I read an interesting post by Jacob Kaplan-Moss about taking advice from someone who’s been in the tech industry far longer than you and how to give advice as a silver sage yourself.
…advice people with long careers on what worked for them when they were getting started is unlikely to be advice that works today. The tech industry of 15 or 20 years ago was, again, dramatically different from tech today. I used to joke that if you knew which was was up on a keyboard, you could get a job in tech. That joke makes no sense today: breaking into the field is now very difficult, and getting harder every year.
So even when people with long careers try to give newcomers advice, while it may be well-intentioned, it’s likely to be useless. If you’re new to tech, ignoring advice from old heads is probably a good idea. And if you’re a fellow old head who’d like to help people new to the industry, do it by paying close attention to what works for them and pass on that advice.
I think this applies to everyone, irrespective of the field in which they are working on. Commonly called as, generation gap. The young ones will always roll their eyes the moment silver sage starts giving advice. Then what can the silver sage offer? Stories.
After reading the post, I coincidentally listened to the Paisa Vaisa podcast by Anupam Gupta and Aashish Somaiyaa on How Investor Behavior is Reshaping Mutual Funds. Below is the transcript of what caught my attention.
The people who are young today, jo yeh log OTT pe dekh rahe hain, kitabon main proper literature padh rahe hain, hum log toh tabloid main padhte the. Oh my god, look Harshad Mehta and his Lexus and see what has happened. So for us it was really vivid, I mean we knew boss yeh to scam hota hai, for these people it’s a story. [Link]
…
It’s a different world. Matlab aap sportsman ko dekho, cricketer ko dekho, humare yeh jo young log hain unka, for the lack of better word, disposition, attitude, its totally changed. And rightfully so. Inko confidence hai because inka PE multiple zyada hai. Inko future ka visibility zyada hai. Humara PE multiple low tha, humko future kaa visibility hi nahi tha. [Link]
The younger ones don’t need advice. They need to hear the stories and vivid experiences that the silver sage went through, and how those experiences shaped what the silver sage is today.