Category Archives: Generations
Is Obama the new JFK?
Something big happened a few nights ago in Iowa. Barack Obama began the evening as one of the top two contenders for the Democratic nomination and by the time people went to bed he was John F. Kennedy. This might sound like hyperbole – and to be sure, the race is far from won – but if the results we
Read moreBill Strauss, generational analyst
Bill Strauss, who co-authored a number of important books on generational dynamics, is dead at 60. This is a great loss. Strauss and his colleague Neil Howe were responsible for some of the most insightful and important analyses ever done into American generations. Thanks to them we now have a heightened ability to understand the cyclical nature of generations, affording
Read moreThose darned kids: cause for despair and celebration, I guess
Well, hell. This is fun. I have now received three (3) student papers that discuss Iraq’s attack on the Twin Towers on 9/11. All three papers mention it as an aside to another point. I’ve had two papers on the virtue of forgiveness that argue that if we had just forgiven Iraq for the 9/11 attacks, we wouldn’t be at
Read moreA vision of students today: the out-of-touch geezer perspective
Our friend Ubertramp sent along this little video, which certainly provides food for thought: There’s much to empathize with here.
Read moreA poll for your amusement
Saturday Video Roundup: All the young dudes of 2007
Last week on SVR we looked at some of 2007’s top female artists, so this week it seemed appropriate to offer props to some of the guys responsible for outstanding CDs this year. We’ll start with CD of the Year candidate The Good, the Bad & the Queen, fronted by former Blur and Gorillaz auteur Damon Albarn, who’s shaping up
Read moreHappy Birthday, Hunter…
[UPDATE] Hunter’s widow, Anita, has a nice post on Hunter’s birthday at Owl Farm Blog. ———– You may have noticed that Hunter Thompson is back on the masthead. Today would have been The Doctor’s 70th birthday (July 18, 1937 – February 20, 2005), and we thought it appropriate to honor the memory of a journalist who was an incredible influence
Read moreHow the macro-succession crisis is going to hit the entrepreneurial sector
I’ve written recently about some generational issues facing companies – most notably the “macro-succession crisis” that I suspect very few corporations have even thought about in meaningful detail. In that post I examine how the coming Baby Boomer retirement explosion is going to engender all kinds of crisis, especially in larger legacy corporations that are so top-heavy with Boomer leaders
Read moreObama campaign [third] to launch mobile, [third] to screw it up
[UPDATE: turns out he’s not the first after all – see comments below for details.] I’ve been yarping for months that no political campaign had yet launched mobile. There’s this massive youth generation that’s setting records for political and community activity, the mobile phone is one of their favorite things in the world, and all these politicians and their high-priced
Read moreAddressing the “praise deficit”: young workers putting a strain on organizations and organizations are responding inappropriately
I wrote a couple weeks ago over at Black Dog how companies across the US are flying headlong toward a massive macro-succession pile-up, and the collective personality of the Millennial Generation (born from ~1980-2000) is going to play a major part in mid-management breakdowns in the next few years. If you’d like a glimpse of the stress the Millennials are
Read moreThe looming macro-succession crisis
I was reading a Seattle Times story earlier today on how men in their 30s are earning less than their fathers did. An interesting story top to bottom, but the concluding section drew me back around to something that I really haven’t talked about enough lately – the looming generational macro-succession nightmare facing corporate America. (Read the rest at Black
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lullaby pit 