Model: millennial have been dealt a bad hand

  1. Parenting
  2. Technology
  3. Impatience
  4. Environment

(1) Failed parenting strategies

  • Participation medals devalue winning and shame losing
  • School grades/honour-programs because parents complain instead of working for it
  • Millennials learn
    • They can have anything they want, just because they want it
  • When they start working they learn that all those beliefs are wrong
  • This causes their self esteem to shatter
  • They have lower self esteem than other generations

(2) Technology Social media teaches youths to curate what parts of their life to show Dopamine addiction to cope with stress

  • Dopamine gives a great feeling when you achieve something
  • Adolescence is a stressful time
    • Youths should loosen from family into the larger tribe
    • Youths should learn to cope with stress by leaning on friends
  • Addicts learn their addiction during adolescence
    • Dopamine numbs stress
    • Alcohol, gambling,… trigger dopamine
    • Alcohol, gambling,… have age restrictions
    • Instead of friends, addicts learn to numb the stress with their addiction
    • That addiction becomes hardwired in the brain for coping with stress
    • Coping by addiction resurfaces in times of elevated stress
  • Social media and… triggers dopamine
  • Youths have unrestricted access to social media

(3) Impatience because of instant gratification

  • Shopping online, next day delivery
  • Movies: download, stream, binge
  • Dating: tinder swipe right

Seem “entitled” but actually just impatient

(4) Environment Corporate environments treat people as numbers instead of human beings Built on management models from the 70’s and 80’s (did not exist before)

  • Shareholder supremacy
  • Mass layoffs

(src: Video: Most Leaders Don’t Even Know the Game They’re In - Simon Sinek)