It's been quite some time since I rolled into work with less than six hours of sleep in a night. At least as far as I can remember. Five and a half hours of sleep is probably a dream for some of you insomniacs here on HIVE, but for me it's a potential recipe for disaster. We made it to work alive, so that is at least out of the way!
I say surprise, but it really wasn't much of one. As she started looking for tickets on Tuesday morning she was running into some snags and she ended up having to message me to see if I could figure it out.
Now, believe me when I say that my wife is a "smart cookie". She has about a million plates spinning at any given time, and she can manipulate them with grand expertise. That being said, although she has osmotically grabbed some of my tech knowledge over the years, there are times that it still frustrates her to no end. Heck, it frustrates me sometimes too.
So, although it was supposed to be a surprise, the job of procuring tickets got handed off to me. Which honestly, is a good thing. I'm more of a planner than a spontaneous sort, so not getting home and finding out I had to drive an hour and a half one way to a basketball game that didn't start until 7 PM on a school night was probably a good thing.
It turns out, it wasn't just her that was having trouble getting the tickets. I tried the website for four hours yesterday morning trying to score our seats. I used a different browser, I placed myself in Chicago via a VPN to try and order them, I even tried a different card just in case. No luck.
It wasn't until the ticket office opened at 10 AM and I called in (much to my annoyance) that I finally got to talk to someone and get the tickets ordered. It was a smooth process and the guy was very gracious. He even gave me the "Cyber Monday" ticket price even though it was now Tuesday.
However, through the process I couldn't help but think of the future generation, and how it seems to be so difficult for them to "pivot" and figure things out. You would think with all the video games they play they would have better problem solving skills, but I guess when the answer to every puzzle is available on a website or via a YouTube streamer, you don't really need the skill.
I was having a conversation with
I even see it with some of the young adults who are entering the workforce, so if that gives you any indication, things are likely only going to get worse. I wrote a post a while ago about how most of the stuff I learned in the pursuit of my university degree had little to no influence on the job I ended up doing. It's not that I picked a job outside my field of study,
but 90% of the stuff I learned to do my job, I learned by doing my job.
While I might be generalizing a bit, I don't feel that is the case anymore. I've seen and heard countless examples of new workers being at a complete standstill unless you basically spoon feed them what they need to do. It's not even enough to give them a general goal and encourage them to figure it out.
Perhaps we have just become so used to simple answers being at our fingertips. I think part of it too has to do with the first answer not always being the right one. In the past you may have had to try a dozen different scenarios until you found the one that works. These days, it feels like people try the first one and if it doesn't work, they deem the task impossible, and move on.
I wonder what would happen if after a single failure we considered them a lost cause and cut them loose. I have a feeling they wouldn't think that is quite so fair or reasonable...
Have you noticed this trend fellow members of HIVE? Any thoughts on this 
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