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ellipsiscool's review against another edition
5.0
Anyone who's wondering how millennials turned into millennials and why so many of us all desperately clinging to self-care, wine, and Starbucks trying to stay awake and not lose our shit every second of the day, should take a look at this book.
nevermindnt's review against another edition
challenging
dark
informative
reflective
tense
medium-paced
4.0
daumari's review against another edition
4.0
Ironically, regularly posting updates to goodreads was a self-demonstrating example of turning hobbies into work so here I am, writing an update as I finished the book early this morning. (and trying not to feel guilty taking 20 days to read a relatively short book...!)
Can't Even expands on Anne Helen Peterson's viral longform essay for Buzzfeed, "How Millennials Became the Burnout Generation", dividing into chapters by theme (education, the various ways work has become shitty/the 'love what you do' myth/parenting/etc.) with plenty of anecdote from Millennials across geographic and class spectrum. As a reminder, we're the age cohort between 1981 and 1996, so while we've been painted as "lazy and entitled young people" for the last twenty years, we're grown adults trying to keep our heads above water after weathering multiple economic downturns in our adult lives.
In general, Can't Even is a good primer on the ways in which capitalism has fucked over society and how we've turned everything from our hobbies to our child-rearing into work, which compounds into exhaustion. She's cautious to not provide flimsy suggested solutions at the end, as these are things that we can't necessarily fix on the individual level and require structural changes.
I'd strongly recommend reading cited sources for further information on labor (I read [b:Temp: How American Work, American Business, and the American Dream Became Temporary|37003174|Temp How American Work, American Business, and the American Dream Became Temporary|Louis Hyman|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1513007876l/37003174._SY75_.jpg|58855306] two years ago and recognized the arguments in the chapter on the gig economy). Also, AHP has a newsletter named "Culture Study" which also looks at this among other topics like celebrity culture and what it indicates.
Can't Even expands on Anne Helen Peterson's viral longform essay for Buzzfeed, "How Millennials Became the Burnout Generation", dividing into chapters by theme (education, the various ways work has become shitty/the 'love what you do' myth/parenting/etc.) with plenty of anecdote from Millennials across geographic and class spectrum. As a reminder, we're the age cohort between 1981 and 1996, so while we've been painted as "lazy and entitled young people" for the last twenty years, we're grown adults trying to keep our heads above water after weathering multiple economic downturns in our adult lives.
In general, Can't Even is a good primer on the ways in which capitalism has fucked over society and how we've turned everything from our hobbies to our child-rearing into work, which compounds into exhaustion. She's cautious to not provide flimsy suggested solutions at the end, as these are things that we can't necessarily fix on the individual level and require structural changes.
I'd strongly recommend reading cited sources for further information on labor (I read [b:Temp: How American Work, American Business, and the American Dream Became Temporary|37003174|Temp How American Work, American Business, and the American Dream Became Temporary|Louis Hyman|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1513007876l/37003174._SY75_.jpg|58855306] two years ago and recognized the arguments in the chapter on the gig economy). Also, AHP has a newsletter named "Culture Study" which also looks at this among other topics like celebrity culture and what it indicates.
pbishwakarma's review against another edition
5.0
Insightful look into how recent economic and technological developments shaped millennials’ attitude toward work. The book doesn’t offer any solutions if that’s what you’re looking for, but it performs spectacularly as the lens it claims to be - a crystal clear lens to help you see why you feel like you’re hanging on by a thread.
Do yourself a favor and replace a couple items on your probably too-long-to-do list with reading this book.
Do yourself a favor and replace a couple items on your probably too-long-to-do list with reading this book.