That is interesting. It's not what I've seen in my kids' peer group. My youngest is an artist (she is a way more talented artist than I am) and she has never entertained the idea of studying art or pursuing it because she's too pragmatic and always has been. Just curious—and I know that this is a waaay cynical view of things—what is the demographic of these kids? Because most of my kids' friends are first gen or immigrants and all these kids are choosing majors that they hope will lead to decent paying jobs (although I'm also cynical about the job market too, ugh).
Sell out or just needing to live? 😬 As I wrote, life is just too expensive now so compromises need to be made and we have to be fine with saying yes to stuff that I would have said no to (not that I'm about to do any corporate sponsorships or anything like that). I had a phone call with one of my kids again yesterday, wondering if she has even heard that term tossed around and she said no. She knows what it means, but younger folks just don't think that way.
As far as wages go, our income has shrunk so much it is laughable, which is so dispiriting and also, like, I don't even know how that is working, considering we live in NYC and are also paying for college tuitions. Our frugalness and aggressiveness towards saving and investing is really carrying us far—and I am so, so thankful for that.
I work from home and my husband is home during the summer - it's an adjustment every single year. The benefits (he'll deliver me cups of tea) eventually win me over, but I selfishly love an empty house to myself. Really good post as always; hard to comment on just one aspect!
Hi Samantha! It's nice to see you pop up here. Yeah, it's very weird for me. It messes up my strict diet right now as I'l be curious to see what he makes for lunch haha. But also happy for him that he gets to chill a little bit after working strenuous jobs before.
I was so obsessed with him after that doc. He is SO funny. He's an alumni of Laguardia High School (the Fame school) where my oldest went and he designed a t-shirt for the school when she was there. I treasure that thing haha.
I was hoping you'd write about that Gen X piece. When I saw it getting shared online I thought, this can't be that true to life. Then I read it and was like, oh my god, they got it exactly right. I got a degree in music videos in 1999, which is such a Gen X thing. I moved to NYC because of it, thinking 'yes, music videos will be my lifelong career,' lolsob. They should rename us Gen Pivot.
Yeah, it was sent to me by a few people, then my tech-y grad school email list was discussing it. It really hits close to home. Also how many people pivoted to becoming therapists! I think we might be the first generation to be this pivot heavy with our careers, but I read that the generations after us will be pivoting many more times in their career than us. Nothing has longevity anymore.
Oh, I dunno. I am older than you and I think we are all quite idealistic in our younger days and then reality kicks in. As time goes by, we need to have developed practical skills that someone is willing to pay us for. Funny how the responsibilities of parenthood can help us come to this realization pretty fast. We can still be multifaceted people and pursue varied interests while still supporting ourselves and our families in a decent lifestyle. Love your clever writing BTW.
I think we're generally agreeing. Yes, we get less idealistic as we age and we realize we need money to live and raise a family if we choose that route. The article is centered on how those corporate jobs which we bought into are squeezing us out, now that we are aging. A decent lifestyle is really expensive these days and for some of us, our incomes are shrinking.
I love this post. I’ve scratched my head with a handful of salty old skater graffiti hip hop friends about the total disappearance of the no-sell out ethos. It feels like capitalism won and there is zero examination of what all this obscene consumerism is doing to society and our psychological well being. The cheat code, on the other hand, is to remind oneself that eschewing materialism leaves one in a world of abundance where the waste that Americans produce has the potential to provide for a good portion of our needs. Pretty sure I could scrounge up a free iPhone for the rest of my life if I didn’t insist on having the latest one. People don’t know what to do with all their crap beyond rent storage units. (But I digress)
With the exception of perhaps needing a storage unit for a short time after selling a parent’s home, I just cannot conceptualize having so much stuff that one is needed. I live squarely in suburbia, and the number of storage unit places that keep opening is mind boggling. Seriously considering buying a franchise as a “side hustle.”
Out of sight is out of mind, by and large, so once you START putting things there, it seems a very high likelihood that those things will stay there forevvvver.
I never had a storage unit although for a while it was my parent's basement. Now that my mom moved out of the house, we have nowhere to put any extra stuff. I live in a city apartment too so it's a constant cycle of buy and purge. And yes, you are right. From what I can tell from others, the stuff in storage units stay there forever.
Sell out ethos pretty much doesn't exist in the minds of Gen Z. I think I only recently realized that I don't hear that term anymore. I look forward to discussing this with you in depth as we complain about our respective health issues. I've pretty much eschewed materialism because if we keep making less money, something's gotta give.
My husband and I share our living room as workspaces 1-2 days of the week when we both work from home. Interestingly, I am more productive when he's around because I am so used to the office environment with coworkers. He, on the other hand, feels like I talk to him too much when he is trying to focus. It's a constant battle!
Well that is true that the office environment is a huge distraction - but it's also what makes it fun, the social aspect. As I wrote, it's still kind of new so we're still figuring it out 🤗
I can understand the weirdnesss Maya, and I was right there with you on monetization for years - more than a decade actually. But newsletters take so long to write and currently, it is the most steady source of small income, and I need to feel okay with that.
Wait. Do you still have that producers number? Maybe they would be interested in a reality show where a bunch of GenXers have to reinvent themselves, where they create all those scenarios that has AI usurp their jobs… I would sell out in a heartbeat!!!
The article hit so close to home especially the part about feeling grief and loss — that’s been me for the past year (freelance journo). I need to pivot but have no idea what to do and am tired!
I just replied to your note saying that it hit too close to home. So many of us are feeling the same way you are. I'm just trying to get by with a few small streams of income while I take care of health things and then regroup and figure out the next thing, though at this point I've accepted that I'm kind of done working any kind of full time office or corporate role. And I hear you on the tired part!
I’m with you on the can’t go back into corporate or staff life, too. I keep saying I need to figure out next steps and it’s like there’s no time with life things but need to take it. I’m with you on all that!! Thank you for putting it out there, too, and somewhat comforting to know we’re in this together.
"brands who would send me fully fleshed scripts, complete with the names of my children, outlining how to weave product placements into blog posts" ... um, you would think I would, at this point, be immune to any kind of shock about corporate behavior but this is just, wow, I could never have imagined this.
I don't know if I was ever an influencer (or whatever), but things were a bit bonkers back then. Think about how new this advertising model was for brands as traditional ads were starting to show cracks. I was a partner in an early blog network which was very early in the monetization space (early 2000s, before the personal blog I never monetized). We wrote about tech for women and products for parents and we had so many meetings with the big magazine publishers trying to pick our brains because they saw the writing on the wall on how bloggers were usurping their audience. Things were wild back then.
One time I was interviewed by a TV casting director about being a judge on a design challenge show and he said I was too nice. He prompted me to say more dramatic, critical things! I was like, sorry this is my personality. I just want everyone to succeed! 🤷♀️😂
i just read your latest newsletter, and the bit about this platform feeling healthier and less addictive and man...I feel like we're just buying time till it completely devolves to every other platform. I mean, we're practically there and it makes me sad.
I understand and love this post. I changed careers in my mid 30, into print! 1990s. Arg…I survived. But that was then. Things are more challenging now because there is no road map to where we are heading, what it will be like when we get there, and how things will work. Everyone is scrambling to do everything they can to be safe, secure, fed, and not on the streets.
Sellout is an old term like groovy, let it died like the leisure suit of polyesters. Now you are an independent, freelance initiator. You research, find resources to help others realize an income. Feel no shame in saying, pay for this content. Yes you get a free taste every two weeks, but I have to pay rent, insurance, food, gas and electric, etc.
Because I am 65 I can safely say, you will get through this. You will experience really tough times, but you will make do and develop skills, friendships that will last a lifetime. Hit farmers markets, for compensation ask for food instead? Barter, pot luck, carpools, fans, and a garden hose maybe your entertainment for a while, or maybe forever. Movies on dvd and don’t forget your library! You can and will be able to do this. It is just going to be different because this is an unknown, untraveled time in history.
Yes, we're in uncharted territory. Especially at this moment with the stock market plunges. I know we will get through this. Got through the dot com crash and the 2008 recession. The recession is how/why we started our business. We know how to be frugal - it's the only way we've lived! My immediate concern is being able to pay for our kids' college tuition right now. Thanks for a thoughtful, positive comment. Stay well!
As gen X i feel that turn of being the older one in conversation around, but also there is an overall changes that would affect all. While here in Europe the dynamics may be slightly different, i feel that smell of things collapsing. At this moment my main ressource is to recall my experience as teen about the end of the socialist system. Basically everything my parents build ( then in their 40) vanished - job, money due to crazy inflation, everything. Nothing worked, nothing existed ( food rationing), there was no roadmap, survival mode. To me the uncertainty is for sure a key factor as we got used to a largely foreseeable pattern, to rely upon. So in this uncertainty everyone needs to assess its assets and try to make the most of it.
I'm reading this a little after midnight on Sunday, about 8 hours before a likely stock market crash, a third day it's about to plunge, and what you say about the smell of collapsing is on upon us right now. Bracing myself...uncertain times are here.
I never really got to do anything you talk about. I have a degree in Graphic design from '86, worked in that for awhile, tried to start an art career in the nineties, but then gave up and became a carpenter, then a bus driver. Now I'm disabled and support a wife and the 4 kids still at home by delivering auto parts. "Selling out" implies there's something to sell out to, that your good situation might become much better if you take a wild risk, and I'd already done that. Since I had nothing, there was nothing to give up.
To be honest, for most of human history the kind of creative [and lucrative] career you refer to wasn't possible for anyone. Your only chance to do creative work was to be born into a family so wealthy or powerful you didn't have to work at all. But that isn't healthy for humans, and not realistic either.
Hi Gavin, thanks for much for your comment today. It's always great hearing others' perspectives. I started working in the 90s in graphic design as well, but then went back to grad school and transitioned to web then more tech eventually doing UX and product. Somewhere during art school at an early age (I was a fine art major, then switched and became a music major) I understood that being an artist was mostly possible if you had family money, just as you say. In another similar vein, when I was blogging, but also working as the family breadwinner, there were many women and moms who were able to turn their creative hobbies into businesses but largely because they were not the breadwinners in the family. All that to say, I'm generally agreeing with you that creative careers aren't possible for many people.
Your article, "Gen X Was Obsessed with Anti-Sellout Culture, but Maybe Capitalism Won After All," offers a compelling reflection on the evolution of the 'selling out' concept. The shift from Generation X's staunch anti-commercialism to today's more pragmatic acceptance of monetizing creative work is indeed noteworthy. This change mirrors broader societal transformations where economic realities have reshaped perceptions of authenticity and commercial success. Your insights contribute meaningfully to the ongoing conversation about how generational values adapt in response to changing cultural and economic landscapes.
That is interesting. It's not what I've seen in my kids' peer group. My youngest is an artist (she is a way more talented artist than I am) and she has never entertained the idea of studying art or pursuing it because she's too pragmatic and always has been. Just curious—and I know that this is a waaay cynical view of things—what is the demographic of these kids? Because most of my kids' friends are first gen or immigrants and all these kids are choosing majors that they hope will lead to decent paying jobs (although I'm also cynical about the job market too, ugh).
Sell out or just needing to live? 😬 As I wrote, life is just too expensive now so compromises need to be made and we have to be fine with saying yes to stuff that I would have said no to (not that I'm about to do any corporate sponsorships or anything like that). I had a phone call with one of my kids again yesterday, wondering if she has even heard that term tossed around and she said no. She knows what it means, but younger folks just don't think that way.
As far as wages go, our income has shrunk so much it is laughable, which is so dispiriting and also, like, I don't even know how that is working, considering we live in NYC and are also paying for college tuitions. Our frugalness and aggressiveness towards saving and investing is really carrying us far—and I am so, so thankful for that.
I work from home and my husband is home during the summer - it's an adjustment every single year. The benefits (he'll deliver me cups of tea) eventually win me over, but I selfishly love an empty house to myself. Really good post as always; hard to comment on just one aspect!
Hi Samantha! It's nice to see you pop up here. Yeah, it's very weird for me. It messes up my strict diet right now as I'l be curious to see what he makes for lunch haha. But also happy for him that he gets to chill a little bit after working strenuous jobs before.
Isaac Mizrahi had a talk show on Oxygen I was obsessed with. That and his dog and his appearances at Joe’s Pub and his line at Target. What a time!!!
I was so obsessed with him after that doc. He is SO funny. He's an alumni of Laguardia High School (the Fame school) where my oldest went and he designed a t-shirt for the school when she was there. I treasure that thing haha.
I was hoping you'd write about that Gen X piece. When I saw it getting shared online I thought, this can't be that true to life. Then I read it and was like, oh my god, they got it exactly right. I got a degree in music videos in 1999, which is such a Gen X thing. I moved to NYC because of it, thinking 'yes, music videos will be my lifelong career,' lolsob. They should rename us Gen Pivot.
Yeah, it was sent to me by a few people, then my tech-y grad school email list was discussing it. It really hits close to home. Also how many people pivoted to becoming therapists! I think we might be the first generation to be this pivot heavy with our careers, but I read that the generations after us will be pivoting many more times in their career than us. Nothing has longevity anymore.
Oh, I dunno. I am older than you and I think we are all quite idealistic in our younger days and then reality kicks in. As time goes by, we need to have developed practical skills that someone is willing to pay us for. Funny how the responsibilities of parenthood can help us come to this realization pretty fast. We can still be multifaceted people and pursue varied interests while still supporting ourselves and our families in a decent lifestyle. Love your clever writing BTW.
I think we're generally agreeing. Yes, we get less idealistic as we age and we realize we need money to live and raise a family if we choose that route. The article is centered on how those corporate jobs which we bought into are squeezing us out, now that we are aging. A decent lifestyle is really expensive these days and for some of us, our incomes are shrinking.
I love this post. I’ve scratched my head with a handful of salty old skater graffiti hip hop friends about the total disappearance of the no-sell out ethos. It feels like capitalism won and there is zero examination of what all this obscene consumerism is doing to society and our psychological well being. The cheat code, on the other hand, is to remind oneself that eschewing materialism leaves one in a world of abundance where the waste that Americans produce has the potential to provide for a good portion of our needs. Pretty sure I could scrounge up a free iPhone for the rest of my life if I didn’t insist on having the latest one. People don’t know what to do with all their crap beyond rent storage units. (But I digress)
With the exception of perhaps needing a storage unit for a short time after selling a parent’s home, I just cannot conceptualize having so much stuff that one is needed. I live squarely in suburbia, and the number of storage unit places that keep opening is mind boggling. Seriously considering buying a franchise as a “side hustle.”
Out of sight is out of mind, by and large, so once you START putting things there, it seems a very high likelihood that those things will stay there forevvvver.
I never had a storage unit although for a while it was my parent's basement. Now that my mom moved out of the house, we have nowhere to put any extra stuff. I live in a city apartment too so it's a constant cycle of buy and purge. And yes, you are right. From what I can tell from others, the stuff in storage units stay there forever.
Sell out ethos pretty much doesn't exist in the minds of Gen Z. I think I only recently realized that I don't hear that term anymore. I look forward to discussing this with you in depth as we complain about our respective health issues. I've pretty much eschewed materialism because if we keep making less money, something's gotta give.
Ah!! what a fun surprise to see that hat tip!! and I'm so glad nettles & tulsi have been good allies for you!
Yeah, it really stuck with me. I love it!
My husband and I share our living room as workspaces 1-2 days of the week when we both work from home. Interestingly, I am more productive when he's around because I am so used to the office environment with coworkers. He, on the other hand, feels like I talk to him too much when he is trying to focus. It's a constant battle!
Well that is true that the office environment is a huge distraction - but it's also what makes it fun, the social aspect. As I wrote, it's still kind of new so we're still figuring it out 🤗
You just explained why I can’t bring myself to turn on paid subscriptions. It just feels weird, which is of course ridiculous.
I can understand the weirdnesss Maya, and I was right there with you on monetization for years - more than a decade actually. But newsletters take so long to write and currently, it is the most steady source of small income, and I need to feel okay with that.
Wait. Do you still have that producers number? Maybe they would be interested in a reality show where a bunch of GenXers have to reinvent themselves, where they create all those scenarios that has AI usurp their jobs… I would sell out in a heartbeat!!!
That's just called scrolling on social media, Gérard. 😂
The article hit so close to home especially the part about feeling grief and loss — that’s been me for the past year (freelance journo). I need to pivot but have no idea what to do and am tired!
I just replied to your note saying that it hit too close to home. So many of us are feeling the same way you are. I'm just trying to get by with a few small streams of income while I take care of health things and then regroup and figure out the next thing, though at this point I've accepted that I'm kind of done working any kind of full time office or corporate role. And I hear you on the tired part!
I’m with you on the can’t go back into corporate or staff life, too. I keep saying I need to figure out next steps and it’s like there’s no time with life things but need to take it. I’m with you on all that!! Thank you for putting it out there, too, and somewhat comforting to know we’re in this together.
🫶
"brands who would send me fully fleshed scripts, complete with the names of my children, outlining how to weave product placements into blog posts" ... um, you would think I would, at this point, be immune to any kind of shock about corporate behavior but this is just, wow, I could never have imagined this.
I don't know if I was ever an influencer (or whatever), but things were a bit bonkers back then. Think about how new this advertising model was for brands as traditional ads were starting to show cracks. I was a partner in an early blog network which was very early in the monetization space (early 2000s, before the personal blog I never monetized). We wrote about tech for women and products for parents and we had so many meetings with the big magazine publishers trying to pick our brains because they saw the writing on the wall on how bloggers were usurping their audience. Things were wild back then.
One time I was interviewed by a TV casting director about being a judge on a design challenge show and he said I was too nice. He prompted me to say more dramatic, critical things! I was like, sorry this is my personality. I just want everyone to succeed! 🤷♀️😂
I believe it! I mean all those reality competition shows had to be partly scripted!
Everything is producer driven these days!
i just read your latest newsletter, and the bit about this platform feeling healthier and less addictive and man...I feel like we're just buying time till it completely devolves to every other platform. I mean, we're practically there and it makes me sad.
I know!!! Ugh. What if we just go back to Flickr? 😂
Some people never left Flickr, haha. I always wonder who those people are.
I understand and love this post. I changed careers in my mid 30, into print! 1990s. Arg…I survived. But that was then. Things are more challenging now because there is no road map to where we are heading, what it will be like when we get there, and how things will work. Everyone is scrambling to do everything they can to be safe, secure, fed, and not on the streets.
Sellout is an old term like groovy, let it died like the leisure suit of polyesters. Now you are an independent, freelance initiator. You research, find resources to help others realize an income. Feel no shame in saying, pay for this content. Yes you get a free taste every two weeks, but I have to pay rent, insurance, food, gas and electric, etc.
Because I am 65 I can safely say, you will get through this. You will experience really tough times, but you will make do and develop skills, friendships that will last a lifetime. Hit farmers markets, for compensation ask for food instead? Barter, pot luck, carpools, fans, and a garden hose maybe your entertainment for a while, or maybe forever. Movies on dvd and don’t forget your library! You can and will be able to do this. It is just going to be different because this is an unknown, untraveled time in history.
Yes, we're in uncharted territory. Especially at this moment with the stock market plunges. I know we will get through this. Got through the dot com crash and the 2008 recession. The recession is how/why we started our business. We know how to be frugal - it's the only way we've lived! My immediate concern is being able to pay for our kids' college tuition right now. Thanks for a thoughtful, positive comment. Stay well!
As gen X i feel that turn of being the older one in conversation around, but also there is an overall changes that would affect all. While here in Europe the dynamics may be slightly different, i feel that smell of things collapsing. At this moment my main ressource is to recall my experience as teen about the end of the socialist system. Basically everything my parents build ( then in their 40) vanished - job, money due to crazy inflation, everything. Nothing worked, nothing existed ( food rationing), there was no roadmap, survival mode. To me the uncertainty is for sure a key factor as we got used to a largely foreseeable pattern, to rely upon. So in this uncertainty everyone needs to assess its assets and try to make the most of it.
I'm reading this a little after midnight on Sunday, about 8 hours before a likely stock market crash, a third day it's about to plunge, and what you say about the smell of collapsing is on upon us right now. Bracing myself...uncertain times are here.
I never really got to do anything you talk about. I have a degree in Graphic design from '86, worked in that for awhile, tried to start an art career in the nineties, but then gave up and became a carpenter, then a bus driver. Now I'm disabled and support a wife and the 4 kids still at home by delivering auto parts. "Selling out" implies there's something to sell out to, that your good situation might become much better if you take a wild risk, and I'd already done that. Since I had nothing, there was nothing to give up.
To be honest, for most of human history the kind of creative [and lucrative] career you refer to wasn't possible for anyone. Your only chance to do creative work was to be born into a family so wealthy or powerful you didn't have to work at all. But that isn't healthy for humans, and not realistic either.
Hi Gavin, thanks for much for your comment today. It's always great hearing others' perspectives. I started working in the 90s in graphic design as well, but then went back to grad school and transitioned to web then more tech eventually doing UX and product. Somewhere during art school at an early age (I was a fine art major, then switched and became a music major) I understood that being an artist was mostly possible if you had family money, just as you say. In another similar vein, when I was blogging, but also working as the family breadwinner, there were many women and moms who were able to turn their creative hobbies into businesses but largely because they were not the breadwinners in the family. All that to say, I'm generally agreeing with you that creative careers aren't possible for many people.
Your article, "Gen X Was Obsessed with Anti-Sellout Culture, but Maybe Capitalism Won After All," offers a compelling reflection on the evolution of the 'selling out' concept. The shift from Generation X's staunch anti-commercialism to today's more pragmatic acceptance of monetizing creative work is indeed noteworthy. This change mirrors broader societal transformations where economic realities have reshaped perceptions of authenticity and commercial success. Your insights contribute meaningfully to the ongoing conversation about how generational values adapt in response to changing cultural and economic landscapes.