Sometimes the hardest thing to accept when we come into our own maturity is that we, “the elders”, actually know what the hell we are talking about. I certainly thought my parents were idiots when I was 16 and I knew e v e r y t h i n g that mattered to a 16-year old.
Of course, by 25 we laugh at our 16-year old versions and regard our younger selves as fools, since, at 25 we are so wise relative to 16.
A word from the wise… we still don’t know much at 25.
And so it goes that at work, we look at the younger generation of millennials and watch them as they navigate their roles and discount our wisdom. And we wonder if we have any chance in hell of imparting our knowledge or if we need to let them fail a lot more than the average 20- or 30-something did when we were that age.
As a friend put it, this younger generation grew up knowing technology, but we had to grow up without it and then learn it later. So actually, we have a hell of a lot more wisdom because we’ve seen both sides. And yet we are considered the dinosaurs.
With every newer, younger generation, there is a level of smugness about what they’ve seen and what they know and what they’ve grown up with.
And there is truth in the idea of reciprocity in learning. But one thing is for sure, technical skills cannot outweigh years of experience. Technically my 8-year old may be a better and faster skier than me, but I know how to read the weather and snow better, and I have the resourcefulness to get out of a sticky situation.
Sometimes it takes having truly lived, and therefore failed a lot, to be able to navigate how to make the best decisions.
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