Submitted via IRC for TheMightyBuzzard
In an age of political animus, increasing hostility toward "others," and 24/7 media coverage that seems to focus on the negative, a recent article in Frontiers in Psychology provides a glimmer of hope, particularly for those who live in the United States.
Written by Yale University academic Gabriel Grant, "Exploring the Possibility of Peak Individualism, Humanity's Existential Crisis, and an Emerging Age of Purpose" aims to clear up two competing views of today's cultural narrative in the United States. First is the traditional view of the next generation—millennials—whom many view as individualistic, materialistic, and narcissistic. Some even refer to millennials as "Gen Me" in response to those who develop their "personal brand" with selfies and social media posts.
In stark contrast there is a view of millennials as rejecting selfish values and leading America into a "great age of purpose." Unlike previous generations, simply earning money is not enough for them—significant data shows that younger people are searching for purpose in their lives and their work. Consider the fact that the non-profit group 80,000 Hours (whose name represents the amount of time spent at work in the average lifespan) even exists. 80,000 Hours provides career advice to help young people build careers with social impact. Universities and businesses are increasingly following this path to help millennial workers achieve their goal of finding purpose in their lives.
Both sides can provide reams of anecdotal evidence that supports their view of millennials, and until recently, there have been few studies on the issue. In his article, however, Grant theorized that Google's digitization of millions of books and the Ngram Viewer, a tool that shows how phrases have appeared in books, could allow a quantified analysis of culture over the past two centuries, and he used this approach to quantitatively test the popular notion that a drive for purpose is increasing. What he found is encouraging.
Yeah, because people with a healthy ego would never possibly do volunteer work...
Source: https://opensource.com/article/17/10/rise-open-source
(Score: 4, Insightful) by looorg on Tuesday October 10 2017, @12:15PM (8 children)
Rise of open source connected to a decline in selfishness? I'll give you the prime counter example. Take Linus Torvalds, he named his OS after himself. Giant EGO. Everyone is free to use it but he is still free to rip anyone a new asshole that doesn't agree with him and what he does to the kernel. He has been very open about this and is known to be quite rude and abrasive on more then one occasion, he even said it himself that he isn't a very nice person and he doesn't care about you or your feelings or what you think -- all he cares about is the technology and the kernel (Linux conf au 2015).
Sure he isn't a millennial, he is an old fart now (or just shy of 50). But I still find him refreshing, more power to him and fuck the sensitive touchy feely crowd.
The great age of purpose sounds like a nice catch phrase but in the end most people will have find a job to pay their bills, get a home, start a family and whatever else is the "normal life". Even millennials will have to cave eventually. The greater purpose will die away with age for most people as they become tiny little cogs in the machine. A select few will live the carefree life of their dreams.
(Score: 5, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 10 2017, @01:06PM
See here [wikipedia.org]:
(Score: 2, Insightful) by khallow on Tuesday October 10 2017, @01:47PM
Let us hearken to the distant past of the last "great age of purpose", the 1960s. The Boomers who grew up and tried to do that, ended up being labeled as the most selfish generation in quite a while.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Tuesday October 10 2017, @02:37PM
I think you'll admit that stroking an ego is less selfish than ripping people off for money. It's a shame that Torvalds can't be a humble, self-denigrating individual like Steve Jobs, or Bill Gates.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 10 2017, @03:18PM (3 children)
*Sigh.* [gnu.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 10 2017, @08:36PM (2 children)
I don't know why people think GNU should be considered some integral part of a Linux distribution; I've used Linux distributions that have nothing to do with GNU tools.
(Score: 3, Funny) by The Mighty Buzzard on Tuesday October 10 2017, @10:09PM (1 child)
You're misunderstanding. GNU tools does not refer to all the crap in /usr/bin/, GNU tools are the people who always bitch about you not saying GNU any time you say Linux.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 11 2017, @01:50AM
I get it. I refer to the system as a whole 'Linux' all the time for both convenience and apathy. However, this time, saying Linus made and named an operating system after himself or even intended to do so is just plain wrong and there is no defending that statement in an intellectually honest manner.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 10 2017, @09:17PM
You are thinking of Bill Gates. "Microsoft"?