GenX: Underrated And Underplayed

A Love Letter To The Most Underrated Generation

As a music lover, I often find myself using the same descriptors when it comes to music and bands that I hold in high regard:

“Underrated and underplayed”

There’s something about quality music where it gets the recognition it deserves, yet in the same breath, does not find itself in such a state of success where the industry has amplified its popularity to the point where a perfect song or artist becomes unlistenable because it has been “overplayed to death.” As a card-carrying GenXer, this is something I do not think we will ever have to worry about. We are middle child Jan to eldest Marsha (Brady Bunch reference, Google it), the Invisible Woman standing next to a Human Torch, the current you never see beneath the waves. Look at the headline below: wrestling with financial security for three generations. Notice anything? GenX is absent—a familiar scenario we’ve come to expect and embrace.

That’s because we are few, and with fewer outliers, like the most famous GenXer of all, Elon Musk—we are underrated and underplayed. We also have a secret weapon—a set of values; you could say—a code of the underrated and underplayed ethos that we’ve been living our whole lives, built on a foundation of latchkey parental laissez-faire upbringing, where many of us were left to our own devices as children. These values were forged in an analog world. We were fortunate to be the last generation to grow up in that non-digital world, even though most of us learned technology as we entered a computerized workforce. We were there to pick ourselves up when we scraped a knee miles from home on a bike trail or in a park. We didn’t realize we were feral back then, but by today’s standards, there’s probably no better word to describe youth as a GenXer.

Typical activity for a feral GenX kid

Our Underrated Values:

Resilience
One of the most overused words today, primarily made hyper-relevant during the pandemic, pushed our collective boundaries on how much trauma a society could take on at once. I don’t know why so many of my fellow GenXers possess and value this trait, but many live by it. My friend Cosmin Gabriel and I discussed this value recently, but he only used a different label to describe it (Grit). Whatever we call it, it is an essential value, code, and ethos in the lives of GenXers. We were practically born into it—look at the late sixties and early seventies, and you’ll see a historical snapshot of political, economic, and societal upheaval that makes today’s uncertainties seem almost tame. We are like the famous GenX watch brand Timex:

Independence
We’re fiercely independent yet still able to play well with others. We learned this life skill when many of our parents left us to our own devices, which meant we had to create the structure for ourselves. We figured out how to care for ourselves and sometimes our siblings and neighborhood friends. One of my neighbors and good friends growing up practically “adopted” me as both my parents worked on weekdays and Saturdays. My friend’s mom always joked that I was her “fourth son.” We figured out how to make a way and knew it was on us. The thing about this value is it does come with a double-edged sword. I’ve had many discussions with my GenX friends that the secret to getting the most out of being independent is that we don't become too overreliant. I’ve made this mistake and have learned much from it, but I still value the ability to think, operate, and act independently when needed.

A younger version of myself with some epic socks

Pragmatism
Somewhere between optimism and pessimism lies pragmatism, which aligns perfectly with GenX's middle child-like dynamic. We’re pragmatic because we learned early in life that there are no shortcuts and that perfection is an illusion. We tend to be drawn to the tangible—things we can see, touch, and evaluate. I’ve talked about “GSD” in the past: “Getting Shit Done,” which is a mode I love to operate in that I think is rooted in pragmatism. “What will it take to get shit done? Then, that’s what we should do…” This is often the inner dialogue in my head. GenX spends much time looking at the world as it is while trying to figure out how it needs to be.

Skepticism
It sounds strange to talk about skepticism as a virtue. However, this may be one of the most valuable traits GenXers have to offer society in an AI-enabled post-truth world. One only needs to spend a small amount of time on social media to realize that truth is obscured, manipulated, and obfuscated. GenXers like me approach everything we see with a healthy level of skepticism—something more of today’s journalists would be well served by. We look at actions, not only words, and we don’t always take things at face value. We also learned this ability while we were young, entering the workforce when opportunities were limited while watching some of our older boomer parents make questionable decisions. Terms like “toxic positivity” are often less applicable to GenXers due to the combination of both pragmatism and skepticism. Instead of taking a “positive at all costs” mentality—we evaluate things with more caution, awareness, and scrutiny. But once we vet something—we’re all in (until we aren’t), depending on how it goes.

This sums up my homage to the underrated Generation, GenX. One of our best opportunities is to take our qualities and team up with other generations who complement and challenge us (as we do them). Like some of the best music, we might be underrated and underplayed. My former colleague and friend, Tom Parker, recently reminded me of the value of “deep tracks” on some of the best and most influential albums, and how we’re like that. It just might be that depth that helps our kids, parents, colleagues, employers, friends, partners, collaborators, etc., navigate these “uncertain” times.

Special shout out to other friends with whom I regularly have fantastic “GenX” themed conversations. You know who you are.