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The Premium Mediocre Life of Maya Millenial

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Re: The Premium Mediocre Life of Maya Millenial

#41

Post by jancsika »

> When I tell them I made a bit of money investing, they think stocks, not blockchains. I’m not even going to try explaining bitcoin to them. They don’t need the aggravation.

So many questions:

1) Why would any human think blockchains and not stocks when you talk about investing?

2) Humans shouldn't be investing in Bitcoin unless they have money that is 100% disposable (which, judging by the tone of your blog, you don't).

3) You should try explaining Bitcoin to your parents. Trying to explain something will help reveal whether you actually know what you're talking about or not. I'm going to guess that you don't understand how a blockchain fundamentally works. I am guessing this because you're using "blockchain" as an example of something grokked by people on the younger side of the digital divide but not by the older side. If you think the grokking of blockchains is so widespread that you can use it as a shorthand for the digital divide, then I seriously doubt you grok blockchains.

4) Are you seriously investing in Bitcoin, or was that just poetic license?

Edit: clarification and typo

Re: The Premium Mediocre Life of Maya Millenial

#42

Post by dang »

arkh wrote: post #20
yaway wrote: post #7

there are too many digressions and obscure inside-references in this essay, but this cuts to the heart of the matter: "[Premium mediocre] is an economic and cultural rearguard action by young people launched into life from the old middle class, but not quite equipped to stay there, and trying to engineer a face-saving soft landing…somewhere." i'm 24 and while i can see the humor and hyperbole in this article, its als…

"overall i feel my generation, or at least my social strata, will mature to be colder, harder and more distant than our predecessors. all it will take to cement this transformation is another recession " I think you're wrong. I think the previous generation was colder and harder than us. Boomers exploited the silent generation. Boomers got children as a sacrifice to their never-ending hunger for more. They're the col…

> They're the cold, hard and calculating ones who fucked and are fucking over every other generation.

Could you please not post rants like this to HN? Generational generalizations are unsubstantive enough as it is; we don't need the rat poison of rage in there also.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Re: The Premium Mediocre Life of Maya Millenial

#43

Post by pjc50 »

jancsika wrote: post #41

> When I tell them I made a bit of money investing, they think stocks, not blockchains. I’m not even going to try explaining bitcoin to them. They don’t need the aggravation. So many questions: 1) Why would any human think blockchains and not stocks when you talk about investing? 2) Humans shouldn't be investing in Bitcoin unless they have money that is 100% disposable (which, judging by the tone of your blog, you do…

The author hints that they bought in early to bitcoin and have made some money that way, although obviously they don't go into detail. Perhaps they do not quite believe the gains themselves, and certainly can't work out how to explain it.

The author is slightly too old to be a true Millenial.

Re: The Premium Mediocre Life of Maya Millenial

#44

Post by kbuchanan »

CalRobert wrote: post #22
_mhyx wrote: post #11

This is kind of meandering, and it loses the thread a bit in the end (it feels like he's getting to a point he's uncomfortable with ideologically), but it's extremely accurate. The bigger point about creating the future - that he seems to miss - is that it's a future _not everyone wants_, which drives a huge part of the "maga/bernie" divide he discusses. He is right though - the rate of downward mobility among my you…

"They spent 3 weeks in Europe a month ago" For what it's worth, it's hard to know what to do. For a lot of people your 20's are about the only time you can spend three weeks in Europe if you're American (most don't get paid holidays). By the time you're in your thirties there's a decent chance you've found yourself stuck to a spouse, a kid, alimony, or a mortgage, and even if you do go the experience won't be the sam…

But that's the basic point: premium mediocre represents the belief that three weeks in Europe is the right choice when you're young and near broke. It's this part of the millenial value set (whatever their economic prospects) that starkly contrasts them from past generations.

Re: The Premium Mediocre Life of Maya Millenial

#45

Post by pjc50 »

I have a very strong feeling that this article is covering the same ground as "traditional" sociology and philosophy, but without using any of the same vocabulary. The bits about performative lifestyles sound very much like Baudrillard, although I'm not quite qualified to say.

Re: The Premium Mediocre Life of Maya Millenial

#46

Post by pjc50 »

kbuchanan wrote: post #44
CalRobert wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"They spent 3 weeks in Europe a month ago" For what it's worth, it's hard to know what to do. For a lot of people your 20's are about the only time you can spend three weeks in Europe if you're American (most don't get paid holidays). By the time you're in your thirties there's a decent chance you've found yourself stuck to a spouse, a kid, alimony, or a mortgage, and even if you do go the experience won't be the sam…

But that's the basic point: premium mediocre represents the belief that three weeks in Europe is the right choice when you're young and near broke. It's this part of the millenial value set (whatever their economic prospects) that starkly contrasts them from past generations.

Certainly if you expect to have good economic prospects. I don't think it's a new phenomenon either; "Europe on $5 a day" was the classic Boomer travel book.

https://www.smartertravel.com/2017/06/19/56-years-later-euro...

Re: The Premium Mediocre Life of Maya Millenial

#47

Post by jp57 »

I'm having a hard time distinguishing "premium mediocre" from "bourgeois" as the term is applied to tastes and preferences.

As with so many other neologisms, I think this concept is already amply covered in English's huge vocabulary.

Re: The Premium Mediocre Life of Maya Millenial

#48

Post by skybrian »

DerfNet wrote: post #28
mfoy_ wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've never understood the instagram / facebook game that people seem to dedicate inordinate amounts of effort to... I mean, I guess it's just your typical one-upsmanship in a social network... but still. People try so hard to make it look like their lives are better than everyone else's... I don't understand. :(

I have acquaintances on Facebook that pose and cheese for the camera seemingly every day, and others who apparently schedule their posts as if they're marketing themselves as a lifestyle brand or something. Like, we get it, you like mountain biking and camping, but you didn't do that stuff on a Wednesday. I know where you work, and it's not the woods.

I'd guess that's just when they got around to posting their pictures? Why so cynical?

Re: The Premium Mediocre Life of Maya Millenial

#49

Post by klenwell »

jancsika wrote: post #41

> When I tell them I made a bit of money investing, they think stocks, not blockchains. I’m not even going to try explaining bitcoin to them. They don’t need the aggravation. So many questions: 1) Why would any human think blockchains and not stocks when you talk about investing? 2) Humans shouldn't be investing in Bitcoin unless they have money that is 100% disposable (which, judging by the tone of your blog, you do…

> Why would any human think blockchains and not stocks when you talk about investing?

Good question. What I've seen enough millenials to slightly alarm me is that they don't think stocks or blockchains but multi-level marketing schemes.

Are they more susceptible to being drawn into these than any other cohort? I'd guess probably not (I remember seeing Amway jugs in my parents' garage as a kid), but with social media it just feels that way.

Anyway, between college debt among white collar millenials with decent jobs and crappy service-sector jobs among the rest, I suspect the real problem is they just don't have anything to invest.

Re: The Premium Mediocre Life of Maya Millenial

#50

Post by arkh »

notyourwork wrote: post #36
arkh wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"overall i feel my generation, or at least my social strata, will mature to be colder, harder and more distant than our predecessors. all it will take to cement this transformation is another recession " I think you're wrong. I think the previous generation was colder and harder than us. Boomers exploited the silent generation. Boomers got children as a sacrifice to their never-ending hunger for more. They're the col…

> They're the cold, hard and calculating ones who fucked and are fucking over every other generation. Can you elaborate on how so? I don't agree or disagree because I don't understand how you feel the boomer generation fucked over everyone else?

Fucking over the previous generation: instead of taking care of your parents once they're old just put them in a "old people ready to die" home.

Fucking over the next generation: up the requirements for jobs (education and experience) so it is harder for them to find one. Concentrate jobs in some huge cities and refuse new constructions so the rent can go up way more than salaries. In most countries setup a Ponzi scheme for pensions where you paid peanuts because there were not a lot of pensions to pay while you were active but now that you are there the active:passive ratio is a lot worse. And my favorite: sell the college experience (especially humanities) to people who can't afford those.

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