Why millennials struggle for success

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BornAPoorBlkChild: Sep 24, 2012

http://www.cnn.com/2016/05/03/opinions/grit-is-a-gift-of-age-duckworth/index.html

quote:

(CNN)"What's wrong with millennials?" This is a question many older Americans are asking. Why do they keep changing their minds about what they want to do with their lives? Why does even a hint of critical feedback send them into a tailspin of self-doubt?
In a word, why don't they have more grit?

This last question is particularly important to me because I am a psychologist who studies grit. I define grit as passion and perseverance for long-term goals. It's what keeps us going when everything else makes it seem easier to give up. In my research, I find that how you score on my Grit Scale�a short survey of your current level of passion and perseverance�predicts achievement.
Grittier students are more likely to earn their diplomas, grittier teachers are more effective in the classroom, grittier soldiers are more likely to complete their training, and grittier salespeople are more likely to keep their jobs. The more challenging the domain, the more grit seems to matter.

I now have Grit Scale scores from thousands of American adults. My data provide a snapshot of grit across adulthood. And I've discovered a strikingly consistent pattern: grit and age go hand in hand. Sixty-somethings tend to be grittier, on average, than fifty-somethings, who are in turn grittier than forty-somethings, and so on.
So, why are millennials at the bottom of the heap in grit? There are two possible explanations. That's because the sixty-somethings I've surveyed differ from the twenty-somethings in two ways. One difference is that they grew up in the "Mad Men" era rather than the new millennium. But it's also true that they have more than twice as much life experience.

Do millennials lack grit because our culture devalues a work ethic?
Let's consider the first possibility and assume that older adults are grittier than their younger counterparts because in their formative years, they were shaped by different cultural forces. Back in the day, the story goes, you were expected to grow up to do one thing for a living and then retire. You were exhorted to work hard, and you were told that nothing in life comes easy. These cultural norms validated a solid work ethic and a single lifelong career.
If you're a baby boomer, chances are you agree with this explanation. I've lost count of the business leaders who've told me that their young employees are far less gritty than they themselves were at the same age. Millennials, they complain, sigh loudly when work needs to be taken home over the weekend, spend less time at the office than older colleagues with children at home, and are both puzzled and indignant when, after a few months on the job, they haven't been promoted.

There is ample evidence that certain cultural attitudes have changed. We know this because there are surveys that have been given to young adults again and again over the decades. For instance, millennials are comparatively more likely to support same-sex marriage and the legalization of marijuana. They have less faith in institutions like our elected government.
Scientific evidence, however, fails to confirm what older business leaders believe about their younger employees. When it comes to differences in psychological attributes like grit, the evidence of generational difference is much less robust than you might think. Because I created the Grit Scale only about a decade ago, I can't directly test whether young adults growing up in earlier epochs would score higher than young adults today.

Be that as it may, plenty of archival data has been collected on psychological traits highly correlated with grit, like conscientiousness. Some of these studies have found absolutely no differences in conscientiousness. Others, such as one study of Dutch college students, suggests that those entering university 30 years ago were, if anything, slightly less conscientious than those entering just a decade ago.

Or do baby boomers have more grit because they have more life experience?
Now let's test our second hypothesis for why millennials might have less grit: the possibility that we develop passion and perseverance with life experience. This makes good intuitive sense. After all, as the years go by, we get to know ourselves better. We figure out what we're interested in. With practice, we learn that trying to do something hard, and failing at it, isn't the end of the world. As a friend who lost a job once told me, there's nothing like getting fired to make you realize how bumpy the road of life is, and how surprisingly capable we are of getting up after falling down.
In longitudinal studies conducted by different scientists on different people over varying swathes of the lifespan, the consistent pattern is that positive psychological traits get better over time. As our knees and hips and eyesight deteriorate, we become more dependable, less impulsive, kinder, and less moody. Psychologists call this the maturity principle.
My own life experience fits this principle to a T. I spent my twenties skipping around from career to career. I worked very briefly in the White House, writing speeches. I spent a year doing management consulting. Another year, I helped run a nonprofit website for parents. I taught math in urban public schools. At one point, I thought seriously about starting a charter school. Betwixt and between, I earned degrees in neurobiology and neuroscience.

By the time I turned 30, I realized that not having a clear direction in life was tremendously unsatisfying. After much soul searching (our living room couch nearly turned crusty with the salt of my tears) I turned to my husband and declared I was going to graduate school.
I wanted to become a psychologist so that I could understand, finally, why some people end up successful in life and why others in identical circumstances do not. And that's exactly what I did. When I look back on that decision and the work I have done since then, I realize that in an important sense, knowing with certainty why older adults are grittier than their younger counterparts is less important than simply acknowledging that they are.
Leisure is the new productivity
Leisure is the new productivity (Opinion)
This knowledge could revolutionize how we think about older workers in what Anne-Marie Slaughter calls "phase three." Slightly slower-moving silverbacks may have more passion and perseverance, not to mention perspective, expertise and emotional equanimity, than younger whippersnappers. If the quality and quantity of continuous effort toward goals matters as much as I think it does, we may actually get more productive, not less, as we get older�even if we can't pull all-nighters like we used to.

In the end, grit and growth go hand in hand
Even more encouraging�whether because of life experience or cultural changes�age trends in grit affirm that our character is never entirely fixed. Who we become in life is not entirely determined by our genes. Sure, the DNA we inherited from our parents inclines us toward more grit or less, just like it influences everything else about us from our waistline to our risk for skin cancer. But like those traits, grit is also influenced by what happens to us, and what we make happen.
I am almost exactly the same age as the writer Pamela Druckerman, who observed shortly before her forty-fourth birthday that "the biggest transition of the 40s is realizing that we've actually, improbably, managed to learn and grow a bit." As an example, she points out that "soul mate" is a title earned, not discovered. I'd say the same of career callings.
So what's wrong with millennials? Nothing. They just haven't grown up. Yet.

# ? May 4, 2016 00:57

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# ? Apr 26, 2024 01:49

Iron Prince: Aug 28, 2005; Buglord

i think its basically because i cant maintain an erection

# ? May 4, 2016 00:58

Michael Bayleaf: Jun 4, 2006; Tortured By Flan

stfu

# ? May 4, 2016 01:00

mom and dad fight a lot: Sep 21, 2006; If you count them all, this sentence has exactly seventy-two characters.

tell the author that I took a pretty gritty poo poo this morning, and it reminded me of his posting

# ? May 4, 2016 01:01

Michael Bayleaf: Jun 4, 2006; Tortured By Flan

I like to eat grits

# ? May 4, 2016 01:01

BornAPoorBlkChild: Sep 24, 2012

quote:

Editor's Note: Angela Duckworth, PhD, is a 2013 MacArthur Fellow and professor of psychology at the University of Pennsylvania. She is the co-founder of the Character Lab, a nonprofit whose mission is to advance the science and practice of character development in children. She is the author of a new book, GRIT: The Power of Passion and Perseverance (Scribner). The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the author.

# ? May 4, 2016 01:11

BornAPoorBlkChild: Sep 24, 2012

haha are you loving kidding me?

quote:

My own life experience fits this principle to a T. I spent my twenties skipping around from career to career. I worked very briefly in the White House, writing speeches. I spent a year doing management consulting. Another year, I helped run a nonprofit website for parents. I taught math in urban public schools. At one point, I thought seriously about starting a charter school. Betwixt and between, I earned degrees in neurobiology and neuroscience.

# ? May 4, 2016 01:16

down n out: Sep 16, 2008; Nap Ghost

quote:

Because I created the Grit Scale only about a decade ago, I can't directly test whether young adults growing up in earlier epochs would score higher than young adults today.

quote:

I realize that in an important sense, knowing with certainty why older adults are grittier than their younger counterparts is less important than simply acknowledging that they are.

...They just are! :downsbravo:

# ? May 4, 2016 01:20

Devian666: Aug 20, 2008; Take some advice Chris.; Fun Shoe

Millenials have smaller genitals than baby boomers.

# ? May 4, 2016 01:22

Hector Beerlioz: Jun 16, 2010; aw, hec

Iron Prince posted:

i think its basically because i cant maintain an erection

Everybody laugh at Iron Prince

# ? May 4, 2016 01:24

Ahundredbux: Oct 25, 2007; The right to bear arms

It's because of garbage values imposed upon them combined with overpopulation & societal rundown

Lol j/k

# ? May 4, 2016 01:24

Edgar Allan Pwned: Apr 4, 2011; Quoth the Raven "I love the power glove. It's so bad..."

Eeugh. We know the system has set most of us up for failure so what's the point. Enjoy the small things and live the futile.

# ? May 4, 2016 01:26

Rutibex: Sep 9, 2001; by Fluffdaddy

improvements in milling technology, as well as advanced computer controlled blowers, have reduced ambient GRIT by as much as 98.45% in some places

# ? May 4, 2016 01:27

AlphaKeny1: Feb 17, 2006

Drawing on her own powerful story as the daughter of a scientist who frequently bemoaned her lack of smarts, Duckworth describes her winding path

# ? May 4, 2016 01:34

The Dipshit: Dec 21, 2005; by FactsAreUseless

down n out posted:

...They just are!

Isn't it cute when people make falsifiable predictions that can only be tested long after they are dead? I love those.

Fake rear end scientist.

# ? May 4, 2016 01:35

Gaunab: Feb 13, 2012; LUFTHANSA YOU FUCKING DICKWEASEL

Can't believe articles like this are still being published in 2016.

# ? May 4, 2016 01:37

Testikles: Feb 22, 2009

It is the influence of perverted Gallic-Latin culture which poisons the mind of our youth and makes them indolent. They seek pleasure and scorn the sweat of hard work and the danger of arms. They would rather rot in hedonistic pits than to carry forth the enobling cause of our race. Thankfully there is a bracing corrective: the sharp application of Teutonic Kultur!

# ? May 4, 2016 01:40

General Dog: Apr 26, 2008; Everybody's working for the weekend

It's pretty cool that CNN has hired their own PFTCommenter style parody social commentator.

# ? May 4, 2016 01:46

jarofpiss: May 16, 2009

exterminate all boomers imho

# ? May 4, 2016 01:50

Serak: Jun 18, 2000; Approaching Midnight.

"What's wrong with snake people?" This is a question many older Americans are asking.

# ? May 4, 2016 02:03

satanic splash-back: Jan 28, 2009

I loving LOVE COPY AND PASTE THREADS FROM ANIME PEDOPHILES

# ? May 4, 2016 02:12

skeletonotherkin: Sep 26, 2014

quote:

Let's consider the first possibility and assume that older adults are grittier than their younger counterparts because in their formative years, they were shaped by different cultural forces. Back in the day, the story goes, you were expected to grow up to do one thing for a living and then retire. You were exhorted to work hard, and you were told that nothing in life comes easy. These cultural norms validated a solid work ethic and a single lifelong career.
If you're a baby boomer, chances are you agree with this explanation. I've lost count of the business leaders who've told me that their young employees are far less gritty than they themselves were at the same age. Millennials, they complain, sigh loudly when work needs to be taken home over the weekend, spend less time at the office than older colleagues with children at home, and are both puzzled and indignant when, after a few months on the job, they haven't been promoted.

Lol this bitch still believes life time employment is a thing.

# ? May 4, 2016 02:15

Yaos: Feb 22, 2003; She is a cat of significant gravy.

CNN is always putting up dumb articles like this. I think they hate freedom.

# ? May 4, 2016 02:18

OXBALLS DOT COM: Sep 11, 2005; by FactsAreUseless; Young Orc

skeletonotherkin posted:

Lol this bitch still believes life time employment is a thing.

If you are rich and white it still is

# ? May 4, 2016 02:19

OXBALLS DOT COM: Sep 11, 2005; by FactsAreUseless; Young Orc

Race Realists posted:

our living room couch nearly turned crusty with the salt of my tears

# ? May 4, 2016 02:19

OXBALLS DOT COM: Sep 11, 2005; by FactsAreUseless; Young Orc

Race Realists posted:

haha are you loving kidding me?

My own life experience fits this principle to a T. I spent my twenties skipping around from career to career. I worked very briefly in the White House, writing speeches. I spent a year doing management consulting. Another year, I helped run a nonprofit website for parents. I taught math in urban public schools. At one point, I thought seriously about starting a charter school. Betwixt and between, I earned degrees in neurobiology and neuroscience.

Loll

# ? May 4, 2016 02:20

Dreddout: Oct 1, 2015; You must stay drunk on writing so reality cannot destroy you.

Edgar Allan Pwned posted:

Eeugh. We know the system has set most of us up for failure so what's the point. Enjoy the small things and live the futile.

# ? May 4, 2016 02:25

bongwizzard: May 19, 2005; Then one day I meet a man,
He came to me and said,
"Hard work good and hard work fine,
but first take care of head"; Grimey Drawer

Duckworth is one of my favorite last names. I love saying it aloud.

Duckworth.

# ? May 4, 2016 02:25

Dreddout: Oct 1, 2015; You must stay drunk on writing so reality cannot destroy you.

jarofpiss posted:

exterminate all boomers imho

I hope when Trump wins he cuts Medicare spending!

# ? May 4, 2016 02:26

Ape Fist: Feb 23, 2007; Nowadays, you can do anything that you want; anal, oral, fisting, but you need to be wearing gloves, condoms, protection.

The chicks entire theory falls through the floor when confronted with the fact that Boomers are batshit terrified of technology and when a young person tries to explain how to use a computer to them they get offended at the idea that a young person knows more than them and either relegate them to a position so intolerable they quit or outright fire them. Boomers and their sticky gently caress-brained sense of management is a constant thorn in the side to younger workers who understand more about the products and services they offer than the boss actually does. Whinging about how 'A McJob is supposed to be temporary until you move into more serious work' would also be a fine worldview if more serious work was available and Boomers refuse to accept that Starbucks is the new All American 9-2-5 and when their generation disassembled all of the nations industry and shipped it overseas in pursuit of the golden margin. Articles like this are perfectly happy to consider every aspect of 'Millennial life' as an unconnected series of statements in vacuums that have no nuance or inter-sectional issues but when it comes to Life Over 50 you've plenty of shitholes like Huffpo50 celebrating how being old is _totally_ better than being young because being young is for retards. Boomers are the most entitled generation of humans that has ever loving lived and they're on a crusade to whinge as hard as they can for as long as they can that people younger than them aren't interested in their out-dated view of the loving world and their role in it as technologically incapable wrinkled toddlers covered in tacky loving gold and driving ugly retarded British sportscars which represent a world which no longer exists.

Ape Fist fucked around with this message at 02:31 on May 4, 2016

# ? May 4, 2016 02:28

OXBALLS DOT COM: Sep 11, 2005; by FactsAreUseless; Young Orc

Millenials are lazy because theyve lost faith in the american dream because boomers killed it

# ? May 4, 2016 02:31

FedEx Mercury: Jan 7, 2004; Me bad posting? That's unpossible!; Lipstick Apathy

Why aren't you wasting your entire life slaving at the office so your bosses can get a bigger bonus? What's wrong with you assholes? Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah

# ? May 4, 2016 02:36

Dreddout: Oct 1, 2015; You must stay drunk on writing so reality cannot destroy you.

Ape Fist posted:

The chicks entire theory falls through the floor when confronted with the fact that Boomers are batshit terrified of technology and when a young person tries to explain how to use a computer to them they get offended at the idea that a young person knows more than them and either relegate them to a position so intolerable they quit or outright fire them. Boomers and their sticky gently caress-brained sense of management is a constant thorn in the side to younger workers who understand more about the products and services they offer than the boss actually does. Whinging about how 'A McJob is supposed to be temporary until you move into more serious work' would also be a fine worldview if more serious work was available and Boomers refuse to accept that Starbucks is the new All American 9-2-5 and when their generation disassembled all of the nations industry and shipped it overseas in pursuit of the golden margin. Articles like this are perfectly happy to consider every aspect of 'Millennial life' as an unconnected series of statements in vacuums that have no nuance or inter-sectional issues but when it comes to Life Over 50 you've plenty of shitholes like Huffpo50 celebrating how being old is _totally_ better than being young because being young is for retards. Boomers are the most entitled generation of humans that has ever loving lived and they're on a crusade to whinge as hard as they can for as long as they can that people younger than them aren't interested in their out-dated view of the loving world and their role in it as technologically incapable wrinkled toddlers covered in tacky loving gold and driving ugly retarded British sportscars which represent a world which no longer exists.

Don't serious post in this thread. It's not worth your valuable time, friend!

# ? May 4, 2016 02:36

Dreddout: Oct 1, 2015; You must stay drunk on writing so reality cannot destroy you.

A Millennial posted:

Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah

# ? May 4, 2016 02:38

Harald: Jul 10, 2009; by Fluffdaddy

its all the transgender crops kids are eating nowadays

# ? May 4, 2016 02:39

glowstick party tonight: Oct 4, 2003; by zen death robot

grits are a garbage food

# ? May 4, 2016 02:44

Who Is Paul Blart: Oct 22, 2010

Kiss my grits op

# ? May 4, 2016 03:01

Sex Weirdo: Jul 24, 2007

# ? May 4, 2016 03:08

SurfaceDetail: Feb 17, 2016; by Cowcaster

wow yall get salty about some lib arts lady owning you. I have a thread to record these and begin the healing process. Flailing about for 50 pages in this thread ranting about baby boomers and how everyone is out to get you is not mentally safe

# ? May 4, 2016 03:09

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# ? Apr 26, 2024 01:49

numberoneposter: Feb 19, 2014; How much do I cum? The answer might surprise you!

its ok i never wanted a house kids career or to be a real human being any ways

# ? May 4, 2016 03:23

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