Oh shiat! We are seeing the beginning of a new management buzzword. They are now going to go tell worker drones to "self organize" and become a "smart swarm" all while jacking off to porn and blaming worker drones for project failures.

Aidan: Jenna Tellya: I am one of the few smart people who are immune to advertising. I am not affected by seeing the starbucks logo. I make my purchases based solely on the quality of the product vs its competitor after factoring in the price.

Ooooh. Fascinating side track (ignoring your arrogance for the moment). My husband and I have talked about resistance to advertising. I get mine from being totally contrary to everything. He gets his from having an exceptional memory. We've both argued that either a natural increase in memory or an equivalent (iPhones, etc) will result in an increase in resistance to advertising, whether it be for Big Macs or politicians.

One can only hope.

Frontline had a documentary a while back called "The Persuaders" about advertising and coolhunting, expecially in the 90s. Remember that Charles Barkley commercial where he said he wasn't a role model. Well they go off their nut explaining how this was the breath of fresh air within the field: the anti-commercial which lures you in by exposing the machinery of the process. The problem then became everyone followed suit and it led to just being a trope amongst other tropes. Which leads back to overproduced work as the refreshing "change."

The only trick to avoid advertising is to not play the game, which I think most of us tend to do. The stronger pull is our peers rather than advertising... though you could argue a chicken v. the egg scenario.

I thought the official name was Generation Derp.

/Seriously
//That's what I keep hearing them referred to as

jayhawk88


Should you agree to have all individual thought and will chemically and/or surgically removed from your brain for the good of your company or community? A bold suggestion, some may say even crazy, but necessary, I submit, if we are to truly succeed in business.

That is what I was thinking as I was reading...yes, let's give up our ability to reason and think for ourselves so we can become mindless drones building a better mouse trap.

/yessssssss, massssssster

This about sums it up: Today's Millennial generation identifies Boomers [as:] A Boomer is a zombie that spits bile, and eats us and all of our resources with little or no thought. Evidently they used to be human but after years of getting to eat and basically do what they wanted they've become mere shells. (new window)

in otherwords STFU and GBTR (retirement)

Step One: Identify a "generation"

Step Two; Flatter them

Step Three: Profit.

This is nothing new.

Boomers, X-ers, and Millenials were all created by ad men.

First mention of "Generation Y" was in the magazine "AdAge" in 1993.

That's how things get done in an ant colony. One ant bumps into something and reacts, which causes other ants to react, and the change ripples through the whole colony. Repeated over and over again, the group adjusts quickly and effectively to changing circumstances in a decentralized way. Individual ants don't have to be smart, because the colony as a whole is smart.

One question: If the same idiot ant keeps bumping into the others and farking things up, do they terminate his employment with benefits or do they eat him?

And while ants might be smarter if you stick more of them together, the truth is the exact OPPOSITE for people/ Stick a bunch of people together and they'll come up with the stupidest, most idioitic ideas ever. Jim Jones, the Nazi Party, the Tea Party, the list goes on and on.

Lafcadio: Wasn't this story about swarm intelligence and agent based modeling?

We need a "thread is unrelated" meme.

We do - it's called 'thread derailment'. For example:

Infamous Dr. X: WTF?!?! This has NOTHING whatsoever to do with millenials. That whole article is one big reach.

The reason flocks, herds, and schools succeed is because they are populated by rules-based organisms. Their behavior is hard-wired. Units that do not properly adhere to the 'rules' are picked off by predators or meet with other misadventure and (hopefully, for the organization) do not get to breed and pass on their flaws.

Humans have rational (and irrational) decision making processes and a LOT more agency than insects, fish, geese, or other animals. Yes, there are SOME examples of "smart swarm" behavior in humans - the ones pointed out in the article - but I'm pretty sure that the "lynch mob" would be another example of swarm behavior and I notice the author doesn't point that one out.

Totally f*ing stupid. And you, too, Subby, for turning this into some kind of Millennial vs Everyone Else bullshiat. LAME. BAD. NO BISCUIT.

THIS. It's like saying cars are capable of self-organization. They don't have the wiring for it.

I have one "millenial" who is worth her weight in gold because she takes direction well, is smart, addresses her shortcomings and always does her job over and above what I've asked of her. She shows up on time, too. She's 20 years old. Her type I'm almost afraid of, she's going to kill us all.

The other four "millenials" SUCKED.

Infamous Dr. X: cmb53208:

*see that? that's statistics humor. christ, I'm such a comedian.

Three statisticians go hunting for bear. A bear starts to charge at them. One shoots wide left. The other shoots wide right. The third yells 'We got him!!!'

Twitter is truly for twits -- wasting their time typing in the earth-shattering fact that their are in (insert name of retailer here) as though their absolutely mundane activities are somehow very important for everyone else to know.

Driedsponge: Englebert Slaptyback: FishyFred

WHAT IS THE STARBUCKS DOING THERE? I DON'T EVEN...


No surprise, really: these mollycoddled pantywaists grew up on television and films chockablock with product placement.

Not that I'm saying I like the photo above, but isn't art supposed to reflect the society it was created in? Sadly, Starbucks happens to be a fairly accurate depiction of a large portion of our population, especially in the art community. Product placement as advertisement has very little to do with explaining this photo.



What an American may look like.

Some of the most selfish people I know with an unearned sense of entitlement are 60+. I'm no fan of a few hipsters I know, but they're harmless consumers at the end of the day. But it's people like these friends of my parents, who biatch up one side and down the other about RV park costs and how expensive breakfast have gotten at Luby's that make me wish Obama's death panels were a real thing.

FWIW it's the Washington Post.

That was targeted at it's 50+ audience, not millennials.

sparrow794: The ability to text quickly and post pictures to facebook from your cellphone doesn't make you tech savvy or talented.

Being able to explain the actual process whereby this occurs makes you tech savvy. Being able to build a PC from the ground up makes you tech savvy. Being able to read a circuit diagram makes you tech savvy.

Mindless consumption of electronic gadgets and limited knowledge of software fads makes you a whore.

I thought it was because I fark for money.

Driedsponge

Not that I'm saying I like the photo above, but isn't art supposed to reflect the society it was created in? Sadly, Starbucks happens to be a fairly accurate depiction of a large portion of our population, especially in the art community. Product placement as advertisement has very little to do with explaining this photo.


Art is not actually required to reflect the society that spawned it. That is not to say that art doesn't often do exactly this, but it isn't a requirement. Incidentally, the product placement theory could have everything to do with explaining this photo, but since neither of us took it we're a little short on information.

Besides, I just wanted to use 'pantywaist', 'chockablock', and some form of 'mollycoddle' in a sentence.

I'd much rather be a millenial than a farking baby-boomer. That's really one group that needs to start dying off. Most of our country's problems is due to baby-boomers screaming at each other and taking stuff WAY too seriously. Also, Gen X, seriously, you guys aren't that great either. Bad music, bad movies, save a few, confusing fashion, and way too much cocaine for your own good.

jakomo002: And while ants might be smarter if you stick more of them together, the truth is the exact OPPOSITE for people/ Stick a bunch of people together and they'll come up with the stupidest, most idioitic ideas ever. Jim Jones, the Nazi Party, the Tea Party, the list goes on and on.

Terry Prachett said something similar. To get the intelligence level of a group, take the IQ of the smartest person there, and then divide it by the number of people present.

(Could be off there, still working on that first cup of coffee...)

Infamous Dr. X: WTF?!?! This has NOTHING whatsoever to do with millenials. That whole article is one big reach.

The reason flocks, herds, and schools succeed is because they are populated by rules-based organisms.

Yep, bees are designed to operate as part of a swarm on the genetic level. Humans are designed to be greedy, manipulative, liars at the genetic level.

Oh Ed, I don't know why our grandson doesn't want a job at a friendly, loyal corporation. What's wrong with the IBM? Maybe he wants to be a 'hip cat' and work for the google. I think Twitter is some kind of bird watching company.

And there's no reason he can't be a chiropractor like his cousin Jeffrey.

NaturalDrunkenPungence: I'd much rather be a millenial than a farking baby-boomer. That's really one group that needs to start dying off. Most of our country's problems is due to baby-boomers screaming at each other and taking stuff WAY too seriously. Also, Gen X, seriously, you guys aren't that great either. Bad music, bad movies, save a few, confusing fashion, and way too much cocaine for your own good.

We are doomed.

Do ants and bees sometimes break or sabotage their own nests simply because they're dicks? Do termites have other options in life than their expected task while still allowing for not just survival, but prosperity?

I dunno, it seems weird comparing our social variables with those of insects. I think there's a lot in common on a fundamental level and on the same scale their lives may be as complicated or more complicated than ours. But the cerebral cortex just seems to change a lot of things. I'll have to read the book to really judge.

Anything that makes Baby Boomer scared and angry is OK in my book. Enemy of my Enemy and what not...

SQLInjector: This about sums it up: Today's Millennial generation identifies Boomers [as:] A Boomer is a zombie that spits bile, and eats us and all of our resources with little or no thought. Evidently they used to be human but after years of getting to eat and basically do what they wanted they've become mere shells. (new window)

in otherwords STFU and GBTR (retirement)

WTF. Sorry. I just RFA. NOTHING to do with boomers or young people. Fracking suby got me with his bating.
Frak.

//note no epic unmaking of a troll i'm replying to my own comment.

////I'm SkullKrusher's alt anyway

Listen up, maggots. You are not special. You are not a beautiful or unique snowflake. You're the same decaying organic matter as everything else.

- Tyler Durden

Holy crap my post was full of typos and bad grammar. That's what I get for posting right after I get out of bed. And no, I'm not lazy,I work nights.

sparrow794: The ability to text quickly and post pictures to facebook from your cellphone doesn't make you tech savvy or talented.

Being able to explain the actual process whereby this occurs makes you tech savvy. Being able to build a PC from the ground up makes you tech savvy. Being able to read a circuit diagram makes you tech savvy.

Mindless consumption of electronic gadgets and limited knowledge of software fads makes you a whore.

^THIS^

/farking script kiddies

grinderman: Some of the most selfish people I know with an unearned sense of entitlement are 60+. I'm no fan of a few hipsters I know, but they're harmless consumers at the end of the day. But it's people like these friends of my parents, who biatch up one side and down the other about RV park costs and how expensive breakfast have gotten at Luby's that make me wish Obama's death panels were a real thing.

That is a clear, solid stance fully substantiated by the facts you presented. You should usually preface statements like this with 'I know my unsupported opinion in this matter is worthless, as I am operating off the subjective interpretation of very few data points, but all people over 60 should die because I know someone who remembers when things used to be cheaper.'

NaturalDrunkenPungence: I'd much rather be a millenial than a farking baby-boomer. That's really one group that needs to start dying off. Most of our country's problems is due to baby-boomers screaming at each other and taking stuff WAY too seriously. Also, Gen X, seriously, you guys aren't that great either. Bad music, bad movies, save a few, confusing fashion, and way too much cocaine for your own good.

You just prove the original point about your generation.

NaturalDrunkenPungence: Bad music, bad movies, save a few, confusing fashion, and way too much cocaine for your own good.

STFU, noob, and go back to your energy drinks and participation trophies and your pre-packaged pop records that you illegally bit-torrented, mmmkay? The grown-ups are talking here.

/kidding, but not really.

When army ants charge across the floor of a rain forest, there's no commander telling them where to go, no squad leaders rallying the troops.

Wrong. Ants have a very strict structure, they just use peheremone commands.

When termites build a soaring mound on the savanna--complete with a network of ducts to regulate air and moisture inside--there's no project manager lining up subcontractors, no architect consulting blueprints.

Wrong! There are hundreds of "project managers" each specialized in completing it's task.

Honeybees don't need a CEO to make the call when they select a new home from a dozen possible sites, even though the fate of every individual in the hive is riding on the decision.

It's called a Queen numbnuts.

Whoever wrote this really should have done some research before turning in this drivel.

PS. All new generations suck according to those older than them. Of course, "millenials" are a special kind of self-absorbed, non-thinking, self-entitled putzes that needs an arse kicking.

the washington post? really? is it right that theyve never turned a profit?

Ants and termites have hierarchical structures and communicate with pheromones. His premise is bullshiat to begin with.

sparrow794: The ability to text quickly and post pictures to facebook from your cellphone doesn't make you tech savvy or talented.

Being able to explain the actual process whereby this occurs makes you tech savvy. Being able to build a PC from the ground up makes you tech savvy. Being able to read a circuit diagram makes you tech savvy.

Mindless consumption of electronic gadgets and limited knowledge of software fads makes you a whore.

Im a CDMA field engineer!! OOh@! I win the prize!

Tegro Quote 2010-08-09 12:09:08 PM
Do ants and bees sometimes break or sabotage their own nests simply because they're dicks? Do termites have other options in life than their expected task while still allowing for not just survival, but prosperity?

I dunno, it seems weird comparing our social variables with those of insects. I think there's a lot in common on a fundamental level and on the same scale their lives may be as complicated or more complicated than ours. But the cerebral cortex just seems to change a lot of things. I'll have to read the book to really judge.

you must be new here...

First - as a middle aged fart, I would like to say "Subby - Bad Troll!" TFA has nothing to do with millenials.

Second - Ants may get smarter in a group. People don't. Anyone who knows anything about mob psychology should know that. Ants are a colony. People are individuals.

Mawson of the Antarctic:
The only trick to avoid advertising is to not play the game, which I think most of us tend to do. The stronger pull is our peers rather than advertising... though you could argue a chicken v. the egg scenario.

Yeah. It certainly seems like every new communication breakthrough is just a new way to sell something. Do we weather it all that well? I'm not sure.

/Drinking Dr. Pepper
//All 23 flavors!

1derful: I think that the worst thing millenials are guilty of is destroying Social Security with their childish sense of entitlement and forcing younger generations to work for more years to support them long after they've stopped contributing to society.

Only in death are we no longer part of Project Mayhem.

About the generational war going on, the only thing I'd like to mention is that the older people who love to call millennials useless should ask themselves which generation it was that decided that children needed to be brand conscious and targets of high pressure ads? Seems to me that constant bombardment with applied psychology might just have an effect on a growing neural-net.

Now, speaking about the article, I'd like to point out that NetLogo (new window) is an extremely simple way to produce agent based models. It also comes with a library of relevant examples that are complex enough to produce interesting emergent behavior, but simple enough to understand even as a newbie to the language. I use it to demonstrate the ever amazing world of complex behavior arising from simple interactions to my kids.

missmarsha: Why are you so mad we are so much better fatter than you. We GREW UP with computers - you had, like, film and shiat.

It wasn't "like" film.

I have a millennial step-son that can't logically solve a predicament. If he hits a stumbling block, I tell him to use common sense and figure out a solution. He stares back at me blank faced.

According to other parents with similar aged children, this is not an uncommon experience. Homework is written in "text-lingo" and everything else that is expressed is so important that it always needs a few exclamation points!111!!1!@3154#$5@356250000000056@#4eleventy!! (Ironically, this happens to be the ONLY punctuation that they know how to use.)

Ultimately, millennial children will have the backhand of reality teach them that they are unique, just like everyone else.

/wish I could be there to see it when it happens.
//their expressions...priceless they will be.
///Yoda speak, fun it is.

o5iiawah: sparrow794: The ability to text quickly and post pictures to facebook from your cellphone doesn't make you tech savvy or talented.

Being able to explain the actual process whereby this occurs makes you tech savvy. Being able to build a PC from the ground up makes you tech savvy. Being able to read a circuit diagram makes you tech savvy.

Mindless consumption of electronic gadgets and limited knowledge of software fads makes you a whore.

Im a CDMA field engineer!! OOh@! I win the prize!

Pfft, built a computer from chip level up as my senior project.

Yeah, stuff like Wikipedia would never work, it would never be a superior source of information considerably better than any actual for-profit encyclopedia.

/And don't get me started about this 'fark' business

unfarkingbelievable: Twitter is truly for twits -- wasting their time typing in the earth-shattering fact that their are in (insert name of retailer here) as though their absolutely mundane activities are somehow very important for everyone else to know.


And as pointed out up thread, is mainly populated by gen-xers and boomers. Egotistical self absorbed fark sticks the lot of them.