Grab a cup of coffee, I’m about to get slightly philosophical and very optimistic on you.
I’ve said time and time again that creativity springs from hardship. New innovations come from difficult times, and when an old system fails society doesn’t cease to exist but rather creates something new. Whether we wanted it or not, Gen Y has been given the role of reinventing a broken system. Which is why I was pleased to read a new ebook that just came out entitled Share or Die: Youth in Recession (don’t let the ballsy name fool you, there’s actually a cool story behind it).
The point of the book? To show the face of the new economy propelled by collaboration.
Fact: We don’t have the same opportunities of corporate salaries and benefits packages that our parents did when they graduated from college. On the one hand this is terrible. The system of our parents’ generation is the one we were told to aspire to. Go to college, land a full time job with benefits, buy a nice house, have a family, retire, get a gold watch and a pat on the back, move to an seniors community in Florida, and have your kids repeat the process . We were told that in order to be successful we had to have that nice corporate job and work our way up the ladder until we had gotten that nice six figure salary that would take care of all our problems. We were told that individualism was the key to getting anywhere and consumerism would make us happy. So you can imagine the utter shock we found ourselves in when the economy tanked right before we entered the real world.
Unemployment and subsequent panic attacks aside, we’ve been given an opportunity. Clearly the system of our predecesors didn’t work or we wouldn’t be in this mess to begin with. Overspending and individualism only led us to the economic minefield we now have to endure. With that being said our generation has been given the opportunity to change it. Many millenials have already begun making a difference through social media, non-profits, and entreprenurship and what this book points out that they all have something in common: the ability and willingness to share in some form or another.
Share or Die, though not a narrative or a self help book, shares personal stories and accounts of millenials working their way through the hard times that were handed to us.Some of these individuals live off of a $25.00 a week stipend in New York City while they volunteer for local organizations, started their own businesses, engaged in projects that fulfilled them, lived like nomads, and still managed to make it through this economy in one piece. Others share their stories of life after college and how they have felt during the worst recession we have seen in a long time.
Nothing is left out of this ebook. Any type of work or life dynamic you can imagine is in some way represented through this book with a Gen Y twist – I’m talking worker co-ops, non-profits, entrepreneurship, communal living, and more. Long gone are the days of corporate salaries and benefits, hell some of us have never even been offered benefits. Instead, what we have is a generation of innovative people who will not only change the working world as we know it, but will also change the way the working world is perceived by other generations. This book sets out to prove this theory, and I think they did a pretty damn good job. Not only does it touch upon the kinds of employment Gen Y is partaking in and even creating, it also challenges other aspects of what has become the traditional work and life model: balancing work and family life, creating communities through collaboration, our impact on the environment, and more.
This ingenious text challenges a work and life model that we were raised to aspire to through personal accounts, tips, engaging debate, comic strips, and even cooking recipes. It is a picture of today’s generation and what we’re actively doing to fix an outdated system. It is a response to the doubters and haters that grab hold to any of our flaws or just merely don’t understand us…and a damn good one at that.
Amanda’s Picks from Share or Die (plus previews!)
Below you will find a list of some of my favorite pieces from Share or Die, some of which you can preview by clicking through the link.
The State of Gen Y - Jean-Yves Huwart
Unprepared: From Elite College to the Job Market - Sara Idzik
The Shareable Job Search - Regan McMahon
Get on the Lattice - Astri von Arbin Ahlander and Yelizavetta Kofman
Eating Rich, Living Poor - Melissa Welter
Ready for more?
To learn more about Share or Die: Youth in Recession, or to purchase a PDF copy, click here.
Hope you all enjoy the ebook as much as I did!
