Millennials Will Pwn the Future – Part II

by futurist Richard Worzel, C.F.A.

Yesterday I explored how it almost seemed as if the Millennial generation (born roughly from 1980 to 2000) seemed to be designed for the world we will experience in the future – or vice-versa. I'm going to continue that exploration today and tomorrow.

The emergence of AI and smart computers, the rise of automation– Whereas Boomers, with their life-long fixation on security, have problems with all the changes being wrought by technology, the Millennials have experienced nothing but constant change in technology. As a result, they aren’t threatened by the rise of smart computers, they’re eager to embrace it.

And, as AI spreads (rapidly) through the economy, organizations are finding that getting people to work with smart computers rather than merely replacing people with automation produces better results. Computers, even those with wizard AI, are fundamentally stupid. And Millennials, with their comfort with technology and computers, are faster to embrace, explore, and adapt smart computers and AI to a wide range of problems, especially unexpected ones, with the result that they can lead organizations into the smart adoption of smart machines faster than their elders.

The rise of the global economy and a global community– The global economy has been emerging for decades, but the trend has been accelerating in the past 20 years (always assuming that the Trump administration doesn’t completely wreck it). Meanwhile, the explosion in communications, especially through social media and the Internet, has led to a much greater awareness of other peoples, cultures, and ways of life.

Earlier generations, who were largely raised in monocultures with occasional sprinklings of people of other backgrounds, races, or religions, and virtually no (accepted) variations in sexual orientation or expression, typically feel threatened by this more wide-open world. As a result, they tend to resist multiculturalism, non-binary sexual expression, and different foods and cultures, despite the growing awareness that diversity of workforce produces diversity in ideas, and hence leads to a more creative, and more profitable organization.

Millennials are often derided because they all got participation medals at competitive events, “winning by showing up,” as it’s sometimes described. But when you combine this with the focus on working in teams that Millennials experienced in school, you get a generation that is largely accepting of diversity, and sees it as a natural, and good, thing. As a result, they are willing to work, cooperate, and learn from people who are different from them. This produces a more harmonious workplace, and helps them splash through subjects that are new to them. They learn faster, and work better with others. And in a steadily more diverse world, that is a real advantage.

Financial and economic disparity (the rise of the 1%)– While it would be foolish to say that Millennials are uninterested in money or things, they assign them a lower priority than earlier generations, especially Boomers, for whom ownership equates to status. 

Millennials tend to value experiences more than the ownership of things, and they are less motivated by wages or salary than they are the experience of working, good or bad. They work for fulfillment more than money, and want their work to mean something, to make a difference in the world. This will become increasingly important as time goes on, and as they move up into ever-higher positions of authority.

As I said earlier, the Boomers equate things (and money) with status, and the richest people in the economy are virtually all Boomers – and like it that way. But economists have long known that concentrating wealth in a few hands leads to social unrest, and eventually revolution.[1]So, I believe that the Millennials’ acceptance of others, the lower priority they assign material goods, and their interest in social activism will all lead to a greater willingness to work against the concentration of wealth, and towards greater fairness in the way social and economic structures are arranged. 

As a result, unlike the Boomers, Millennials want a fairer world more than they want to be the one who dies with the most toys.

The rising threat of climate change– Boomers generally grew up with a static world view. The world was as it was, and while there were always extreme weather events, they didn’t really mean anything. Things would always be the way they were when we were kids. Anything else was highfalutin nonsense.

Millennials grew up in a world where climate change was always part of the discussion. They don’t have to be dragged into an awareness that climate is changing – it’s obvious to them. As a result, as they gain more economic and political power, they are more likely to move the world towards sustainability. They won’t have to be convinced of its importance – they already believe it. And their social activism means that they will make choices that support sustainability, on an individual basis, for the organizations for which they work, and for the world as a whole.

They make me optimistic about humanity’s ability to respond constructively to the threats and challenges of climate change.

The final part of this blog can be found here.

[1]This is the so-called Gini coefficient. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gini_coefficient