Recognize Your Generational Affinity

Anything that is in the world when you’re born is normal and ordinary and is just a natural part of the way the world works. Anything that’s invented between when you’re fifteen and thirty-five is new and exciting and revolutionary and you can probably get a career in it. Anything invented after you’re thirty-five is against the natural order of things.

➤ Douglas Adams, The Salmon of Doubt

We’ve looked at cognitive biases so far in a sort of static light. But of course, nothing is static. The biases you fell for several years ago are probably different from your current faves. But they might have a lot in common with your peers along the way, and they might differ dramatically from folks who are a little older or a little younger than you are.

As Douglas Adams points out, the biases you form change over time, and taken as a whole, the biases that drive any particular generation will be different from the biases that drive you and your peers.

Some folks value the stability of their job at the expense of any amount of abuse from their boss. Other folks will pack up and quit at the slightest perceived offense. Folks who are driven to work all hours can’t understand the folks who cheerfully pack up at 5 p.m. and head home to be with their family, and vice versa.

These are more insidious forms of bias than the bugs we’ve looked at so far—values and attitudes that are so ingrained you wouldn’t even think to question them. But they can dramatically affect your judgment and your perception.

Have you ever pondered why you value those things you value? Are they the values your parents instilled in you? Or are they a reaction against those who raised you? Did you ever sit down and deliberately decide to be liberal, conservative, libertarian, or anarchist? A workaholic or a slacker?

Or were you just born that way? Well, partly. We’ll look at the “just born that way” factors in the next section. But remembering that context is king, let’s look at you in the context of your peers and your environment.

Consider the context.

You are a product of your times—perhaps much more so than you think. The attitudes, philosophies, and values of your parents and your cohort (those born about the same time as you; your peers throughout school and in the workplace; members of your generation) have a tremendous impact on your values, attitudes, and perceptions.

You and the rest of your cohort are united by shared memories, common habits, and popular styles, as well as your age and station in life at that time. For instance, the terrorist attacks of 9/11 were a major, shared global event, affecting everyone. But depending on whether you are in your 20s, your 40s, or your 60s, your reaction to those events will differ—and align more closely with everyone else who is in your similar age bracket.

How might your attitudes differ? Here are a couple of axes I can think of:

• Risk taker vs. risk averse

• Individualism vs. teamwork

• Stability vs. freedom

• Family vs. work

Different generations inherently have different values, and your own attitudes and concerns change as you age as well. As you and your cohort age, you begin to fulfill roles vacated by the previous generation, but you’ll adapt the situation to your own outlook.

Here’s a quick synopsis^[84] of the last several generations in America, including the approximate birth years for each generation. These ranges are necessarily fuzzy; if you are born near one of the inflection points, you may find yourself identifying more with an adjacent bracket than with your nominal one.

And of course, these are broad generalizations at best. So, it’s not to say that if you’re born in these years that you have these traits, rather that taken as a whole, these cohorts tend to exhibit these traits. Remember these aren’t laws or set-in-stone prescriptions; these are useful abstractions to model group behavior^[85] and help raise your awareness of a larger scope of context.

These are broad generalizations.

GI generation, 1901--1924

All-American, get-it-done builders

Silent generation, 1925--1942

Gray-flannel conformists

Boom generation, 1943--1960

Moralistic arbiters

Generation X, 1961--1981

Free agents

Millennial generation, 1982--2005

Loyal, nonentrepreneurial

Homeland generation, 2005--???

Just being born now; half of this generation will have Millennial parents

We’ll ignore the under-twenty set for the time being and take a closer look at each of the grown-up generations in turn.

The GI Generation, 1901--1924

This generation produced the first Miss America and propagated the idea of the all-American athlete. They built the suburbs and moon rockets, and they fought valiantly in World War II.

The command-and-control, rigidly hierarchical military metaphor for business—and then for software development—has its roots here.

The Silent Generation, 1925--1942

Next up, the gray-flannel conformists. This generation vastly expanded the legal system and continues a distinct focus on due process but not necessarily on decisive action.

As a possible example, consider a recent Iraq Study Group report, staffed largely by folks in this age group, which listed seventy-nine recommendations but not a single action item.

This group generated—and enjoyed—unprecedented affluence.

The Baby Boom Generation, 1943--1960

Ah, the Baby Boomers. Perhaps the most recognizable—and largest—generation, formed in the heyday of post--World War II optimism.

This group engendered a dramatic increase in crime rates, substance abuse, and risk taking in general. The tendency for this generation is to see themselves of arbiters of national values; they have always wanted to “teach the world to sing” (remember the 1970s Coca Cola commercial?).

But this inherent desire to save the world doesn’t manifest itself in particularly realistic or pragmatic ways. This group is less interested in outcome and more interested in approach. Their moralizing, which reflects their all-important values, may sound preachy to other generations.

Generation X, 1961--1981

One of the best descriptions I’ve read of Gen X described them as being “raised by wolves.” These are free agents, with an inherent distrust of institutions. They form the greatest entrepreneurial generation in U.S. history.

Gen X is the greatest entrepreneurial generation.

Fiercely individualistic, and perhaps a bit on the dark side, they’ll just quit and move on if there’s a problem at work. They resist being labeled at all costs. They might be viewed as undisciplined by other generations, or they might be accused of not playing by the rules.

This group is less interested in civics, believing that one-on-one involvement is more effective. They are quite pragmatic, working for a positive outcome regardless of any particular ideology or approach.

Millennial Generation, 1982--2005

In this generation, the pendulum swings away from individualism toward greater team-based work; there’s a decrease in risky behaviors and a noticeably less edgy approach than their Gen X or Boomer predecessors. They are loyal to the organization and not nearly as entrepreneurial as the Gen X’ers.

Although they don’t set out to save the world, they do have a greater emphasis on civics, and they expect that those in authority will fix the problem.

All Together Now

In today’s culture (circa 2008 or thereabouts), we have a unique situation, one that has not happened before. We have all these generations present in the workplace at the same time, interacting with each other, getting along—and sometimes not.

While working at a large Fortune 10 company that shall remain nameless, I had the good fortune to be mentored by a older professional who took an interest in me. Even though it was early in my career, I had significant skills in Unix that my peers did not, and so this fellow saw—and adopted—a kindred spirit.

For several years we worked together; he showed me undocumented, arcane tricks and tips, and I showed him advanced theory from my then-recent degree. But the day came when I announced I was leaving that company. He basically never spoke to me again.

He was of the Silent generation that valued company loyalty—for life. My departure was an unpardonable sin to him. Although that attitude seems quaint and old-fashioned now, it was widely held at the time. I was seen by many in the organization to be a troublemaker—a disloyal maverick who wasn’t playing by the rules. In fact, I was just acting as a typical X-er ready to move on, having learned what I wanted to learn and having tired of the commute.

Today, of course, the prevailing cultural attitude has shifted. It’s not generally expected that you should stay with one company for more than a few years. But that will change. The Millennial generation may well come to embrace loyalty, favoring hierarchical, strong organizations. They will react to their collective perception that the Boomers are preachy and impractical and the X-ers are lazy and undisciplined.

But attitudes will change.

Each generation’s reaction to the perceived weakness of the immediately preceding generations creates a repeating pattern over time. In this case, the generations after the Millennials will react to their values, and the cycle repeats.

That means your generation’s attitudes are somewhat predictable. And so is the next generation’s. In fact, there may be only four distinct generational types.

The Four Archetypes

According to researchers Neil Howe and William Strauss,^[86] if you look back through American history in the United States and Anglo-American history in Europe all the way back to the Renaissance, you’ll find only four prototypical, generational archetypes.

These four types repeat over and over again, in a continuing cycle. For the last twenty or so generations in America since the Pilgrim-laden Mayflower landed here in the 1620s, there was only one exception. Following the Civil War, one generation was so badly damaged that they never took their place in society, and the adjoining generations (especially the older generation) filled in the gap.

These generational generalizations^[87] help shed basic understanding as why people value the things they do and remind us that not everyone shares your core values or your view of the world.

Here are the four generational archetypes and their dominant characteristics:

• Prophet: Vision, values

• Nomad: Liberty, survival, honor

• Hero: Community, affluence

• Artist: Pluralism, expertise, due process

Their research explores how each archetypical generation can create the next: archetypes create opposing archetypes in a typical example of the “generation gap.” But that generation then creates one that opposes it, and so on.

Archetypes create opposing archetypes.

For the current generations in play, see the archetypes map shown here:

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Figure 15. Howe/Strauss generational archetypes

According to the Howe and Strauss model, I am among the eldest of Generation X, on the cusp of the Boomers.^[88] I tend to identify with the theoretical Gen X characteristics, especially survivalism, pragmatism, and realism. And I think the most striking to me personally is to realize that not everyone sees the world that way.

Although I can see the Boomer’s point of view on many levels, that group’s ascribed lack of pragmatism—often placing their own values ahead of practicality—frustrates me. Not everyone values pragmatism; this group values ideals more so. My approach to pragmatism can be seen as “cheating,” as in “You’re just doing that because it works.”

Well, that is the general idea, as far as I’m concerned. But that’s my viewpoint, probably typical of my generation and probably not typical of others. Each generation faces these kinds of conflicting approaches with adjacent generations. And members of each generation will tend to defend their inherent approach above others.

How This Affects You

Not everyone shares your deep-seated values, and that doesn’t mean you’re right or they’re wrong.

So, which approach is right? It depends. Context remains king; sometimes it may be more appropriate to stick to your principles regardless of consequences, as a Boomer might. In other situations it is clearly better to take a pragmatic approach, as an X-er. Command and control hierarchies have their place and can be quite effective; that’s why they are popular (and not just with the GI generation). But in other circumstances, such as many commercial software development projects, a rigid hierarchy is disastrous.

It’s likely that you will naturally prefer the approach and values favored by your generation. But realize where this influence is coming from. Perhaps your fierce individualism isn’t a trait unique to yourself. Perhaps many of the characteristics you admire in other people and aspire to attain in yourself don’t come from any deep reasoning or logical basis but instead from the times in which you were born.

Where does this influence come from?

Bear that in mind as you passionately argue for or against a topic. Are you making a logical argument, an emotional one, or just a familiar one? Is it the right argument in this particular context? Have you really considered other points of view? Rationality is often in the eye of the beholder, so you want to hedge your bets.

The best way to keep from falling victim to your generation’s particular set of biases is to embrace diversity. If you and your team all think alike, you might see your reinforced collective viewpoint as the only viable one. It’s not. Just because you treasure your approach, your individualism, or your teamwork doesn’t mean that younger or older folks will share that view or that it’s the right answer in this context.

Next Actions

• Determine which generation you were born into. Do those characteristics resonate with you? Does a different generation resonate better?

• Determine the generations to which your co-workers belong. Do they coincide or conflict with your values?

• Think about the history of software development methodologies. Do you see a trend over time that coincides with each new generation’s values?