Blog Archives
THE BABY BOOMER MINDSET LIST Baby Boomers: the cohort of babies born between the mid-1940s and early 1960s in the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. Members of various generations have been asking us to prepare “generational Mindset Lists.” This one is the first. Look in the future for Mindset Lists on both the Silent Generation (born in the 30s and early 40s) and Generation X (born in the 60s and 70s). If you like this one, forward the link to your children, grandchildren, friends—and fellow geezers! 1. Fellow Boomers Patrick Swayze, Mary Travers, Whitney Houston, Michael Jackson, David Bowie, and Ted Bundy are dead. 2. But fellow Boomers Diane Keaton, Jessica Lange, George W. Bush, Glenn Close, and Sissy Spacek Read on »
MAKE CHARLIE MANSON YOUR PEN PAL & 49 Other Ways To Survive the Age of Trump Tom McBride This website will be out in book form soon. If you want to go first to the Charles Manson step you will find it in Step 21. But please take all these steps seriously–if you’ve not yet misplaced your sense of fun in this bad time in which we find ourselves! Step 1. Enter your closet and get out of town. Vladimir Putin, that great democrat and lover of individual liberty, has opined that any allegations about Donald Trump’s link to his (Vlad’s) regime of towering decency is simply a vile attempt to cast “illegitimacy” on Trump’s victory. President Putin is an Read on »
This is the official Mindset List® Blog: Accept no substitutions! IF YOU DON’T LIKE TRUMP, DON’T BLAME BOOMERS! Every now and then I hear complaints that Baby Boomers have sold out because they support Donald J. Trump. How can the generation of peace and love (and sex and drugs and rock n’ roll) be in favor of such an authoritarian figure, an American Mussolini? Well, one answer is that not all Boomers were into sex and drugs back then. Another is that people grow more crusty when they get older. But here’s another answer: Among the elderly, Trump’s core support doesn’t come from Boomers but from the generation just before them: THE SILENT GENERATION. “Silents” were born from the 30s to Read on »
THE ECONOMIC VIRTUES OF MILLENNIALS Tom McBride (Delivered on September 15 at the De Meo/Schneider Investment Conference in Chicago) Deidre McCloskey is a renowned economic historian at the University of Illinois right here in Chicago. One of her more striking ideas is that the virtues of different social groups are strongly determined by their economic status. For instance, the peasant class, having no prospects for financial gain, glommed onto the virtue of humility, linked to the idea that God would reward them for their humility someday in Heaven. For the aristocratic class, whose financial prosperity was assured, courage became a dominant virtue. They who have everything only lack the military adventure of becoming warriors, on battlefields where their bravery will Read on »
Beloit College Releases the Mindset List for This Year’s Entering Class of First-Year College Students, The Class of 2020 Beloit, Wis. — We have had the NOW generation…get ready for the RIGHT NOW generation, entering college this fall. This fall’s entering college students, the class of 2020, were born in 1998 and cannot remember a time when they had to wait for anything. They also can’t recall a time when the United States was not at war, or when someone named Bush or Clinton was not running for office. Each August since 1998, Beloit College has released the Beloit College Mindset List, providing a look at the cultural touchstones that shape the lives of students about to enter college. In Read on »
Click on the image to your left for the Amazon link to our latest book: THE MILLENNIAL PROMISE: 40 Tips from The Mindset List®. It’s a terrific guide to all phases of Millennial education–from classroom motivation to high tech instruction to the art of giving assignments. Think of it as The Elements of Style for Millennial education! It’s a concise little manual for teachers, counselors, administrators–useful for anyone involved in the education and training of America’s most talked-about generation.
OUR ANNUAL PARENTS’ ADVISORY It’s a new year, with new babies born every few seconds. Here are twenty questions that new parents will have to answer over the next couple of decades, as they raise the college class of 2038. #1: What was it like when you first saw robots flipping burgers at McDonald’s? #2: Are you telling me that Senator Clinton’s father used to be president, too? #3: What was a family doctor? #4: Why do all these pharmacies and food markets have steeples, like churches? #5: Why did you make we wait until I was seven before giving me a mobile phone? #6: When did the first robot colony land on the moon? #7: How long have people Read on »