28 Comments
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Andree Koehler (she/her)'s avatar

We were and continue to be the generation Boomers wish they could've been.

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Chalise's avatar

👏👏👏

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red wireless's avatar

Google 'Productivity vs Worker's Compensation Gap Graph' and whichever sorurce (Statista, Dept of Labor, etc) the data will be the same: when Gen X enters the labor force productivity skyrocketed but wages stayed the same. To this day.

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Liz LaPoint's avatar

I believe it!

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Rob "Flack" O'Hara's avatar

We were the first generation who had to learn how to program the time on a VCR before we could tell time. We've had to master every type of television connection in order to hook up everything from Pong to a PS5. Helping people print just came with the territory. My kid was amazed to learn I was on Substack; wait 'til he hears about how I used to code HTML by hand in Notepad. Mad Max 3 was like our memoir. We run Bartertown.

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Sim1776's avatar

Lord, do I identify with that tweet in the middle. I'm the everything support for my parents and children. Went and replaced my parents outdoor hose bib then helped my daughter set up her wi-fi when the cable guy finally installed her service. Typical Saturday lol.

Jay-Z has the stink of Diddy but the rest of the list is impressive. We'll definitely leave our mark on the world and gee after having a guidance counselor tell us in high school that we're lazy slackers who will amount to nothing during one of those career assessments; we were laughing at how serious he was administering the test.

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Xan Cassiel's avatar

Ironic placement of the Office Space picture because, honestly, I learned my work ethic not from parents, or Business books, or school, but from watching Kung Fu. I love Kung Fu.

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Chris L.'s avatar

In fairness some of us are indeed lazy smart assesses. 🤷🏼‍♂️

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Liz LaPoint's avatar

😆

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Sonny Rane's avatar

Great piece, Liz, and so true! We're DIY personified. Hell, most of us don't even know how to ask for help. Sure, we roll our eyes some time. But then we roll up our sleeves and Get 'Er Done.

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Liz LaPoint's avatar

Thanks!

So true; I’ve rarely ever asked for help. When I think of all the ways others have helped me, they voluntarily gave me their time, advice, support, money, etc. Your comment is making me think about that more, I never connected it to being Gen X before.

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The Crazy Cat Lady Writes's avatar

John Scalzi, writer. "Old Man's War" pretty much put him on the map for sci fi/sci fi opera books.

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Rob Janicke's avatar

Great article! This is exactly why I sarcastically named my book about Gen X…SLACKER.

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Rowan TwoSisters's avatar

1971, I own or co own three business!

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Laura’s Ramblings and Rantings's avatar

Yep yep

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Supercraft's avatar

Nailed it.

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Primitive Ledger's avatar

I think we were slacking for a few years at the beginning, which is why and how we were lumped in with the real slackers of the baby boom in Douglas Coupland's Generation X book and that awful Generations book (And the dopey Linklater films). Those books were published in the early, early 1990s, so we hadn't been slacking for very long. We just didn't know where we fit in, only that we didn't want to become robot accounts or worse. We weren't slacking for very long. And I don't think younger Gen Xers were ever slacking, despite how media may have portrayed them.

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The Autistic Rebel ~ MrJoe's avatar

🤣🫶

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Jason 🥄's avatar

I WISH GenX were the slackers the Baby Boomers insisted we are.

That would be so much better than what we actually are.

No. We’re just the generation that ended almost 250 years of democracy to elect a fascist dictator.

I haven’t hated my generation this much in 30 years.

https://youtu.be/XOsNsOhyG8I?si=QesDyywltSHjlt_N

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Liz LaPoint's avatar

I hate that as much as you do, but I’m skeptical our generation can be blamed for it. I wrote about this, if you’re curious: https://open.substack.com/pub/genxcellent/p/are-most-maga-republicans-gen-x?r=oqdsc&utm_medium=ios

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Primitive Ledger's avatar

Well, we were more split than those voting charts indicate due to the inclusion of 5 years of younger Baby Boomers with the Gen X age group. Voters in their 60s (not gen Xers) went for DT at a near 60% clip. It's disgusting and cruel. Now watch them start denying it as we get into the grim reality of what losing that election meant.

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Darcy Fiona McNair's avatar

You described it perfectly. Yes, we have both Soft Skills and Hard Skills!

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