be more pro-active in seeking out that info because we know there is an agenda driving those who filter it.
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  26. I really only take a couple of exceptions here. First, it's not actually multi-tasking if you can't successfully perform the tasks, which is obviously not the case in the example given. Second, does it really matter if Gen Z believes that there is more than one way to learn? EVERY generation recognizes this. What matters is if Gen Z is actually doing the learning. And even if that learning is taking place, good luck in turning that into gainful employment as long as the dynamic of "you must have a college degree to apply" remains.
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  27. SOL: Of course, the creation of FB and Google only accounts for about a half dozen people. Hardly enough to get people to stop painting an entire generation with a broad brush. Plus, previous generations always have the luxury of being able to point out that the landscape for creating those things wouldn't have existed without them. As it has almost always been.
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  28. MH: As a Gen Xer, I have yet to see an example of one of us who worked hard and kept his nose clean who has not found some measure of success. Finding failures from my generation who admit that they made this or that choice that hampered their pursuit of success is very difficult. They usually cast blame on society as a whole, say things like 'It's all about who you now," etc. They are loathe to take responsibility themselves, and this has not gotten any better with the generations that have followed. The one thing I do empathize with the Millennials about is that - as the cost of college has been allowed to spiral out of control due to the availability of student loans - it is much more difficult for someone to work their way through college like we used to be able to do, then graduate with fairly manageable loan payments. You pretty much have to join the military, come from a well-to-do family, or earn a crap-ton of scholarships to escape with that type of situation now.
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