The people in our lives have a lot of wisdom to share with us—so long as we’re willing to listen. However, while some tips are incredibly helpful, others might no longer be all that useful for surviving and thriving in 2023 and beyond.
One Reddit user sparked an interesting but provocative discussion online. They asked members of the younger generations to share what pieces of work and life advice they’ve gotten from older people that they feel might be outdated. You’ll find their opinions as you scroll down.
Keep in mind that this doesn't automatically mean that everything suggested by members of older generations is 'wrong' or that younger people are always 'right'... or the other way around. The world's far more nuanced than that.
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*If you work hard, show up on time and give your heart and soul to a company, you'll get promoted and be financially successful.*
In 2023, if you work hard you will never get ahead and die in the harness.
In 2023, you can give your heart, soul, kidneys, lungs, both arms and both legs, liver and even your butt to the company, but you still not getting anywhere!
Bored Panda reached out to Sam Dogen, the host of the Financial Samurai blog and the author of the bestseller, 'Buy This, Not That: How to Spend Your Way to Wealth and Freedom.' He was kind enough to shed some light on adapting to an ever-changing world and shared his thoughts on what employees can do to continue to stay relevant in the job industry.
"Each generation operates in its own world, but may erroneously extrapolate how things were with how things are today. If one thinks this way, this shows failure to adapt to an ever-changing world," the personal finance expert told us via email.
"Work overtime, holidays, nights, weekends, whatever you can. The boss will be so impressed by your commitment that you'll get a promotion and a raise!"
Nope. He'll get the raise. I'll get f**k all. And then I'll be expected to stay over every time. Goodbye, family, friends. Goodbye, work-life balance. Hello burnout.
"For example, I grew up in a world before the Internet for 18 years. Only until I got to college was I able to start surfing the web. If I was stuck in the past, I'd still be going to the library to do research instead of Googling for credible sources online!" he said.
"People need to change with the times, otherwise, they will get left behind. One thing I wonder is why we still need to spend four years or longer to get a college degree if we can now research and learn much quicker thanks to the internet? It makes no sense that the cost to attend college is also skyrocketing when most information can be found for free online," Dogen, the author of 'Buy This, Not That,' pondered.
"As a result, expect more and more people to reject the notion of going to college in the future."
dress for the job you want, not the job you have. b***h, i work in a factory. cant be wearing a suit and tie with all this machinery trying to kill me. also, osha said i couldnt.
Okay, but do you really need the words "Use your head to see if this applies to you" tacked on to the end?
Go right into the store and ask for the manager. Give a firm handshake, look them in the eye, and get the job.
Meanwhile, the host of the Financial Samurai blog revealed that the best way to stay relevant is to keep networking with people in your industry, as well as to keep your skills sharp and updated.
"I also recommend everybody build a brand online by starting their own dynamic website where they can share their thoughts freely. Having social media profiles on LinkedIn, X, and Meta are not good enough. You want to own your brand by owning your website to show your creativity, knowledge, and skills."
Work a summer job waiting tables in the Hamptons and you'll have enough money to pay for a year of college, room and board, books, and still have extra spending money for the weekends.
As an older person, this is hard.
Here are my best guesses for the worst old people advice:
1. Vote Republican. They are good for the economy and for national defense.
2. Keep some dimes in your pocket to leave for tips.
3. Don't bother to vote. They are all the same.
4. You don't need a union. Only losers need unions.
When I was 23, somebody told me I was "significantly behind the curve" because by 23 you're supposed to own a house and a car. I still can't wrap my brain around it. Putting aside how wildly out-of-touch that is, even if you had the cash... who looks back on their 23yo self and thinks "yep, that person is totally ready for the responsibility and harsh reality of homeownership?" Not me, that's for sure.
It’s vital to keep in mind that just because someone belongs to a certain generation doesn’t mean that they behave exactly like their peers. There’s a lot of variation. Assuming that all Baby Boomers are identically “outdated” in their beliefs would be just as hurtful as telling someone that all Millennials and members of Generation Z are “lazy” or lack ambition.
However, certain general trends and outlooks toward work and life do exist, even if there are plenty of exceptions and nuances.
The viral Reddit thread confirmed that different generations do have broadly different attitudes toward work, family, success, and life in general. And while that’s expected to a certain extent, in some cases, it seems like there’s very little overlap. Well, at least at first glance.
I went to the hospital and somehow managed to stay overnight without anybody asking for my insurance information. Eventually received a hospital bill in the mail for $1200; I was billed the "uninsured" rate.
I asked my parents for advice. "If I submit this to my insurance, it will likely go down, right? Worst case scenario I end up paying the entire $1200 out of pocket?" I said. They told me yes. So that's what I did...
Couple weeks later, I received another bill from the hospital. They had submitted the claim to my insurance. The insurance company negotiated them down to my $6000 out of pocket maximum and stuck me with the rest. I called the hospital and explained the situation, and asked if I could "unsubmit" the insurance claim and just pay the uninsured rate. The representative laughed at me and said something like "I'm afraid the cat's out of the bag now!"
The American healthcare system, ladies and gentlemen.
My older male neighbour keep telling me I can get a girlfriend if I'm persistent and don't take no for an answer and court her at her home and work everyday because that's how he got his now wife, like mate that's F*****g stalking it's not the 60s anymore
Who wants a wife that is with them because her life had been ruined and she realised she could never escape her captor? Compared to one that felt an independent attraction from the get-go?
My grandma used to tell me never to get tattooes, or I won't find any work. Now I live in a society where even grannies have tattooes and nobody cares. Nobody. Cares. Just don't be an a*****e.
I love that piercings, tattoos, and coloured hair are becoming more and more prevalent. One thing that younger generations have done, made it possible for many more people to express themselves with their own bodies.
Sure, someone telling you that you’ll get a job if you head on over to a store, ask for the manager, look them in the eye, and give them a firm handshake isn’t all that helpful in the 21st century. However, the idea behind the advice—the importance of confidence, body language, and being proactive—is actually timeless. The specifics might change, but the context remains the same.
What really doesn’t help, however, is if someone tells you just how easy it is to buy property. The economy and job industry have changed enormously over the decades. Unless someone puts in the effort to keep up with the news, they might assume that everyone can afford a house on their day job salary.
CNN reports that US home prices hit a new all-time high in July 2023, as property inventory hit historical lows. Homes in Chicago, Cleveland, and New York saw the biggest price increases in July, as well as June. What compounds the problem, aside from high prices and fewer properties to choose from, are the sky-high mortgages. The average 30-year fixed-rate mortgage rose to over 7% in August of this year. This is the highest level in 20 years.
“Respect your elders”
I respect everyone until you give me a reason I shouldn’t. You don’t need to earn my respect but that doesn’t mean you’re obligated to it just because you’ve been around the block. The most disrespectful and judgmental people I have ever met or dealt with are all “elders”
“Don’t say you can’t afford a kid. You always can make do. Our first kid slept in our dresser drawer”
I got this advice from a taxi driver once. It was a double whammy because it is terrible advice and I was suffering through infertility at that time
I'm sorry to hear that. Must have hurt like heck. Hugs honey.
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Yeah if you did this now in the US the department of children and families would take your kids forever so this is some really outdated not great advice lol
And have a high chance of passing it on for generations to come.
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There is a difference between making a child and raising a child. Children are able to live in poverty, but ..lets say that parents sometimes just want somehow more than just surviving. They want to have LIFE, they want their children to have life. And if they are not sure how to deal with it...well..
Babies born into poor families can't have a good life? Wow, you're something else, Jules.
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You can't, and if you're one of those special people that pretends you'll just "figure it out" don't expect everyone around you to make exceptions or sacrifices so as to make the consequences of your dumb choice easier.
My mam always used to say, 'There is no "Right time" to have a baby, so don't wait for something that will never come. Just don't do it at the wrong time'.
Even if there is a "right time", your situation could change gradually or in an instant after you have a kid. There's no predicting what will happen later on. I think some people have that anxiety of what if something makes it harder on them and they'll end up regretting their decisions or feel guilty for making a bad move. I believe some of these anxious people are the same ones shaming parents with kids for ending up in tough times with kids.
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I did it on very little money. If you breastfeed and have a baby shower/get secondhand everything (people are desperate to unload their old baby gear), it’s really not a lot of money.
I waited until I was financially stable and owned a house at 43 to have a child. Best decision I've ever made. I can afford to live in the 3rd best school district in the country, pay for any extra curricular activities and tutors. Never forget that the single best and most accurate indicator of your child's success is what zip code the grow up in.
Really? Our house and our cars are all paid off. We have no debt. Try doing that with kids...
You should NOT have kids if you can’t emotionally and financially afford them.
I want kids but I was stressing about the costs, especially of child care. I expressed by worries to a friend who has kids and she simply said "somehow you just make it work". That response was actually helpful to me and helped calm me. I don't know why.
It's the drive of determination, and also a proactive response rather than a reactive response. Worrying will give you something to do but get you nowhere. On the contrary, having worries like that means you care. Your friend is practically saying she can see you being a good parent because you actually give a damn, and she can tell you're capable in critical thinking. Very, very important assets to have when taking care of little ones.
Load More Replies... Why is this bad advice? It is certainly far better to have children when you're more financially stable. But maaaany couples have had children when they're essentially poor.
Yep. And condoms are cheap. Don't make a lifetime mistake cuz you're drunk or slipped and fell into someone's vagina.
According to a 2015 U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) study, the average cost of raising a child from birth until the age of 17 is $233,610. This estimate is based on a middle-income family of four and excludes any college costs. Taking into account the inflation in the economy, you can expect to spend $292,017 raising a child in 2022, or more considering child care expenses are rising rapidly. And that doesn't take into account the impact on the planet of yet another person's carbon footprint.
Have you priced day care and baby supplies lately It costs at least $300 a week for child care!
The government has made sure that you now cannot afford a kid. You can't take them out, you can't drive them anywhere, as you are forced to purchase expensive equipment for them to survive, and if you don't purchase all these things you're considered an awful parent. So - no, the days of keeping your kid in a drawer are well over.
Well, with the right mix of poverty, government handouts, and child abuse, you can raise a large family. I literally see people do it all the time here. It's those who actually care a lot about children that end up childless.
In my state, the minimum wage is $15/hour. The living wage for a single adult living alone is about $36/hour, and the living wage for a married couple, both working, with one kid is about $30/hour each. Assuming only one of them were working, the living wage would be approximately $55/hour.
Babies don't need to cost much anyway, that's a rubbish argument. Breastfeed them (as long as competent help is available of course, which is outside of the mother's control), have them in bed with you (as we have done for hundreds of thousands of years), carry them in a cloth baby carrier (much cheaper than a 'travel system'), use cloth nappies (will do for baby after baby) and gentle pottying from birth, very low cost (for those that don't factors that prevent one or more of these options, obviously). This doesn't mean parents can afford what comes next.
If you're in the US, you need to factor loss of one person's income (as from I read here, there's only a few weeks of paid parental leave), or costs of daycare. Also, it's not a given that your child will be healthy. If it's not, then therapy can cost an arm and a leg.
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My mother : "Women like it when men take charge and show they know stuff".
As we’ve written on Bored Panda recently, members of each generation tend to think that they see things far more clearly compared to members of older generations. For one, people tend to think similarly to their social circles. So if you’re surrounded with folks who think that Baby Boomers and Gen Y have outdated beliefs, you’re likely to think that, too.
What does undoubtedly change, however, is the (rapidly advancing) technology, as well as the culture of the times.
Work hard at your job and you’ll get a promotion/raise.
Give at least 2 weeks notice to maintain good relationships.
Don’t buy Starbucks or Avocados and you will be able to buy a home in no time.
I can agree with the first 2, but "don't buy Starbucks" is a sound advice. Not only is it overpriced (and overrated), but also the quality of their coffee is so horrible that you have to add a sh!tload of other stuff to make it somewhat palpable.
If you're loyal to that company they'll take care of you.
1: go in to apply in person - they are just going to tell you to go online.
2: ask to meet the manage to make an impression - the manager doesn't care and wants you to f**k off so they can work
3: send a thank you note for the opportunity - unless they plan on hiring you, they have already forgotten who you are.
4: go above an beyond to get a raise - f**k that. Act your wage because otherwise they are going to take advantage of your hardwork and never reward you for it.
5: buy a house in cash - literally impossible nowadays
6: all debt is bad - you literally need debt to build up a credit score and you need a credit score to be able to get any kind of housing.
7: don't take days off if you don't have to - look perfect attendance is a lie they hammer into grade schools to make you feel guilty for taking your paid time off that is part of your total compensation. If you don't feel bad collecting your paycheck, do not feel bad taking the paid time off you are entitled to.
That "building your credit" stuff must be à very US thing. When we bought our house, we were commended by the banker, because we didn't have a single loan pending.
People usually reply something about tattoos making you unemployable, but I was once told you couldn't even have a beard or mustache at a job interview.
Some professions, it makes sense. Like if you HAVE to wear a respirator mask with a complete seal
If you break the law and try to take over the U.S. government, you will never be able to be president.
Save your money, it will be useful in the future. Lol! What money? What future?
I’ll play. My MIL just hit me with “both political parties are the same”, this afternoon on a 2.5 car trip. Needless to say I had a lecture prepared…
My dad: If you want to work somewhere, you have to show up there in person asking for a job!!!
1. I have no company I “aspire” to work for
2. I have a feeling the receptionist would just go, “uhhh I don’t give the jobs around here, please check our online job postings and leave weirdo”
As a receptionist, yup. I always take a resume anyway, I always walk it to HR, and I always watch them s**t can it. "Did you tell them to go online?" Yes. "Okay. *trash*" They don't even read the name to see who tried. We legally can't look at any paper resumes anymore. Since we hold Federal contracts, all hiring has to be done the same way, and that way is online.
I love how Dave Ramsey will say get 32 more jobs delivering pizzas to pay off debt. Well Dave, I would love to work and pay off my student loans. However, my job takes up 60 hours of my life. I’m salary and make no OT. Then you factor in that I have kids and have to take care of them. school events, sports, and just regular daily being a family s**t. Oh, and while I don’t go to church. That’s part of his bs advice too. Now, please explain to me how I’m supposed to do this?
At this point? Nearly all of it. They give advice for a world they purposely destroyed.
Just my opinion ==> Believe that if you want, but every generation wanted their children to be better off than they were. However, the world's population was 1.6 billion in 1900, 2.6 billion in 1953, and only 70 years later it's 8 billion. Purposely destroyed? No. Unwittingly by most, maybe.
That we *need* to know cursive.
I use cursive more than I use block/print but that's only because my hand gets lazy and my letters drag anyway. I'm a grown person with a grown up job in an attorneys office. I have never once had to use or read cursive nor have I been asked if I can
I do think people should learn to sign their names. You can't go around printing it. Pretty soon people will just put an X. A signature can be as distinctive as a fingerprint.
Don’t get divorced
‘Hard work will pay off’
(Simply because there’s a ton of young people who work really hard every single day and they aren’t recognized for it)
Drug dealers will offer you free drugs in an attempt to get you addicted.
My mom LOVES to say people need to walk into businesses with a paper resume, and ask to speak directly to the manager to introduce themselves.
She thinks this will almost guarantee a job at any business. She told my boyfriend to go to BOEING and ask for the manager to introduce himself. When I point out that most places want applications online, or that a lot of businesses have people outside of the manager do the hiring, she gets mad and says that’s just to weed out the people who aren’t willing to put in effort….
How do you just walk into a company, even? If you were to do that at my job, they'd ask you: "What manager? We have several hundreds of manager-type employees, within different chair groups and departments. Do you want to speak to HR? You want a job? We have those online."
“Just get a job in the summer to pay for tuition.” Yep
Get a college degree so you can get a high paying job, do whatever it takes, take out a loan if you have to.
If you burn your finger cooking, stick it in the butter.
A big, solid car will keep you safe! You know, like a big old studebaker made of steel with no crumple zones to absorb the impact.
Don’t sit close to the TV. The radiation will ruin your eyes.
Circa 1936 -
Lionel Logue: I believe sucking smoke into your lungs will... will kill you.
King George VI: My physicians said it relaxes the... the... the throat.
(From “The King’s Speech” (2010)
Don’t take a shower or bath during a storm, you can get electrocuted
You need to always have six months' salary saved, just in case.
As if the current pay and cost of living make this possible.
"After you put in an application for a job, keep calling. That shows initiative that you want the job." A friend kept doing that because his dad kept telling him too. Didn't get a job until another friend told him to stop
Anything having to do with your “permanent record”.
"I hope you know that this will go down on your permanent record" - Violent Femmes (Kiss Off)
Try not to change jobs too much, it looks bad on your résumé. Just stay at the same company for as long as possible. If you’re loyal to your company, they’ll be loyal to you.
For me this kinda worked. When I had two years at the same company in my CV, suddenly I was treated very differently. Maybe because I was older or because the economy was different, I don't know, but the change was crazy. Stay somewhere for some time and learn things, that is a good start. Then find a place that will pay you for what you learned and learn more.
Skip the $5 coffee. Assuming you do that 5 days a week, every week in a year, that's $1300. Assuming you stop doing that and go without for the next 10 years, you'll have saved $13000, which still isn't even half the deposit on a s****y house. I'll take my cold brew instead, thanks
You forgot about inflation. In 10 years that 200k house you were saving the down payment for just shot up to 450k. Your wage will have gone up 18%, if your lucky unless you switched jobs 5 times. You will never catch up saving. And you will always be behind by staying at the same company.
Wear a suit to any job interview when a nice shirt and pants are just fine. Thank god my wife saved me from looking like a dork.
"If you want a raise talk to your boss" Sir this is a corporation where raises are set for everyone on a scale based on the company profit and how nice they are not on your performance.
Also when they think "ask them for a 10%+ raise", yeah i'll be surprise if they even give a raise at all
Go to church
“Learn how to do mental math, you won’t always have a calculator on you”
Honestly, even with a calculator on your phone right by your hand, if you can do it in your head it's quicker than typing it in
They give you step by step directions to get somewhere
Like they’ve never heard of google maps and refuse to acknowledge it.
F**k off with your directions just give me the address
Carry change for the payphones.
Would you like to accept a collect call from "Heymomitsmethemoviesovercomepickmeup"?
work hard to be successful
That's why women in the third world are the richest people on earth
We can’t bust heads like we used to—but we have our ways. One trick is to tell them stories that don’t go anywhere like the time I caught the ferry over to Shelbyville. I needed a new heel for my shoe, so I decided to go to Morganville which is what they called Shelbyville in those days. So, I tied an onion to my belt which was the style at the time. Now, to take the ferry cost a nickel. And in those days, nickels had pictures of bumblebees on ‘em. ‘Give me five bees for a quarter,’ you’d say. Now, where were we? Oh, yeah! The important thing was that I had an onion on my belt which was the style at the time. They didn’t have white onions because of the war. The only thing you could get was those big yellow ones.
So you are just going to post an Abe Simpson quote without acknowledging it?
If you can't pay your bills, work harder. It worked for me back in 1970.
You need to know how to balance your checkbook.
Well, it's done another way, now, mostly online, but keeping track of your expenses is not à bad idea...
“Send a thank you note” — more than once I’ve gotten a job and the hiring managers said it was because I was literally the only candidate to send them an email thanking them for their time. That’s just being polite, and people do appreciate politeness.
So that's good advice. We live in a world where using the post will make you stand out, such an easy move.
Here's a little notebook to keep in your glove box. Write down the date, gallons, and odometer reading *every. single. time.* you put gas in your car and calculate your mpg. If the mpg changes, you'll know there's something wrong with your car before it becomes a major problem.
People love to share posts about Buccees paying $20/hr starting out, but they don't hire anyone with visible tattoos.
Golf is a business skill. Gotta hit the driving range if you hope to be employable.
Don’t take any wooden nickels?
As an old guy, I can say that the interview barely matters to get the job, if at all. Employers are notoriously poor judges of character and will decide if they like you or not based on your resume/CV. They will usually spot something on the resume/CV that impresses them. Examples include a prestigious education, like an Ivy League school, or an employment at a prestigious company. That’ll be enough to get hired, but the employer will then go through the formality of the interview where you will start to realize early that they like you or not and that it’s all for show. Unless you make a mistake and draw attention to a red flag, you’re already hired. You are unlikely to be asked any questions pertaining to the job or to your own performance of that job, and will be expected to ask the employer questions instead, so be ready with those questions. This has been my experience in 90% of interviews. Also, the employer will lie, often by omission.
I fully disagree. I got my job ALSO based on my CV, but the deciding factor was the interview about my experience, knowledge and the presenation I had to give during the second interview. An interview is important, because they want to know the type of person they bring in.
This post doesn't sit right with me. It's as though a lot of posters pointing these things out don't realise they too will be old, they will give advice that in time will become out-of-date. I mean, my parents weren't Jedis, how were they to know that smart phones would be invented. Yes, people said not to get divorced, a big reason being society was set up against women, it wasn't until the early 70's that women could open a bank account with out a man, it wasn't until 1980 that sexual harassment was legally defined, until the early 80s pubs could refuse to serve women - getting divorced was very detrimental to a woman's life. You get the gist.
I think it screams "out of touch" too give advice that's only appropriate for people 40+ years ago. There are plenty of people capable of continuing to learn well into their sunset years, but many will stop putting in any effort after 30. It's really not much effort to just check current events, and put in a little time to listen to others, but so many people assume the world stopped turning after they stopped going to school.
Load More Replies... So we are old and our advice is outdated. Don't listen to us then. Go out and do your own thing. Figure it out, make a plan or if you can't then go crawl under a rock and hide or die but please do it quietly. The rest of us are trying to mske a life. For God's sake this helpless useless complaining and blameshifting is working on my tits
I'm curious: you said, "us." Do you give this advice to people? If not, then it's not about you. It's about the people who think the world stopped changing after 1940.
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Seems like Bored Panda is either bashing me as an American or me as an old person EVERY DAY now. Pretty soon, I'll be tired of coming here at all. Not that anyone will notice, I suppose.
I kid you not, Babs, I typed something almost exactly like this in my comment. I originally typed, "Another boomer-bashing post, this is getting tiresome. Probably not going to be around BP much longer." Then I changed my mind and just typed the word "tiresome" and left it at that.
Load More Replies... Another infantile post pitting people against one another based on imaginary "advice". Also, given the many responses, it's amazing how cynical and why-bother-trying many people seem to be.
I very much doubt this advice is wide-spread. If anything, someone posted it once, and then other young people just read that, and assumed that was advice from older people. But they themselves never got that advice.
Load More Replies... Most of it was "economy is bad and jobs are hard", yeah, that was always true.
This chaps my grits that people are complaining about many of these all ding dang day. Look beyond the exact wording, and try to see what wisdom is there between the lines. Sure, if someone these days said, “make sure you have a quarter to call home from a pay phone” that would be outdated. But what is the meaning behind the words? Maybe you could take that to mean, “Make sure you have an extra phone charger on hand”. I feel I should note– I’m in my mid 30s. I could easily jump on the complaining wagon, but guess what? I put up and shut up and work through sh*t without complaining about every ding dang thing. The more you complain the more miserable you’ll be. And vice versa.
Boomer here - my parents always told me to make sure I had cab fare home (I'm from New York City). To this day, I still carry enough cash hidden in my wallet for a cab home. It worked for me once when a date (I was in my 40s) got so drunk, I snuck out of the restaurant through the kitchen and called a cab to go home.
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The "don't say you can't afford to have a kid" one is f*****g ridiculous. DO NOT HAVE KIDS IF YOU CANT AFFORD THEM! It's not just about buying a crib. It's about the other 99% of things that baby needs that costs money everyday. You buy a crib once. You have to feed that child everyday. Keep the lights on. Keep the water & gas on. You have to pay for clothes. Doctor. Insurance. School. Daycare. Etc. & that's just in the first 6 years. Like wtf?
Reading the bigotry and hatred on here has made me sad for us. Each side hates each other so much they think the other people are monsters. That is nothing but politicians pushing us apart and radicalizing everyone to each side. Our beliefs and politics according to the internet are so left or right sided they are almost parodies. People on one side or the other aren't bad. Our "leaders" are just hoping they can get you to think they are and to hate them. Don't let them push us apart.
There is a great variety of people and experiences in the so-called boomer wave. I'm at the early end. Born 1948. By the time my brother was born in 1960 the world had already changed enormously. I feel great sympathy for young people today. My young relatives. The children and grandchildren of my friends. But trust me MANY of us did NOT have an easy time. And many of us are now struggling with a lot of aging issues that our own parents and grandparents did not have. I think of my paternal grandmother Nana. Illiterate Italian immigrant. No one expected anything of her. She was admired just for having survived. But it's ok to laugh at me for wearing shapeless dresses and clunky shoes and etc. At least I'm computer literate ha ha.
Unless they can't agree on a budget and you don't get paid
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Im 57 and agree some people my age are clueless about the modern world, but its sad so many of these sound like everything sucks and there is no point of even trying any more. That too is an old persons attitude.
Some of that comes from generational trauma. There's far too many people reaching middle age that have heard from family, and elders, their whole lives, that nothing they do will be good enough. Add real fears for the future, existential dread, social media induced depression, and unstable economic situations which feel like people are treading water no matter how hard they try. It really sucks the life out of everything, and makes the world feel pointless. Unfortunately, it's a very common mental state.
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I'm a Boomer. "We" didn't cause the things that made outdated advice outdated. Up until the late '70's, the economy was pretty stable. Then super-inflation hit (mortgage rates in the teens, 2x what it is even now), and to overcome it, corporations started seeing employees as a "cost" to be controlled. So CEO's threw pensions and retirements out the window, and got big bonuses. And instead of performance-based raises, they were weighed against a "budget", an abstract measure that had nothing to do with how profitable the business was, so raises weren't warranted. Except for the CEO! Then they brought in consultants to find more cost-cutting (including positions/wages), and the CEO's were rewarded again! And then they started buying Congress to convince people that "stockholder value" was more valuable than the workers that actually contributed to their profit. Wages stagnated. And turned the US into a 3rd World labor market. While CEO pay and everything else kept climbing.
Time and circumstance change popular thinking. I used to really worry about what people told me, but I’m now an older person myself and the best advice I can give anyone (and I remind myself of this constantly) is to understand when people are well-intentioned, thank them and then follow your own instincts and do what’s best for you.
I think this is true. I also think the point of the post is just to vent about being told the same crappy advice constantly. Also it can be exhausting to be given crappy advice from people who are *not* well intended; they're just condescending.
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Why are people so upset about this post? If you don't like it don't read it and definitely don't post on it. The metrics of what people spend time on is what is what the algorithm uses. If you don't like it don't interact with it. If you see an increasing number of a certain types of posts that because people spend time on them. That's what advertisers want to see. And finally if you don't like the website don't use it. No need to announce it to the world just move on.
How are you supposed to know you don't like something until AFTER you read it?
Load More Replies... This post doesn't sit right with me. It's as though a lot of posters pointing these things out don't realise they too will be old, they will give advice that in time will become out-of-date. I mean, my parents weren't Jedis, how were they to know that smart phones would be invented. Yes, people said not to get divorced, a big reason being society was set up against women, it wasn't until the early 70's that women could open a bank account with out a man, it wasn't until 1980 that sexual harassment was legally defined, until the early 80s pubs could refuse to serve women - getting divorced was very detrimental to a woman's life. You get the gist.
I think it screams "out of touch" too give advice that's only appropriate for people 40+ years ago. There are plenty of people capable of continuing to learn well into their sunset years, but many will stop putting in any effort after 30. It's really not much effort to just check current events, and put in a little time to listen to others, but so many people assume the world stopped turning after they stopped going to school.
Load More Replies... So we are old and our advice is outdated. Don't listen to us then. Go out and do your own thing. Figure it out, make a plan or if you can't then go crawl under a rock and hide or die but please do it quietly. The rest of us are trying to mske a life. For God's sake this helpless useless complaining and blameshifting is working on my tits
I'm curious: you said, "us." Do you give this advice to people? If not, then it's not about you. It's about the people who think the world stopped changing after 1940.
Load More Replies... Seems like Bored Panda is either bashing me as an American or me as an old person EVERY DAY now. Pretty soon, I'll be tired of coming here at all. Not that anyone will notice, I suppose.
I kid you not, Babs, I typed something almost exactly like this in my comment. I originally typed, "Another boomer-bashing post, this is getting tiresome. Probably not going to be around BP much longer." Then I changed my mind and just typed the word "tiresome" and left it at that.
Load More Replies... Another infantile post pitting people against one another based on imaginary "advice". Also, given the many responses, it's amazing how cynical and why-bother-trying many people seem to be.
I very much doubt this advice is wide-spread. If anything, someone posted it once, and then other young people just read that, and assumed that was advice from older people. But they themselves never got that advice.
Load More Replies... Most of it was "economy is bad and jobs are hard", yeah, that was always true.
This chaps my grits that people are complaining about many of these all ding dang day. Look beyond the exact wording, and try to see what wisdom is there between the lines. Sure, if someone these days said, “make sure you have a quarter to call home from a pay phone” that would be outdated. But what is the meaning behind the words? Maybe you could take that to mean, “Make sure you have an extra phone charger on hand”. I feel I should note– I’m in my mid 30s. I could easily jump on the complaining wagon, but guess what? I put up and shut up and work through sh*t without complaining about every ding dang thing. The more you complain the more miserable you’ll be. And vice versa.
Boomer here - my parents always told me to make sure I had cab fare home (I'm from New York City). To this day, I still carry enough cash hidden in my wallet for a cab home. It worked for me once when a date (I was in my 40s) got so drunk, I snuck out of the restaurant through the kitchen and called a cab to go home.
Load More Replies... The "don't say you can't afford to have a kid" one is f*****g ridiculous. DO NOT HAVE KIDS IF YOU CANT AFFORD THEM! It's not just about buying a crib. It's about the other 99% of things that baby needs that costs money everyday. You buy a crib once. You have to feed that child everyday. Keep the lights on. Keep the water & gas on. You have to pay for clothes. Doctor. Insurance. School. Daycare. Etc. & that's just in the first 6 years. Like wtf?
Reading the bigotry and hatred on here has made me sad for us. Each side hates each other so much they think the other people are monsters. That is nothing but politicians pushing us apart and radicalizing everyone to each side. Our beliefs and politics according to the internet are so left or right sided they are almost parodies. People on one side or the other aren't bad. Our "leaders" are just hoping they can get you to think they are and to hate them. Don't let them push us apart.
There is a great variety of people and experiences in the so-called boomer wave. I'm at the early end. Born 1948. By the time my brother was born in 1960 the world had already changed enormously. I feel great sympathy for young people today. My young relatives. The children and grandchildren of my friends. But trust me MANY of us did NOT have an easy time. And many of us are now struggling with a lot of aging issues that our own parents and grandparents did not have. I think of my paternal grandmother Nana. Illiterate Italian immigrant. No one expected anything of her. She was admired just for having survived. But it's ok to laugh at me for wearing shapeless dresses and clunky shoes and etc. At least I'm computer literate ha ha.
Unless they can't agree on a budget and you don't get paid
Load More Replies... Im 57 and agree some people my age are clueless about the modern world, but its sad so many of these sound like everything sucks and there is no point of even trying any more. That too is an old persons attitude.
Some of that comes from generational trauma. There's far too many people reaching middle age that have heard from family, and elders, their whole lives, that nothing they do will be good enough. Add real fears for the future, existential dread, social media induced depression, and unstable economic situations which feel like people are treading water no matter how hard they try. It really sucks the life out of everything, and makes the world feel pointless. Unfortunately, it's a very common mental state.
Load More Replies... I'm a Boomer. "We" didn't cause the things that made outdated advice outdated. Up until the late '70's, the economy was pretty stable. Then super-inflation hit (mortgage rates in the teens, 2x what it is even now), and to overcome it, corporations started seeing employees as a "cost" to be controlled. So CEO's threw pensions and retirements out the window, and got big bonuses. And instead of performance-based raises, they were weighed against a "budget", an abstract measure that had nothing to do with how profitable the business was, so raises weren't warranted. Except for the CEO! Then they brought in consultants to find more cost-cutting (including positions/wages), and the CEO's were rewarded again! And then they started buying Congress to convince people that "stockholder value" was more valuable than the workers that actually contributed to their profit. Wages stagnated. And turned the US into a 3rd World labor market. While CEO pay and everything else kept climbing.
Time and circumstance change popular thinking. I used to really worry about what people told me, but I’m now an older person myself and the best advice I can give anyone (and I remind myself of this constantly) is to understand when people are well-intentioned, thank them and then follow your own instincts and do what’s best for you.
I think this is true. I also think the point of the post is just to vent about being told the same crappy advice constantly. Also it can be exhausting to be given crappy advice from people who are *not* well intended; they're just condescending.
Load More Replies... Why are people so upset about this post? If you don't like it don't read it and definitely don't post on it. The metrics of what people spend time on is what is what the algorithm uses. If you don't like it don't interact with it. If you see an increasing number of a certain types of posts that because people spend time on them. That's what advertisers want to see. And finally if you don't like the website don't use it. No need to announce it to the world just move on.
How are you supposed to know you don't like something until AFTER you read it?
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