Millennials

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I didn't see it, but personally I fear for the future of the world. The sense of entitlement and self-serving nature that goes into everything these days is astounding. Even people who volunteer seem to do it to benefit themselves. What passes for professionalism and respect these days is going right out the window along with decorum. "Hard work" currently seems to be defined as actually showing up and doing the minimum in your job. But whatever. I'm an old fuddy duddy anyway. The way I figure it, competent individuals and those who can actually navigate society without personal assistants or consultants or coaches are going to be rare in the future, so a lot of us will be all set.
 
yaah said:
I didn't see it, but personally I fear for the future of the world. The sense of entitlement and self-serving nature that goes into everything these days is astounding. Even people who volunteer seem to do it to benefit themselves. What passes for professionalism and respect these days is going right out the window along with decorum. "Hard work" currently seems to be defined as actually showing up and doing the minimum in your job. But whatever. I'm an old fuddy duddy anyway. The way I figure it, competent individuals and those who can actually navigate society without personal assistants or consultants or coaches are going to be rare in the future, so a lot of us will be all set.
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Unfortunately these changes are occuring at the same time as an increasing and astronomical budgetary deficit, an absolute disregard for delayed gratification, and minimal investment in the future. Rival economies are growing at a staggeringly higher rate while their citizens save money, delay gratification and invest in science and education.
 
Matte Kudesai said:
Unfortunately these changes are occuring at the same time as an increasing and astronomical budgetary deficit, an absolute disregard for delayed gratification, and minimal investment in the future. Rival economies are growing at a staggeringly higher rate while citizens save money, delay gratification and invest in science and education.
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Well, I think other countries will face the same problems. Certain countries are growing faster because they have more ability to expand and they are starting from a lower setpoint. Having just been in Europe, the view of the younger generation didn't seem that much different there. But you are right, in many parts of the world education is key, self betterment and advancement through knowledge is key. Of course we are also seeing that in other parts of the world those that become successful and rise above poverty many times become those that perpetuate poverty by taking advantage of others, either through dictatorships, oligarchies, class systems, etc.

What I sort of see is that a bigger segment of the population seems to be heading towards being a "drain" on the rest of society. That is, not working (or minimally working) is a goal for many people, or at the very least is not something worth fighting against. And all the time just waiting for the jackpot or however else the money will come in, and all problems will be solved. While more people are getting advanced degrees and bettering themselves, more people are also dropping out of the education system, or more importantly failing to take seriously the concept of getting an education. And why should they? The goal of society is instant gratification, get rich quick, etc, for which a prolonged and difficult educational experience is anathema. I would love for our society to value education and intelligence more and value titillation, short attention spans, and "bling" less but it probably isn't going to happen to a large extent.

The government doesn't help. The government acts in the "now" as opposed to the future. The only time they are not acting in the now is when they are acting in the past, and trying to prevent things that have already happened. And trivial matters also assume heightened importance because they are titillating and draw out more vociferous support.

E pluribus unum (out of many, one) has become less a statement about one country out of many parts as it is about how the one person is more important than the whole.

As to how this will affect pathology, I dunno. I think we are seeing it to a sense in all of medicine. People move away from primary care and generalism and towards subspecialization. People move away from "caring for the patient" or having the patient as the priority to having the bottom line as the priority. And of course, patients care less about hard work and gray areas and only want everything in black or white. And through it all medicine becomes exponentially more expensive. Eventually it will probably be cheaper to clone yourself whenever you feel ill than to take care of myriad illnesses and complaints individually.
 
I remember this same thing being said about Generation X. Everyone thinks they had it tougher than the younger crew. "When I was a resident, blah,blah,blah; I hear this at least once a week from an attending and it never ceases to be tiring/irritating.
 
The first problem here is taking the media seriously. Perhaps even paying attention to the media at all. Across the hall my guess is someone else is announcing the wave of hard-core millennials sweeping across the country with progressive ideas, a knack for efficiency, and the initiative to accomplish greatness in the here and now.

Yeah, there's a population of self-serving, cocky, lazy folk meandering around ditching work to play first person shooters and playing the lottery like it's their given RIGHT to win -- there always has been and always will be. There's also a fairly pervasive population of cautious conservatives. And even some who would elicit fears for the future by raising scenarios of their polar opposite tech-heads who think more about how to get out of work than how to get work done -- and around we go again.

That's not to say we shouldn't consider who (if anyone) raises and teaches our children, and how. There's no doubt that almost every generation since the dawn of the U.S., and probably for a long time before that, has been raised in a significantly different environment than their parents or grandparents. Technology and society just change that fast. But whether that's a good or bad thing isn't decided by the interpretation of a miniscule segment of inherently biased media.
 
KCShaw said:
But whether that's a good or bad thing isn't decided by the interpretation of a miniscule segment of inherently biased media.
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Which interpretation would be more beneficial?
 
Cry me a river. The babyboomers experienced life in a time of tremendous prosperity.


Besides, if Halo/Guitar Hero/etc existed 30 years ago I can guarantee you that's what they'd be doing.
 
Matte Kudesai said:
Which interpretation would be more beneficial?
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I guess that's a good philosophical question, to which I don't think I can give a clear, comfortable answer. In my mind, what matters is what you do with what you believe (or with how you were raised). If no matter what the interpretation the response is to shrug and continue the status-quo, then neither is more beneficial. But as with all things there is going to be a population of people who react to a thing to opposite extremes, and a few scattered along the middle. I don't have the knowledge or the nads to declare with confidence how The Masses would react if they truly believed one interpretation or another. It probably doesn't matter -- how I was brunged up was so much harder and so much better than how you was brunged up anyway.

My feeling is that while it's useful to recognize limitations & downsides to a certain persona or background, you're likely to get more from some "one" (and that extends to some "group") by focusing primarily on their best assets and potential than assuming the worst or applying the worst stereotype to the entire group.
 
KCShaw said:
I guess that's a good philosophical question, to which I don't think I can give a clear, comfortable answer. In my mind, what matters is what you do with what you believe (or with how you were raised). If no matter what the interpretation the response is to shrug and continue the status-quo, then neither is more beneficial. But as with all things there is going to be a population of people who react to a thing to opposite extremes, and a few scattered along the middle. I don't have the knowledge or the nads to declare with confidence how The Masses would react if they truly believed one interpretation or another. It probably doesn't matter -- how I was brunged up was so much harder and so much better than how you was brunged up anyway.

My feeling is that while it's useful to recognize limitations & downsides to a certain persona or background, you're likely to get more from some "one" (and that extends to some "group") by focusing primarily on their best assets and potential than assuming the worst or applying the worst stereotype to the entire group.
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You lost me dude. I am not really trying to blame any generation for anything. I've seen tools from every age group. I thought that many posters were likely either genx (myself) to millennial with a few boomers in the mix. It's intriguing to note many things happening at the same time that may affect health care in general. Subspecialization, individualism, consumerism, Bell commission 80 hour max rule, extremely low funding for science, growing budgetary deficit, huge population of aging boomers, rapidly bankrupting health care system, whispers of socialized medicine, outsourcing, and the list goes on and on....

Is everything "same as it ever was?" or are we at the brink of a shift, a change in the system whether by necessity, chance, or choice.
 
Matte Kudesai said:
.... Is everything "same as it ever was?" or are we at the brink of a shift, a change in the system whether by necessity, chance, or choice.
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I don't think very much really stays the same as it's always been, but I do think the average person continues on their merry way as if it is.

More people seem to subspecialize than "before," but there is more subspecialty knowledge/understanding out there. There is a work hour restriction on residents, and hopefully more time to read up-to-date studies (and the billion hour work week and "residency" was developed when residents really were always residing in-house and at least one prominent professor developing such programs of the day was driven by cocaine). Cytogenetic studies are available for many tumors, yet H&E histology remains a primary diagnostic mainstay. Molecular studies are available for many infectious organisms, yet microbiology labs still grow almost everything out. The population does seem to be aging, and presumably a higher volume of age-related medical and social issues will rise -- but mostly the same ol' age-related issues as always.

Yeah -- things have changed, and are changing, but I don't see those changes having an immediate gobsmacking effect, interesting though they may be. They should be looked for and addressed where necessary, but (IMO) not overestimated. Possible changes to the health care "system" is one of those things to watch; recovery of billed services, uniformity of care, government vs private, standardized fees (for what may be unequal services), etc., I think has the biggest potential to significantly alter The Way Things Are for health-care professionals and for the sort of person who may be recruited into the field in the future (else be lost to another profession).
 
KCShaw said:
Possible changes to the health care "system" is one of those things to watch; recovery of billed services, uniformity of care, government vs private, standardized fees (for what may be unequal services), etc., I think has the biggest potential to significantly alter The Way Things Are for health-care professionals and for the sort of person who may be recruited into the field in the future (else be lost to another profession).
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Agreed.
 
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