You Should Hire A GenX-er With An Art Degree Before It's Too Late

There's been a radical shift, you're going to need a special set of skills

This morning that guy from that AI place announced that computer chips are great at creative writing now. GenX-ers with Art Degrees knew what this meant. Technology isn’t getting better, general aesthetic sense and taste is getting worse. We need to dial it back before the whole world turns into a glossy muscles-on-an-ancient-man meme.

You need people who developed their creativity in the physical world. People who remember that humans used to gather and have fun and make stuff together. People that were brave enough to go to a restaurant or see a movie before consulting an aggregate of faceless digital opinions.

As the tech bros convene in the white house to plan their robot cities, you should be making your own plans. You need something. You need an anecdote. You need a GenX-er with an Art Degree.

I’m not saying that we got to where we are because all those people raised with cell phones are terrified of making a phone call - even for work, but I am saying that GenX-ers made entire albums of phone calls. For entertainment.

GenX-ers with Art Degrees developed their work when instructors could still smoke cigarettes while telling us we are derivative and should think about a career in retail. We aren’t going to take the afternoon off if you have us change a line in this or the color of that.

If you’re thinking, waitaminute, aren’t the two most self-involved wealth hoarding nihilists, Bezos and Musk, GenXers? No they are not because they broke the cardinal rule of GenX: they sold out. And they don’t have art degrees. Besides, they don’t need you to hire them, but they may take over your company. Unless you hire a GenX-er with an Art Degree.

GenX-ers with Art Degrees make excellent leaders and managers because, thanks to boomers never budging, we’ve spent longer in entry and mid-level jobs and actually understand the needs and roles of the people we manage.

We’ve been through at least six recessions and most of us have had no less than twelve different jobs from which we have gleaned invaluable experience. We worked customer facing jobs before you could text your friends while ringing people up at a cash register. Combine that with the amount of social capital we had to acquire to make friends and you’ve got an un-AI-able, irreproducible worker right there.

In addition to all that, GenX-ers with Art Degrees know how to organize and inspire. We have years and years of experience in rallying large crowds for shows using only paper flyers and classified ads.

GenX-ers with Art Degrees did not need to learn to work independently because they independently raised themselves. Many of us in the pre-microwave era. Our parents were busy unbecoming anti-capitalist hippies and test driving minivans on the way to jazzercise class.

Some of us were raised by Vietnam Veterans. We remember oil embargos. We knew Reagan and not the redeeming version that dems and ‘pubs seem to invoke all the time now. We were underestimated by adults that thought we’d be afraid of eggs frying in a pan. And now it is all of you who are worried about eggs.

We know how to use paper maps. We are used to looking for information and solutions. We can handle adapting to new technology, software, equipment - you name it, we’ve done it! Most importantly, our first language is the very analog technology that you all may need to resort to at any minute. And if you don’t think you are going to need a mix tape that’ll take you on a real mood journey, then you haven’t been keeping up with the news.

You aren’t going to “keep up” though. Your data isn’t going to save you. You can’t count on going viral. You probably can’t even count on the internet, let alone predicting your operating costs for the next 30 days. These are the times to “go around” and no one knows how to do that better than a GenX-er with an Art Degree.

For a very limited time, this GenX-er with an Art Degree is for hire.

Big Earrings = Big Ideas. photo credit: Breezy Lucia