YOLO

Happy April Fool's!

It was with a certain amount of wry amusement when I read this article recently from Fortune.

In it, the author takes us through his year at tech startup HubSpot, run by New Age-y Millennials. My amusement faded somewhat when I considered the implications. True, this was a somewhat ramped-up depiction of events (I hope), but undeniably this is how Millennials tend to be perceived - seeking change for the sake of change, being different for the sake of being different and trying too damn hard to be special.

I cop to a fair bit of sympathy on that score. While I am currently pushing 40 and therefore out of the defined range of the term "Millennial", I've often fallen foul of the abovementioned perception by association. While my younger friends, the true Millennials, consider me an old-fashioned stick-in-the-mud with old-school ideals; my older pals from the Generation X tend to see me as a feckless and impulsive punk. I've been on the receiving end of the "I'm older (by a few years, go figure) therefore I know better" horsecrap, and put up with many a diatribe about "these youngsters nowadays", or "in our day...".

Still, all was well until I read this piece from the New York Times. And man, did I cringe at the depiction of Millennials in it - self-centered, irresponsible and shallow. The earlier article didn't seem quite so funny any more.

Any traces of amusement that remained were thoroughly wiped out when UOB launched its newest card late last month, a couple days ago.

YOLO, yo.

The YOLO card. Shiver me timbers. Which idiot came up with that, and what was he or she smoking at the time?

YOLO, if you've been living under a rock for the past decade, is an acronym for the term "You Only Live Once", a philosophy that encourages one to throw caution to the wind and embark on outrageous adventures. UOB was using this buzzword to target Millennials.

Not that I fault them for targeting Millennials - it's a sound business decision and I like the direction they've taken the design. But boy, did the term "YOLO" smack of condescension. Well done, UOB. In one sweeping gesture, you've lumped all individuals of that age group under the negative stereotype of reckless thrillseeking hedonists. What's arguably more insulting is that UOB seems to believe throwing some hip-sounding, douchebaggy marketing catchphrase at the card is going to draw these Millennials like flies to honey. Just how stupid do they think Millennials are, anyway?

Let me be clear here that I think Millennials have been given a bad rap, rather unfairly so. I've worked with, and for, Millennials who struck me as sensible people with good ideas. True, I've had my problems with some of them, but those problems were a product of personality, rather than age. I've had similar problems with older employers and colleagues. And true, their thinking isn't always in line with old-school tradition, but why the hell should it be? This is an evolving world, and when you live in an evolving world, you evolve or perish. Tradition, like most things, has its place. More importantly, tradition must know its place.

I'm also getting a wee bit tired of the smug, self-congratulatory assumption that young people today have it too easy and aren't built with the same resilience as the older generation. Sure, many of the twenty-somethings out there are aimless and prone to instant gratification. And I suppose those in the Generation X had life figured out by the time they turned 25? Cut me a fucking break. If you can claim that you have life figured out, the only thing certain is that you haven't got jackshit figured out. Most of us, regardless of generation, figured life out step by step, mistake by mistake, all the while chafing under our know-it-all elders.

The entire exercise of putting Millennials down, reeks of desperation - desperation of my fellow Gen X alumni to feel good about themselves at the expense of an entire younger generation. Come on, Gen X. You're better than this. This stereotype needs to die. Pronto.

Give the Millennials some credit, won't you?
T___T