During the week I’ve inadvertently been exposed to some thought pieces on millennials, that catch-all term for people born between 1981 and 1996 (23-37 y/o).
There are lots of headlines about millennials being “entitled” or “lazy” which these pieces try to unpick and explain.
Now, I should declare my bias up front here. I sit cozily in the middle of a millennial age range, however, I genuinely think that the discussions are useful to explore these seemingly strange character traits, rather than just dismiss them with some desultory manner.
When there are groups of people speaking at levels, or rather appealing to different ideals, it naturally leads to frustration around misunderstandings.
Depending on your media preference, there’s a selection:
- [Listen] Masters of Scale | The Millennial Episode
- [Watch] TedX | The Quarter Life Crisis
- [Read] BBC | ‘Millennial snowflakes’
By understanding “how the other half thinks” it’s much easier to have useful conversations rather than talking at different ends.
My summary on it:
- Career: do something meaningful, life’s too short to sit in an office for one company for 10+ years
- Prioritise experiences over things (e.g. avocado toast > mortgage)
- Desire to avoid the phones and have real connections
Interested to hear your thoughts too..!
In other news…
Conversation starters.
There are a few lists out there of expansive questions you can ask people beyond “What do you do?”. E.g. here.
One I always like is “Are you more like your Mum or your Dad? Is it 50:50, 70:30..? Why?”
Recently I’ve enjoyed asking the question “What’s the story behind your [Whatsapp/ Facebook] profile picture?”
It’s almost always a fairly interesting anecdote which people get happy talking about and can be a springboard into lots of other interesting topics about a person (travels, hobbies, etc.).
Do you have any questions you like to ask?
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