April Joyner

npr:

“I don’t like this expression ‘First World problems.’ It is false and it is condescending. Yes, Nigerians struggle with floods or infant mortality. But these same Nigerians also deal with mundane and seemingly luxurious hassles. Connectivity issues on your BlackBerry, cost of car repair, how to sync your iPad, what brand of noodles to buy: Third World problems. All the silly stuff of life doesn’t disappear just because you’re black and live in a poorer country. People in the richer nations need a more robust sense of the lives being lived in the darker nations. Here’s a First World problem: the inability to see that others are as fully complex and as keen on technology and pleasure as you are.”

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Teju Cole (via semperes)

This is a salient point, and it’s something I hadn’t thought of.

(Source: thewhiskeypropagandist)

An awesome takedown of the Atlantic Wire’s inane post on Burger King’s new bacon sundae.

Bryce Roberts puts a new spin on the au courant saying that kids now “get a trophy just for showing up”:

Fact of the matter was, our kids weren’t tired or hungry and probably could have held off a bathroom break until after the show finished. We were making excuses for them. Because, if they really were just brats that might hurt their self esteem, or worse, reflect poorly on us as parents.

The Atlantic has a fantastic piece every parent should read. In it the author, a psychiatrist, outlines a new phenomenon arising in her field: young adults from terrific homes with loving parents packed full of talent were showing up in her office feeling lost, adrift, unfulfilled.

She goes on to trace these feelings to a societal shift in parenting styles. Parents who once wanted respect from their kids, now desperately want to be their BFF. And in doing so, seem to be creating unintended second order effects.

[….]

Pulling this behavior forward, I’m beginning to see this parenting style taking root in startup culture.

As investor FOMO and entrepreneurial access to capital have increased, so too has the level of entitlement to that capital. Swap the trophy for a seed round, and that’s directionally where things are headed in startupland. Everyone gets a seed round. Everyone gets to be CEO. Everyone starts a billion dollar company. Everyone can be the next Zuckerberg.

My question: who exactly are these kids who are so coddled nowadays? This trend seems to exist almost exclusively among white, middle-to-upper-class families. But then, of course, it’s mainly their children who are the recipients of VC funding. So for them, Bryce’s post is very valid. The rest of us—entrepreneurs and employees—get rewarded according to the old rules: work ten times harder, and just maybe you’ll get a trophy.