This Millennial Rant Deserves A Trophy For Being Most

Wrong
By now, there's a good chance you've seen this viral video about "millennials in the
workplace," which has over four million views. If you're on social media, you've
probably seen people share it with comments like "insightful" and "this," which
translate to "I agree with what he's saying, but can't make a compelling argument as to
why." And the media certainly loves it:

The speaker is Simon Sinek, who, among other things, is a "leadership consultant" and
sells books and courses on how to make people work better. It's suspicious that a man
whose livelihood revolves around being paid to solve problems in the workplace is
telling us that there's a big new problem in the workplace that needs to be solved. But
the larger issue is that his speech is vapid, full of baffling generalizations, and, frankly,
a little insulting. So at the risk of being a sensitive, self-entitled snowflake, allow me to
explore how this random middle-aged man didn't "perfectly explain" anything.
Sinek says millennials "confound" business leaders because they're unhappy in
the workplace, despite being given a "purpose" and lots of free food, because
millennials are apparently kindergartners settling in for snack time. The first cause of
this problem is supposedly "failed parenting strategies”. Sinek rattles off a bunch of
generalizations about how millennials were constantly told they were special when
growing up, as opposed to all those other generations who were told they were useless
pieces of shit. He also says that millennials got into honors classes and got top grades
not by earning them, but because their parents complained to teachers. Wait, was that an
option? Weird, when I got bad grades, my parents just told me to study more. If any of
my peers' parents were yelling at the school to make their kids look smarter, I certainly
wasn't aware of it. Sinek then complains about participation medals. "They got a medal
for coming in last," he says, raising his eyebrow like we should all find this equally
hilarious and appalling. Sinek says "the science is pretty clear" that this awful act
devalues hard work while embarrassing the people who came in last. That’s weird, it
took me five seconds to find science that says the exact opposite -- that rewarding
effort encourages kids to keep trying, and helps them see the value of hard work. And
maybe, just maybe, giving a kid a plastic medal when they're eight doesn't forever shape
their psyche.
 Simon, let me tell you about my participation trophies. I got them for playing
soccer, and they were handed out from a bag at the end of the year at lunch time. My
response to getting the trophy was not: "Well, I’m sure that with this prize I'm going to
get a well-paid job as an adult." It was: "Cool, a trophy! Now I'm going to go back to
thinking about Pokemon or playing, because I am a child." Later, it was a nice reminder
of time spent playing with my friends, and as I got older, eventually only the teams that
won were rewarded. This did not make us sad -- it was what we expected, and wanted,
because we were actually capable of observing adult society, and we noticed that
professional sports teams weren't handed many trophies for constantly losing.
But Simon says all of this caused us to drift through life until one day we entered
the "real world," which to Simon means the workplace. And once we are in the "real
world," we were all surprised to discover that we weren't special and that our moms
couldn't make our bosses give us promotions. And so "in an instant, their entire self-
image was shattered." What? Do you think no millennial ever watched their parents
struggle with their career? Do high school and college exams, where you are literally
graded on your performance and told that it will shape your future, not count as a "real
world" which can affect your self-image? What the fuck are you talking about? But
Simon is convinced that because of this, millennials have lower self-esteem than
previous generations.
Simon then discusses social media addiction by pointing out that texting,
Facebook, Instagram, etc. can give your brain a hit of dopamine. While that's true,
Simon disingenuously compares it only to addictive behaviors like smoking, gambling,
and drinking, while ignoring that you can also get a release of dopamine by exercising,
accomplishing a goal, or getting a hug from a friend. Also, that's a vast
oversimplification of what dopamine is and does. Simon argues that we have "an entire
generation that has access to an addictive, numbing chemical through social media and
cell phones." Sure, and we all have access to drugs and alcohol too. Have you noticed
that, while some people struggle with alcohol addiction, we haven't become the first
generation in human history to be made up entirely of alcoholics? Because most people
are in fact capable of consuming in moderation?
But no. To Simon, we're all addicts incapable of forming proper human
relationships or even sitting through meetings, and our lives are all going to be
destroyed by our iPhones. Next, he adds a "sense of impatience" to our many desires.
Amazon has next-day shipping! Netflix lets you stream movies! Tinder exists! But there
"is no app" for job satisfaction and strong relationships, and this is apperently making us
hate our lives because we're not instantly making a difference in the world.
Hey, Simon? I know that changing the world through hard work and having the
ability to stream a movie whenever I want are vastly different, I'm not a goddamn
moron. Yes, some millennials have unrealistic expectations because they're still
adjusting to adult life.
Simon concludes by blaming corporations for not teaching millennials patience,
social skills, and how to find fulfillment. "The total lack of good leadership in our world
today is making them feel the way they do" is the conclusion he conveniently arrives at,
arguing that companies need to work harder to make up for the failures of society and
parents. And nothing says "good management" like "substitute parents." His solutions
include taking cellphones out of conference rooms and dinners with friends, and having
more small talk instead. Solving an entire generation's problems is as easy as your dad's
family dinner rules. Put down the phone and you'll enjoy life more. That's the ingenious,
never-before-heard conclusion that this 15-minute video with four million views was
building toward.
Well thanks, Simon. Now where's your solution to the fact that salaries are going
down while the cost of health care and education and housing is going up? What
leadership solutions will help the fact that 40 percent of America's unemployed are
millennials? Social media addiction can be a problem, sure, but that's like saying the
biggest problem on the Titanic was that the food was too salty. Millennials aren't
stressed out because their Facebook posts aren't getting enough likes; they're stressed
out because the economy is shaky and society's reaction is "Stop texting so much and
learn to love life, you self-centered kids!" Where I live, the unemployment rate is 8.5
percent. My millennial friends would like job satisfaction, but some would also just
love to have a fucking job. Don't infantilize us. Don't act like you're some great sage
gifting us with wise insights when you refuse to acknowledge the actual problem.
Complaining about millennials is an industry now. Those angry headlines
generate clicks, and Simon is far from the only person to have written about how to
"manage millennials," as if they're self-centered aliens who just arrived on the planet.
But we're not unique. Baby boomers were dubbed the "Me Generation" because they
were considered lazy and narcissistic. The goddamn ancient Greeks complained about
their uppity kids. If every generation was as lazy as the previous generation claimed,
we'd have already devolved into moss-covered sloth people.
You want to know the real secret to managing people well? Treat them as
individuals, not a faceless mass sharing the same traits.

Grammar: recognizing types of nouns

Collective nouns: A collective noun is a noun that names group of individual people or
things.

Exercise 1: Circle the nouns in the following sentences. Underline the five that are
collective nouns.

1.- It was common for a group to use drums, signals, or lanterns to send messages.
2.- These messages could only be seen or heard by a crowd a short distance away.
3.- During World War I, messages were tied to the legs of pigeons and sent to distant
troops.
4.- Flags or lights were used by a team to send a message over hilltops or between ships
at sea.
5.- These codes were called semaphore systems by their audience.

Compound nouns: A compound noun is made up af two or more words. They are
usually written in on of three ways:
Separate words Hyphenated words Combined words

Hard drive Cure-all Congresswoman

Chief justice Cha-cha Network

Empire State Building Mother-in-law Classroom

Exercise 2: The following paragraph has a total of ten compound nouns. Underline each
one of them.

The U.S. Postal Service was established by the government. The position of postmaster
general was created to supervise the mail service. The first postmaster general was
Benjamin Franklin. The pony express was started by the United States Post Office. The
riders carried mail on horseback and were known for their prompt delivery. Mail was
also carried on stagecoaches. Today, the United States Postal Service is self-supporting
and is exploring many new technologies.

Using Common and Proper Nouns

All nouns can be divided into two large groups: common nouns and proper nouns. A
common noun names usually a general class of people, places or things. A proper noun
names a specific person, place or thing. In a sentence, common nouns are not
capitalized. Proper nouns are always capitalized.

Common Nouns Proper Nouns

book Alexander Graham Bell

village New Hampshire

inventor The New York Times

Exercise 3: Place a C after each common noun and a P after each proper noun.

House Janitor Saint Joseph

History Media Anchor
Century Lens Venice Beach
Blackboard Shelf Ray Charles
Newark Airport Couch Sunrise
Colombus Circle Lawyer Mug

Exercise 4: Replace each underlined common noun (and it’s article) with one of the
proper nouns supplied. You will use one of the proper nouns twice. Make other minor
changes as needed.

Samuel F. B. Morse, New York, United States, Morse Code

The telegraph was the first electronic medium. It sent and recieved electrical signals
over long-distance wires. One of the first inventors of the telegraph was a man. He was
an artist and inventor who lived in a country. In 1837, the man demonstrated the system
in a city/state. The code later revolved from his invention.

Subjects and verbs

The number of the subject of a sentence will always indicate the number in which the
verb must be conjugated.
Exercise 5: Conjugate the verb in the parenthesis according to the subject.

1.- Lena and Stef ________ (meet, simple past) at a party in the suburbs.
2.- I _________( write, simple past) a novel during spring break.
3.- You always __________ (break, simple present) my heart when you don’t
_________ (answer, simple present) the phone.
4.- When he __________ (notice, simple past) the fire, he__________ (scream, simple
past) as hard as he could.
5.- We _________ (think, simple past) Mark_________(hit, simple past) his sister but
she__________(say, simple past) it________(to be, simple past) Will.
6.- They_________(steal, simple past) the computer from the classroom.