Baby Boomers and how we/they are perceived in today's world

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What matters for this discussion is (1) what generation most of the implementers of the Agile Manifesto were, not the authors, and (2) what the suits were learning in business management school in various different eras (which is something I'm not knowledgeable about -- I've only heard vague rumors).


True, but what I suspect (not sure yet if this is true) is that the Agile Manifesto may have been part of a larger trend affecting other professions/occupations besides just computer programming.


Seems obvious now, doesn't it? Perhaps, though, maybe not so obvious to MBA's in earlier decades. From what I've heard, some business-management fads over the years have been truly wacky.

Last edited by Mona Pereth on 19 Oct 2024, 7:43 am, edited 1 time in total.

What people outside the industry don't understand is that Agile methodology has a lot of astroturfing associated with it. It's basically a management technique. Many, perhaps most programmers, of any age, practicing Agile techniques, were mandated to do so by management. Before they retired, many of those managers were Boomers who had been sold on the idea, but never experienced life as a programmer on an Agile environment. Not that the idea totally sucks. TBH though most of the people I've seen advocating on YouTube for "Agile" techniques seem to be Gen-Xers with MacBook Pros.

The Agile Methodology is arguably just another management fad, but perhaps one of the better ones. Software projects typically struggle and managers continuously look for innovative fixes, which is why these fads happen. But now we're really veering off topic.

Indeed, which exactly is why I suspect that Agile may be just one instance of a larger, more general management trend affecting other professions/occupations too, though perhaps not to the same extent, or in as obvious a way, as it affected programming.


My point was to try to get to the bottom of bsickler's belief that boomers lack "wisdom" and "perspective," compared to later cohorts, and also some possible reasons why (as bsickler alleges) boomers may tend to be less communicative on the job than later cohorts.

To bsickler: Please see my post here.

Last edited by Mona Pereth on 19 Oct 2024, 9:14 am, edited 3 times in total.

Perhaps you misunderstood my point. To whatever extent these people are doing well because of their own past efforts, they needed to have at least some "wisdom." The only people who don't need any "wisdom" are trust fund babies.


I doubt that the aim was to keep younger people (or, at least, younger white people) out. More likely, the aim was to keep Black people out. Of course it has the side-effect of keeping younger white people out, too.

In the northern states of the U.S.A., and I suspect in Canada too, one of the primary manifestations of anti-Black racism has been the self-fulfilling prophecy that the presence of even one Black person, no matter how respectable, would result in lower property values. So, after overt housing discrimination was outlawed, the racists had to come up with more indirect ways of preventing Blacks from buying houses. Hence the rise of ridiculously restrictive zoning laws.


The relevant demographic here is not boomers per se but homeowners. Of course, boomers are more likely than younger cohorts to be homeowners, but not all homeowners are boomers, and not all boomers are homeowners.

Alas, homeowners, of whatever age, tend to have the attitude that they have a God-given right to eternally rising property values, at the expense of everyone else's ability to have a roof over their head at all.


This might actually be a good thing. Fewer homeowners = fewer people with a stake in eternally rising property values = more political pressure to loosen up the zoning laws = more housing, and more affordable housing.

Well just like Agile Methodology, this discussion is veering off topic.

Millennials are acquiring properties at the fastest rate:

https://www.fool.com/the-ascent/research/millennial-homebuying/

This makes sense. I was about 30 when I bought my first condo, and around 34 when I bought my first house. My son is 34 and he just bought a house. It's in a nice part of Chicago. In 1993 I bought the house where I still live. I found I had to take on extra work to hold onto it, at first.

I meant in the late 70s and early 80s as I was growing up, not the year I was born.

It boggles my mind that of all the billions of people that have walked up on this earth, father time is undefeated yet there are some people that think it doesn't apply to them. News Flash: You are going to get older too. It appears that some people think their generation is better than baby boomers, they don't yet realize they will be attacked by the generation prior to theirs in the same way. No one picks the time they were born into (of course unless you have that ability and you should share your knowledge; I'm sure there would be lots of people interested in how you achieve that) You think ageism doesn't exist; all you have to do is read some of the replies to this thread. I remember my nephew and myself talking to my mother on her 85th birthday; we asked her "what does it feel like to be 85?" She replied, "I am still the same girl I was at 20 but now my body is older". The only "crime" that we have committed is growing old.

Pretty much everything written above is true. Also since time immoral old people have called young people spoiled brats that are going to ruin everything they built. Ageism runs both ways.

We should be old enough not to be bothered by young people acting young.

From a music perspective