
So maybe the slackers had it right after all - robg
http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2009/02/09/so_maybe_the_slackers_had_it_right_after_all/
======
swombat
_We brought you the Internet_

I stopped reading there. "You" did what? Is the author suggesting that
"slackers" brought us the internet? It seems to me that a vast army of
workaholic scientists and hackers of all types "brought us the internet", not
a bunch of wannabe artists working part-time jobs at Starbucks.

Perhaps I'm missing the point of this article, but it seems overly loose and
unjustified, and filled with fallacies. Freelancers aren't slackers, they work
harder than people in regular jobs, in most cases. Hackers aren't slackers -
they have many characteristics of slackers, perhaps, but if you get down to
it, most of us are obsessive, driven workaholics - for the right work.

~~~
RobGR
I think you are missing some nuances of what it means to be a Slacker. It's
not just about work or non-work. It's also about a kind of passive, almost
anti-social way of assigning a low value to things that most of society
considers important.

I get the point about slackers bringing the internet. The internet may have
been invented for "workaholic scientists" to scam more grant money out of
DARPA, but it is what it is today due to the persistent, unstoppable, abuse of
employer's computers and resources for non-work related activity.

It takes a slacker to show up to work early on Monday morning to use the
faster internet connection to browse ebay.

If so much internet usage wasn't on employer's computers, there would less
incentive to use javascript and AJAX, because it would be easier to get people
to just install desktop applications.

~~~
jff
The Internet != the WWW

------
electromagnetic
He makes one good point, and that's that they lived lives they could _afford_.
When you waste money on frivolous things like replacing a car because it's
'old', even though not a single warranty has run out on the vehicle, is going
to place you in a very bad position. I'm sure lots of people have lost cars
because they missed a few payments and then all of the money they had put into
it is gone too.

Personally, I aim to never 'finance' something, aside from the house I buy. I
aim to never have credit card debt, that my cards are completely clean before
the end of the month.

Another thing, I want to live a life where I can afford 100% of my life, that
I don't have to rely on my wife to work so that on the chance one of us loses
our job we don't have 50% of our expenses to cut, we only have 10-20%.

~~~
chadmalik
Yeah this is a great point and its a lesson the entire US economy has
completely forgotten. The last decade - really the entire period after 1980 -
is one big credit orgy. We really really really need to learn how to live
within our means again and stop our debt-fueled overconsumption binge.

The last few years have been particularly disgusting. People competed to get
ever-bigger and fancier houses, cars, and various toys that they really did
not need.

Its time to start spending only what we earn as a nation, and individually.

~~~
electromagnetic
Right now I'm desperate to buy a couple of games. One is Fable 2 because I
loved Fable, but I'm not spending $60 on a game, I'm just waiting for the drop
to $20 that inevitably happens. The other game is Fallout 3, I've been a huge
fan of the series and I want to look at the 3rd, again I'm waiting for the
drop to $20 however this doesn't look like it's going to happen anytime soon
as they jacked up the price here in Canada from $60 to $70!

I worked as a game reviewer for a number of years, and this is perhaps why I
can value a video game much better than most other people. I reviewed many a
game that I wouldn't ever justify spending $5 on.

I mean it's like the extended warranty they try to sell you on games. Whenever
I buy a DS game, they always ask me for extended warranty (It's their job, so
I don't snap at them) but the SD cartridge a DS game uses is virtually
indestructible through normal accidents. I've had one go through a washing
machine with suds and everything in and I took it out, peeled the remnants of
the label off and continued playing the game. I stepped on one on a concrete
floor in boots (it fell out of my pocket when I grabbed my iPod, tangled up in
the headphones or something) and no one would be the wiser. Yet they ask me if
I want to spend $3 to insure something that'll survive me: if I fall off a
skyscraper, if I fall in the ocean and drown, get hit by a car and numerous
other things.

~~~
electromagnetic
_addendum: Something I forgot to add. I come from the UK, but I'm living in
Canada. It would currently be cheaper to buy Fable 2 and Fallout 3 from the UK
and have them shipped over; sadly the whole region code bullshit prevents
this. Usually it means Europe pays like double the price of NA, however now
that the economy is going to craps in the UK the prices for games have been_
put down* unlike Bethesda in NA who seem to think putting up the price of a
game will make them more money.

------
jff
The gist of this article seems to be "Having gained nothing, we have nothing
to lose."

~~~
streety
'Tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.

I wonder what he thinks of Tennyson.

~~~
inglorian
I think it's a bit of a stretch to say that you "love" your big house,
expensive car, and extravagant purchases in the way Tennyson meant "love" in
that quote

~~~
streety
A massive stretch. My intention wasn't to suggest that I/you/we/them 'loved'
our houses/cars/jobs but that you could substitute loved for your
activity/goal of choice and the idea still holds true.

------
jimbokun
It would have been nice to see some facts or figures verifying that his
anecdotal views accurately reflect some significant part of the "Gen X"
population.

~~~
nihilocrat
But then it would stop being a superficial generation-piece, you see.

