Comments on: Don't Mistake Ambition for Entitlement

By: Ben Rowe

Ben Rowe — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 07:33:24 +0000

Amen. Great post Matt. Great Post

By: Alaina

Alaina — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 23:16:40 +0000

Indeed, and let us not forget that the monotonous “traditional” jobs the author insists we should accept have only been part of American culture since the 1830s. Before that, division of labor was considered un-American. (see Wilentz, Chants Democratic)

By: Bob Knightly

Bob Knightly — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 06:06:49 +0000

I agree with a lot of this, and in a way I welcome some of the cynicism since there needs to be some checks and balances with the "con game" that has gone on for generations.

But my question which I would love to see a follow-up post on--if you're so inclined--is what about the exceptions?

Apple, Pixar, etc. don't work 40 hours a week, and they are the peek of creativity and effectiveness. They are absolutely the best at what they do, creative without peer, and they are 60+ hour work weeks. (Minimum.)

I guess where you lost me was the absoluteness of this. At 41 hours a week, are you less productive? 42? 45? 48?

Also, I think the other piece is the attitude. Why do people assume they can be CEO or a leader of 100 people at the beginning. You say this is an area of weakness--and I think you are correct--but where is the common sense? In a way, I think this is where some of the criticism is. I

Anyway, thanks for the post. It was an interesting read.

By: Ashamed of my generation.

Ashamed of my generation. — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 14:14:37 +0000

I'm part of the generation and let me say – we're lazy no wait – the majority of the generation is lazy and therefore I thank you because you are making it easier for me to move up the chain. Let me also point out that while jeans may “boost” productivity that is a childish mentality that I'll do less if I don't get what I want and just goes back to showing how spoiled you are and how much I don't want to hire you.

By: John

John — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 18:02:27 +0000

Casual dress, working smarter, no company loyalty – I agree to all of that. Unions…not so much, but I'm open to seeing it first hand. The truth is you will never make money while working for anyone else, unless maybe in sales. If you are better, you can be your own boss and save your money. If you are 9-5'ing it you may still be able to save enough, but the government being in charge of who gets what – bad idea. If you are entitled, ask for it at work – but don't bridge that gab into asking it of your government. They will gladly assume the role of coddling us at the expense of ourselves, until everyone is equal – regardless of effort and intellect. This is because we are afraid to publicly say: I worked harder, or I am smarter, I deserve to be paid more than you because of this.

Just sayin'

By: mattmaroon

mattmaroon — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 15:20:23 +0000

As mentioned before, it's too soon. Give them the 15 years you've given the previous generation to get started. Even the earliest of ours has only been out of college for 5.

Also, you can't ignore economic factors. We didn't get the Bubble. The last few years have been good, but not like back then.

By: Wil Schroter

Wil Schroter — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 10:37:17 +0000

That's what I'm trying to get my head around. I' m seeing this entire new generation that inherently has a great deal of new, useful skills, thanks to growing up with the Web. I would think that they would have churned out 10x the volume of the previous generation in new companies since they can get more done in less time based on the toolset available to them.

I can't think of any industry other than the Web where you'd see more signals of this new level of productivity.

Perhaps I'm tying the premise of new company productivity exclusively to the Founders, and not the teams of workers within those companies. But even then, I'm not sure I'm seeing this generation of companies do anything any more spectacular than the last one.

By: whizbang2003

whizbang2003 — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 09:22:20 +0000

You make some useful and partially correct observations.

When the employer no longer retains any sense of obligation toward the employee for a job well done except the employers short-term interest the 30 years ago model breaks down. A job well done doesn't get you a pension, a gold watch, or job security.

You pat yourself on the back a little too enthusiastically, and you have an inflated sense of self.

As an "old" who hand carved his first computer out of oak, I know more about software, networking, hardware, and how to be productive then you pompous little snot-rags with your superficial, narrow, and surface skillz.

Burn out. Don't make me laugh. You have a limited amount of experience, a limited amount of knowledge, a limited amount of patience, and if you can't solve a problem quickly the attention deficit kicks in and you give up. I WILL hang in there and fix things.

If only I could get a job.

By: mattmaroon

mattmaroon — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 03:27:11 +0000

A lot of all generations are just plain lazy. That's not unusual. And the article was presumably speaking about professionals, which filters out most of the lazy.

By: ismaelsobek

ismaelsobek — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 03:16:09 +0000

I completely agree. While most of my peers are being painted by the media (Frontline, I'm glaring at you) as some sort of tech-gods, most of them really don't give a damn about how any of that stuff works as long as they can put garish backgrounds on their MySpace profiles. They have no fucking idea how lucky they are or powerful they could be, or how anything works. They don't know the difference between anything until they run into a roadblock, and then they only come out of their bubble long enough to fix the problem. I hate to say it, but a lot of them are just plain lazy. It sometimes makes me sad.