Generational Legacy

Thursday, June 5, 2014, 10am to 11:30 in the Meeting Room (behind the fireplace)

What will our generation pass to the younger generation? We will explore this issue in the month of June. We will start by soliciting ideas from our members based on their personal experiences. Tim will lead the discussion. Vince has offered this write up to get things started.

Zoom-in and Wisdom: An Inter-Generational Discussion

Most of our group members are in their seventh decade and have accumulated much wisdom. We have accumulated knowledge and have experienced much in life. There is a deep reservoir of knowledge and understanding that should be shared with younger generations. Yet, having a conversation with members of younger generations, often with children and grandchildren is sometimes difficult.  The younger generation can learn from us. We’ve experienced life far longer and often with more consequences than have the younger generations.  We have been exposed to much, such as the Great Depression, World War II and many societal changes that have impacted our communities during the 60s, 70s and into the present. Our experiences and insights are valuable. They need to be shared with the younger generations.  For example, the Great Recession of 2009, in my opinion, was not recognized as a potential crisis by the younger generation that had not experienced the direct or indirect effects of the Great Depression of the 1930s. 

Is there anything in your life experiences that you would like to share with the younger generations? If so, what would it be? What problems have you had to overcome? What successes have you achieved and why?  How best to communicate with the younger generations some of your wisdom without threatening them; or being dated and appearing irrelevant to their concerns? 

Likewise, we can learn much from the younger generations. I know I feel threatened when I see my grandchildren and other youth zipping around with technological gadgets with which I am quite unfamiliar. There is in my opinion no “greatest generation” as Tom Brokaw has identified the generation of the Great Depression and World War II.  Each generation has its own challenges and problems to overcome. Whereas,  many of us have had economic issues to overcome and educations to obtain, the younger generations have different and no less no less challenging issues to confront.  The global economy, social culture, overwhelming technological change, and a host of other issues are on the agenda of  younger generations.  How would you like to be facing a global economic competition as are the millennials?

In sum, I feel our group has much to offer younger generations and much to learn from them. I propose that we dig into our own experiences and discuss how to share them with younger generations. We as individuals have had different experiences that have had great impact upon where we are today. I suspect that as we reflect on our lives we can come up with some common themes that would capture what we would want to discuss in a manner to be presented to young people who are not party to our Zoom-in discussion.

We are seniors having discussions among seniors.  Generational  differences are often mistaken for developmental differences of youth becoming  adults.  For example, have youth throughout the ages  differed from their elders; Or are the younger generations of today really facing a future that is fundamentally different?

Although our discussions have been enlightening and informative, they are generation bound and biased.   Let’s open the window, or if you prefer a door initiating an intergenerational discussion.

Issues to discuss over our lifetime and project into the future.  (Add your own)

• The American Dream;   Inheritance of wealth and community values;

•  Diversity: race, ethnicity and social class,

• Employment/Unemployment;   Military Service

• Family structure:  How does it matter and what difference does it make?  Raising children

• Education- How should youth be educated and what should they learn?

 Note: There is no official definition of what constitutes a generation. Often ages used as a guideline when talking about generations. I have read in, Generation Inc. , that age should not determine generational groups, but rather social events and demographics that were happening at their inception. For example, many of us have been called a “traditional”  group, born before World War II, while others, are in our group are referred to as baby boomers. As we grow older it is the “context” in which we were born, and come of age,  that defines the  perspective for how we view life. and determines to which generation we belong.   A “traditional” will  always be a traditional and a baby boomer will always be a baby boomer and so on with generation X. generation Y, millennial’s and generations yet to be defined.

-------------------------- Update 5/3/14  ------------------------

Tim has provided an outline of what we will cover this month.

These ZOOM-IN discussions assume that the future may not be as promising for our grand children and great grand children.  Not as promising as it was for us and our children.  It may well be that many virtues, values, skills, and life lessons taught to us by our parents, grandparents, and experience can serve future generations well.  

Let us try to identify and package them in a way that is meaningful and useful.
 Session One:  An initial list of discussion topics will be provided.
 1.     What is missing from the list of discussion topics?
2.     What is our experience* (a quick survey) regarding each of the topics – both positive and negative.
 Sessions Two and Three:
 1.     Discuss each topic area and both our positive and negative experiences.
2.     Try to formulate a consensus statement regarding our positive and negative experience for each topic area.
3.     Determine guidance that can be passed on to future generations.
 Session Four:   

1.     Continue to determine guidance that can be passed on.
2.     Discuss possible uses that can be made with fruits of our efforts.
  *  No embarrassing examples or confidences please.

The New Economy, Recap

Thursday, May 29, 2014, 10am to 11:30 in the Meeting Room (behind the fireplace)

This month we examined the driving force of the new economy, technology. There is little doubt that we are in a second industrial revolution and should see a sharp rise in productivity. What is in doubt is if employment is still coupled to productivity. In our discussion about Automation we have seen that while productivity has recovered from the Great Recession, jobs have not. As technology advances, even more jobs will be threaten.

The new technology has enabled individuals to make free information and services available on the Internet. While the quality of our lives have improved from theses acts of Altruism, none of these free goods add to the GDP and have displaced many traditional jobs.

The new technology has also spawned new services based on Collaboration between individuals. More people can share the use of more goods instead of owning them outright. Since people like to share and ownership can be a hassle, the quality of life can actually improve by spending less. But the decrease in aggregate demand can have a negative impact on the current economy.

Finally, we examined how technology has supercharged the Maker Movement, leading to the explosion of small businesses. This may actually be how new technology will increase employment so we can actually enjoy the fruits of technology.

In last week's meeting on the Makers, I focused on how technology was empowering individuals, but did not show how it will improve the overall economy. The maker movement in better explained by Chris Andersen in his book, Makers: The New Industrial Revolution. Anderson has given a talk about his book at Google, HERE.

------------------- Update 5/28/14 --------------

I found a better talk by Chris Anderson about the Makers given in the UK, HERE. It covers the same material as his Google talk, but he explains more since his audience is less tech oriented than at Google.

The Maker Movement

Thursday, May 22, 2014, 10am to 11:30 in the Meeting Room (behind the fireplace)

We have seen how the new technology is eliminating traditional jobs. But the same technology has opened new possibilities in how goods are designed, finance and produced. This week we will examine the Makers Movement which is in essence Open Source for hardware. Here are some TED Talks for background:

• Massimo Banzi: How Arduino is open-sourcing imagination
• Ayah Bdeir: Building blocks that blink, beep and teach
• Dale Dougherty: We are makers

Even the Obama administration is getting on the Maker bandwagon by announcing the first-ever White House Maker Faire.

Altruism in the New Economy

Thursday, May 15, 2014, 10am to 11:30 in the Meeting Room (behind the fireplace)

There is a lot of free stuff on the Internet. Although most of it is supported by advertising, there are some free and useful websites that are truly supported by altruism. Wikipedia is the primary example. In our next meeting we will discuss the role that altruism plays in the new economy. Is it profound or just hype? Will is create or destroy jobs? Here are some TED Talks that will provide some background and examples of altruism on the web.

• Jonathan Zittrain: The Web as random acts of kindness
• Clay Shirky: How cognitive surplus will change the world
• Marcin Jakubowski: Open-sourced blueprints for civilization

-------------------- Update 5/15/14 and 5/16/14 -----------------

1) For those that want more detail on the Youtube vs, Pakistan incident can koi at this article, How Pakistan knocked YouTube offline.

2) From Dave Lenzo, link to Brief History of the Internet.

3) The three founders of the Internet who were high school classmates were Vinton Cerf, Jon Postel and Steve Crocker, and the school was Van Nuys High School. Zittrain did not mention other Internet founders, notably Bob Kahn.

4) Before making jokes about Al Gore inventing the Internet please read the facts. Here is what actually happened.

Automation

Thursday, May 8, 2014, 10am to 11:30 in the Meeting Room (behind the fireplace)

Continuing with the month's theme on the New Economy, we will look at how technology has led to a jobless recovery.  In the eBook, Race against the Machine, Andrew McAfee and Erik Brynjolfsson see automation to be different from of the past. Now automation cause more jobs to be lost than gained. They see the trend to continue, but also see the crisis as a good thing.

Here are three TED talks by the two authors.

• Andrew McAfee: Are droids taking our jobs?
• Erik Brynjolfsson:The key to growth? Race with the machines
• Andrew McAfee: What will future jobs look like?

McAfee and Brynjolfsson have recently updated their eBook as a regular book, The Second Machine Age.

-------------- Update 5/9/14 -------------------

For those interested in a more comprehensive talk by McAfee and Brynjolfsson, here is a video of the authors presenting their idea of how the new automation is killing jobs to Google.