I think this maybe reflects less on the generation than societal (their elders'?) expectations of human beings and separating a person from their resume.

Everything is a ladder now, boxes to be checked off on an HR form.

A bit of a counterpoint that got traction a few years ago on this site:

https://www.thecut.com/2018/11/im-broke-and-friendless-and-i...

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18562082

The person optimized for "interestingness" and feels they have very little to show for it. I'd bet that was also the case for quite a few "interesting" people in the first half of the 20th century.

Maybe I'd have a richer life if I'd spent 2 years as an animal tamer or whatever, but society isn't set up to reward that. Was it ever?

Things are about to get a lot more "interesting". Climate change, the rise of fascism in the US and who knows what's next with Covid.

The lead in to this article is pure survivorship bias.

I recalled the phrase of "if the world is perfect, it doesn't need art".