a generational difference

Being in the army is like being in the Boy Scouts, except that the Boy Scouts have adult supervision.
Blake Clark
(from The Quotations Page)

It's funny how something random can trigger a memory. In particular, this quote triggers a memory of a discussion I had with my father over dinner a few months ago. Since I've been in the career search process for sometime now, it often becomes the subject of discussion. Somewhere in the round, my father said, "This my be the failing of my generation: that we didn't teach your generation enough about entrepreneurship; we just taught you how to work for someone else and not how to work
for yourself."

I had never really thought about this until he mentioned it, but it does seem like much of the education my generation received was in the mindset of making us capable for when we go get a job rather than educating us own how to make it on our own. I'm not saying their aren't entrepreneurs in my generation, but I don't think they are as prominent or as highly regarded as in the past.

Maybe my generation sees ourselves as part of a larger system. This would make sense given our embrace of information technology and prolific exchange of ideas. After all, "everyone is on Facebook or MySpace," as a friend of mine has said. We try to make ourselves part of a larger network, communicate via a barrage of text messages, email, instant messages, etc., instead of going to speak with each other in person. The miracle of it is in-person communication is still valued, I don't know anyone who would rather leave a room and email or text message someone rather than talk to them if they're sitting next to each other.

I have to wonder if this is a sign of our culture having left an era of "small operations" for one of major interconnected systems. It certainly seems to be the case.

-the Progressive Conservative