A Pragmatic Millennial

The world is a strange place. How does the future generation of leaders make sense of it? In the age of growing instability in every region, independence of all people, and integration on all levels of society. Here's an attempt at deciphering everything,...

[apragmaticmillennial-blog]

Happiness: Other’s Expectations vs.  Our Own Reality

I have spent a lot of my last post talking about the expectations that we face on a day-to-day basis. Sometimes it seems that no matter what we do, we can never be good enough for those around us.

Sometimes our parents are the ones who expect too much from us. Sometimes it’s our friends. Professors. Significant others. The most likely culprit is society though. Society seems to expect so much from us nowadays. It is harder every year to get into each good school. It seems that there is always more and more competition for the good jobs out there. And, finally, it seems like there is always someone else who the girl/boy of your dreams likes more.

But consider this: What if most of the exorbitant expectations come from us. What if it is our perception of what is expected of us that creates the tremendous pressure that we feel. We don’t have to get into the best schools, get the best jobs, and get that one girl to be happy. It might help, but the road to attaining this will be hellish.

There are two reasons why I’m talking about this: the LSAT and Fallout 4. These two seemingly unrelated things are currently waging a war within me. For those of you who haven’t realized it yet, I have now logged maybe a hundred hours worth of LSAT prep. For those of you who don’t know, Fallout 4 will come out on Tuesday and I have a pre-ordered Pip-boy Edition.

So there you have it, that battle between the adult me who wants to spend hundreds of hours studying for the LSAT that is almost a year away, and the younger me who wants to spend that time playing Fallout 4. Its causing me anxiety and I’m torn between the two. Every one of us has a similar war raging within us. We also lean to one side or the other.

I think that the ideal lies somewhere between the two. The extremes are always bad. My roommate is one extreme. He works constantly and never really has fun. He’s losing his personality. Another friend of mine is the other extreme. He is smart but cannot embrace any responsibility.

A healthy balance is where it really is but, in the face of Fallout 4 and a pip-boy, I don’t really know just how well I’ll be able to maintain that balance.

What it boils down to is this: you have to decide what will make you happy because at the end of the day your happiness (and that of your loved ones) is really what matters in life. So be what you want to be. You are responsible yourself and that’s it (unless you have a family to support of course).

So be whoever you want to be, and be happy. Be yourself and you will be happy.

[apragmaticmillennial-blog]

Second Post: The Value of ‘Not Giving A Damn’ Every Once In a While

The second post is the hardest one. I have started different topics three times by now. But no more. Let’s talk about (read the title above)...see what I did there? (Hint: I didn’t give a damn)

Here’s the situation:  You’re the president of the chess club and the model UN. You’ve just applied for four different internships with four different prestigious companies. You’re studying for your LSAT every day. You also have four midterms and an essay coming up and haven’t had time to start prepping for any of them. You haven’t called your parents in weeks, your grandparents in months. You’re having trouble finding time for your friends or any of your hobbies. You’re exhausted, frustrated, and stressed. What do you do?

-----------

We millennials are the generation that everyone expects a lot from. (this is especially apparent when we are in college)

We have to get good grades, have many activities, and have a social life. On top of having to balance all of this, we are expected to also sleep well every night, shower thoroughly every day, and eat a wholesome meal thrice a day. There are two problems with all of this: (1) There’s only 24 hours in a day. (2) We’re only human.

We have limits.

-----------

(continued - two weeks later) You get an email from your first choice company. You got rejected. Earlier today, you received a B from an exam that you tried your very best at. You were too tired that day to notice subtleties in the questions. You are way behind on your LSATs. On top of all this, the chess club and the model UN are starting to get pissed at you because you haven’t been giving them your full attention.

You haven’t eaten or slept properly in days.

You feel like you’re about to snap. AND THEN...

-----------

We constantly hear that everyone around us is doing so much with their lives and we think that we have to do the same. What we don’t realize is that either they are lying about most of the things they do, or they are exhausted and miserable.

At some point we all have to realize that we have limits. After all, that is what college is really about. You are suddenly confronted by people who are just as smart as you, just as hard working as you, and hence you struggle to compete.

You have to realize that you are you, and you have needs. Maybe you should call your mom and dad, they haven’t heard from you in ages, and they love you. Maybe you should turn on your playstation and play Skyrim for a while, we can’t let the dragons overpopulate after all. Go see a good movie, go relax. Be you. Stop being the drone, that mindless drone that our great schools are turning you into.

The chess club will be pissed. The Model UN people may get mad at you. You may have to put off studying for the LSAT for a day. But at the end of the day, you don’t owe anyone else anything. You owe you, and the people who are close to you, everything.

You allow yourself take a deep breath. You allow yourself to let go. Just for a while.

A miracle has happened.

The world did not implode. (nor did it explode) You are still the president of your clubs, the LSAT book is still on your desk. Your exam are still scheduled. Your other applications are still being processed.

But you’re now relaxed, and free. You’re ready to face tomorrow. Maybe you’ll quit the chess club and go out with some friends, or that great boy/girl you met the day before. (he/she seemed to like you, right?)

The point is that we can’t be going at 100% all the time, lest we either (a) burn out or (b) become miserable. Know your limits. Be prepared to let go every once in a while. Relax. 

You, everyone around you, and the world, will be better for it.

----------------------

AND THEN...

You take a deep breath, and you relax. 

The world hasn’t ended. You look left, you look right. You have three more midterms, but you know most of the stuff anyway. The LSAT is months away, so it’s okay to cool it a little. The chess club doesn’t REALLY need a full time president and the Model UN can handle themselves for a while. (they’re not the real UN after all)

You decide to call your parents, and then your grandparents. You go spend time with friends. You shut the world out and play your favorite video game or read your favorite book.

You reevaluate your life and find a balance that works better for you. Your grades go back up, your relationships with friends and family improve. You eat well, sleep well, you even start exercising.

Why did you do all that? Why didn’t you snap? The world was against you! Nothing was going well! WHY DIDN’T YOU JUST LOSE IT?!

Because you realized that wouldn’t help. You just grew up another inch. You’re now a whole lot wiser. 

Why?

Because you learned the value of not giving a damn every once in a while. ;D

[apragmaticmillennial-blog]

Lost Potential - How Elite Schools Turn People into Conformists

Wow. This is the first real post, and this is a heavy topic. We talked about luck in the last post so let me reveal here that I am DEFINITELY one of the lucky ones. That is why I’m making this journey. But here’s the deal - I believe that to a large degree we can influence our own luck.

One of the ways to do that, is to work our asses off, and get into excellent schools (colleges). I go to one of the best colleges in the world (not bragging but this establishes my credibility when I proceed to bash and criticize them). There are many people here who come from the poorest of families, yet have worked their asses off and reached stellar heights.

I believe that every person who gets this lucky, is now bound by a lot of responsibility. People out there are hungry, scared, cowering in war zones. They are dying. We were the lucky ones. If you’re in the west and are reading this, you are lucky relative to just about anyone in Syria, for example. 

This is NOT a “check your privilege post”. I don’t believe in that BS (more on this in another post). This is a “maybe you should reconsider taking art history as a major” kind of post. Because we have a duty to give back to the community and to help our fellow man. The fact remains that most people don’t see it that way. Most people here get drunk for 4 years and then work at their daddy’s firm. But then there are those who emerge and make the world better.

But, this is not what this post is about, as you can tell from the title. So let’s get to it:

I look around this school and all I see is incredible, incredible potential. In every one of these students (barring most athletes and legacy people), there lies the potential and the power to chart their own course, create products, services, and programs that will change the world. My class includes a girl who found a way to better detect breast cancer before she even applied to college. I mean, the opportunities are staggering. 

Yet most people never use them. My friends, incredibly talented people (mostly computer science majors), dream about working for Google, or Apple, or Facebook (possibly the most useless company out there). That’s all great, but they can do so much more. 

They could start their own companies, build products previously unseen, start technological revolutions. 

Instead they will become a cog in a massive machine. One that will slowly but surely rob them of their personality until they become 9-5 drones working on whatever their boss tells them to do. Their boss will probably be a talentless hack by the way, because that is how corporations work.

Other friends of mine are studying Economics to enter the finance world and are stressing about interviewing for JPMorgan, and Goldmann Sachs, and all the other perpetrators of the Credit Crunch. When they tell me that I think: great, making the rich richer. Fantastic. They do it for the money because there is nothing else to it. They could go into government, or become academicians, spawning economic theories and policies that would help out those in need and save the world. Instead they too will become corporate drones, not 9-5 corporate drones mind you, but more like 24/7 with bathroom breaks corporate drones.

Finally there is the example of my own field: law. There are fellow pre-laws at this school who gleefully admit that they want to do corporate or patent law for the money. This actually makes me want to cry. For two reasons. Primarily, they too will become corporate drones, working for KPMG or another behemoth that will turn them into administrative slaves and drown their full potential. They could be litigating cases before high courts, making the law more equitable and efficient, punishing those who are guilty, but instead, they have sold out, just like everyone else. Secondly, 

So here’s the challenge for today: consider taking your talent and developing it. Don’t settle for a job at a corportation. EVERYONE is doing that, which is why you should not. Start your own company. Create a service or product that will help people. At the end of the day, it will also net you more money than working at a massive company as a disposable cog. We all have the potential to do good for the world, and the sad part is, that those who have the most, rarely do anything with it. Go and change the world, take a path no one else has taken before. 

You can always go back to Facebook, or JPMorgan, or KPMG if you give up, but this does not necessarily work the other way around. 

Be warned, most people say that they will only stay in a corporation for a few years, just to “gain experience”, but then five, ten, twenty, years go past. They may be at a different corporation but the result is the same. They look in the mirror one day and see a hollow husk of what they once were, their ideas gone or outdated, the world a worse place for it.

[apragmaticmillennial-blog]

First Post - The Beginning of the End?

It’s a hard knock life for us (the young). We’re supposed to take over this world when the older generations give it up, but it seems like there is less and less to take over.

The global economy is on uneasy ground. Megacyclones have been forming. Wars, some known, some forgotten, are being waged across the globe. (I also recently found out that the plague, yes, THE plague, still exists)

Let’s face it, our parents did not do a good job of taking care of this world. Matter of fact, they straight up screwed up more than they did well. (post 1989 at least)

The truth is that when we graduate from, high school, college, or graduate school we are unlikely to find a good job unless we have been extremely lucky. This luck usually comes in the form of quality education. Those of us who have been lucky will become our future leaders. Now, the rest of us are lucky that they have been so lucky. We are lucky that their luck will let them govern us with our consent ;). 

If they, and by extension us, are lucky then they can face this terrifying new world with some level of fake confidence and maybe calm it down, let it heal, save it. 

I won’t lie to you. This blog is for me, mostly, it’s a place to put down my thoughts on matter, and to form, on (electronic) paper, my true self. It is a journey of self-discovery. DON’T STOP READING!

It is a journey of self-discovery, yes, but it will be done through an honest and objective look at what the world is truly about. I will explore subject in a wide range of matters ranging from economics, through politics, philosophy, ethics, society, history, etc. You get the picture.

The one thing that will link all of these things is pragmatism. After all, common sense is not all that common, but I believe that if I can check myself, I can get to some level of it.

This blog is for me yes, but it is also for the lucky ones out there. It is for the leaders of tomorrow who are formed today in our great schools, college, and post graduate programs. Hopefully these posts will show some of you how to abandon extreme views, or at least be able to actually justify them. Hopefully this can be another source, an anthology is pseudo-wisdom for those who will make the decisions that will shape this world.

This blog is also for those out there who are lucky by extension (read above). Hopefully this will inspire you to look at things differently. The world is terrifying, yes, and it is NOT fair. Mostly it is confusing and contradictory, but maybe this will help you decipher it a little more. Maybe it will help you become one of the lucky ones.

So read these posts for fun, or to learn, to get another perspective. I’m gonna enjoy this journey as much as any one else. I will strive to be the voice of reason (and it doesn’t matter if no one is listening, because at least I will be).

Tumblr does not allow question marks. If it did the title of this blog would be: A Pragmatic Millenial? No one else believes that we can be that. Let’s prove them wrong.

This world is not on a positive course. It is spiraling out of control. Fast. We need to steer it back into a brighter future. Ultimately, it will be our generation that will determine whether this is the beginning of the end, or the end of the end and the beginning of a new and better beginning. So fight on, fellow millenials, for our children and for those generations that have failed us.