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Comment by chneu | Hacker News Reader

This will sound boomer, but I've noticed this with a lot of people: absolutely no determination to figure things out.

It isn't just young people. It really seems like people's determination has just gone to shit.

I'm an engineer and teach people a lot. The first thing I have to do is determine what kind of learner people are, and my gosh, it's frustrating. People give up so fast.

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Well as a member of gen-z, I'll happily agree with you if that makes you feel like less of a boomer. And I think it mostly has to do with attention. The capacity for focused attention has been deteriorating at a societal level for quite a long time. It's not a generational thing either—we are all facing similar pressures with the sheer amount of information we've been forced to process on a daily basis. That loss of attentional capacity seems to be affecting really important faculties like learning, creativity, and deep work.

I see this in myself all the time but I find a lot of people my age are quite aware of what is happening to us while many older people are stuck blaming the kids—hell, there are times in public when I see older folks more glued to their screen than your average teenager. It's not just young people. The path forward isn't very clear.

Oh yeah don't think I was saying "I've only noticed this in young people"

I know a lot of older folks who are horrible about this. It's a problem across the board.

Thanks for being civil about it. This is a topic that many people get very upset about when you mention it.

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