Is the client rep or GC you’re going to lunch with a Marshall or Fulbright scholar? Well, do not drag people under 30 along. They think Flaubert is a food, Marx a chain of movie theaters, and Disraeli my second favorite Cream album.
As “bright” and “educated” as they are, the vast majority of the younger hires (Slackoisie, Gen Y, Gen X, Echo Boomers, Looters or whatever we are calling them this week) I’ve met, known, worked with, or worked against in the last decade–in my firm’s shops or in other workplaces–are at best semi-literate. And, yes, semi-literate, the more I think about it, is going a bit too far.
They don’t know anything about “The World So Far”.
It is not their fault, maybe. I don’t care how they got this way. We don’t need to probe for reasons or cast blame.
These people just need to change. But me? Nope. I don’t need to change to accommodate “them”–any more than I “need” (a) a lobotomy, (b) to watch any reality TV, or (c) to snort solvents and cleaning products.
Newsweek/F. Martin Rami