The Millennial

The Millennial is now a well known entity, differing from previous versions of Homo sapiens. We have the old Homo sapeiens normalis, and now the Homo sapiens millennalis. How is this new proto-species developing.

They seem to have the same DNA but we may have the first clear example of nature versus nurture in action. This is brilliantly displayed in a brief article in JAMA.

The author remarks on three areas:

Theme 1. As Needed vs Scheduled Engagement. Millennials have grown up with virtually instant communication and information dissemination. Such engagement facilitates quick decision making and expands collaboration networks. Millennials expect accessibility, fast responses, rapid turnaround, and frequent short meetings to ensure clear direction. Senior mentors often balance administrative, clinical, and academic demands with greater structure and less ad hoc availability. Combined, this leads to frustration and stress for both parties....

Theme 2. Flat vs Pyramidal Infrastructure. Millennials embrace collaboration and cognitive diversity more readily than prior generations.³ In some aspects of academic medicine, these attributes will serve them well. For example, team science, multidisciplinary care, and collective leadership are welcomed by millennials who embrace groupthink, in contrast to their senior counterparts. However, flattening social and hierarchical gaps may also lead to conflict. Millennials do not necessarily embrace the siloed communication typical of traditional academic departments. Removing these barriers can cause frustration among older physicians accustomed to hierarchical communication channels and younger physicians who desire broad access to all stakeholders...

Theme 3. Purpose vs Process. For millennials, purpose is paramount. Millennials may derive greater satisfaction from results and implementation over the traditional, well-worn metrics of academic success. Such goals often include strategies that include developing intellectual property, commercialization of products, or launching a health care start-up.

 Millennials are just plain spoiled and have no manners. They also believe they have the right answer to everything and that past experiences count for naught. They truly believe that their opinion often based upon nothing counts equally to the opinion of one skilled in the area of discussion.

So what does this portend. A more level society? Hardly. The millennial culture may be setting itself up for a massive collapse. History counts but it must be the history based on facts, often the hardest part of history. It does not fit the fictional history of the current batch of instructors who have created these millennials.

The JAMA article treats this new species rather kindly. That is how the evolved. Reality may make them extinct.

I am reminded of the discussion in Cassirer on Locke (see Cassirer, The Philosophy of the Enlightenment, Princeton U Press, 2009, p 17) where he discusses Locke and reason, the blend of sensation and reflection, namely facts and logic if you will. Millennials have the habit of positing an answer, without factual basis. Such as, "The Pre-money valuation is $5 million." When asked why, the answer is "Because". Because why?  This is the major failing of this sub-species. The basis of a statement is lacking, everyone's opinion is of equal weight, and experience not only does not count but it obscures the truth, whatever that may be. It is as if we are going backwards, to before the Scholastics, where dicta from on high is all that counts.