The Kids Are Alright

I recently finished this book, by John C. Beck and Mitchell Wade.

Do any of these traits sound familiar to you?

• If you get there first, you win.
• Trial and error is the best strategy, and the fastest way to learn.
• Elders and their received wisdom can’t help—they don’t understand even the basics of this new world.
• There’s a limited set of tools—but some combination will work.

Maybe you’ve seen some of these traits in your kids. Maybe you’ve seen them in yourself. They’re the traits of the Gamer Generation. In The Kids Are Alright, we look at the ways that Gamers think and point out how their mindset can help everyone - parents and kids alike.

Gamers believe winning matters - that much isn’t surprising. But Gamers are actually savvier in many ways than their non-gamer counterparts, and may surprise the world with their talent. So relax, moms and dads, the kids really are alright.

If you’d like to read a brief overview of the topics covered, the link is here.

The website for the book can be found here.

(Both open in a new window.)

So. I started this on the plane to Seattle for spring break and recently finished. I found it incredibly interesting and fairly engrossing but I’m really not sure how to feel about it. It paints gamers in brilliantly glowing colors, which is kind of nice given all our bad press, but doesn’t have a very realistic feel to it. I very much doubt that most of my generation are born super-execs needing little to no training on how to lead people.

I was simply curious if anyone else has read this and what their thoughts were. In fact, even if all you read is the information posted above, I’d still like to hear your opinion. It’s definitely a juicy bone of a book to mentally gnaw on.