Generation X
by Douglas Coupland · first published 1991
53% recommend40% neutral7% critical
Why HN recommends it
Captures the early-1990s mood of twenty-somethings opting out because adult rewards seem out of reach, with a generational perspective on the Boomers; often cited as the origin of the term.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
Three twenty-something young adults, working at low-paying, no-future jobs, tell one another modern tales of love and death.
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Mentions per year
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Two of my favourite summer books: The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture by Douglas Coupland Any friend of Gatsby is a friend of mine.
on “Ask HN: Summer Reading Recommendations?” ↗…few years of them were beyond puberty when the phone-based childhood swept in. Every generation thinks its suffering is unique and worse than those before it. Read Douglas Coupland's early 90s novels (Generation X and Microserfs) to see how Gen X fared in contrast to their parents. Watch Eden of the East to see how middle-Millenials struggled with the rising concept of the NEET (in Japan, the US, and western Europe…
on “A Zoomer explains her generation's malaise to older generations” ↗I just re-read "Microserfs" and "Generation X" by Douglas Coupland. I actually read both of these years ago when they first came out. I am amazed at how prescient they were. So many themes and ideas that I had buried away were right there on the…
on “Ask HN: Best book you read in 2010 and briefly why” ↗Read Douglas Coupland’s Generation X, the original book that coined the term. It’s all about 20-somethings in the ‘90’s dropping out because the rewards seem so impossibly far out of reach that it’s not even worth trying. Also held the Boomers…
on “The Fleecing of Millennials” ↗…more about the cultural malaise caused by the dramatically lower lifestyle prospects afforded to the post-boomer generation, than it was about being "entitled" (for those who are interested, go read "Generation X" by Coupland to see the origin of the genre. It's also a really good book.) Hipsters have been around for a lot longer than that (since the Beat Generation, at least), and are more defined by hedonism…
on “Work smart, not hard: The seven habits of highly effective slackers” ↗…babies. Hitting on the one female designer who loathed the place. It taught me never to work in an office again as long as I live. Can't believe I didn't read either of those Douglas Coupland novels. "Generation X" was pretty seminal, though.
on “The History of the Dot Com Era” ↗Is it as good as Generation X ? Also I'd love Coupland to reiterate and do a 'Generation Z' about zoomers and digital natives.
on “Are You Ready for the Internet? (1994) [video]” ↗Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace Generation X by Douglas Coupland
on “What literature do we study from the 90s?” ↗I read Generation X when it came out, and certainly enjoyed it. As a couple more years went past, it's age-based politics began to wear thin. There were people my own age whom I disagreed with, politically and culturally.…
on “Voice in the Wilderness: On Douglas Copeland” ↗I read it a few times and liked it. However, once I read what Philip Greenspun had to say about it in writing about Copeland's Generation X [1], I rethought it, and came to agree with him. I've been unable to re-read Kidder's book since, though I've tried. He essentially said that Kidder spent a year in the presence of engineers, and at…
on “My Two Years as an Anthropologist on the Photoshop Team” ↗It's funny- when I was young (I'm Generation Y I guess) I watched "Reality Bites" and read Coupland's "Generation X" and thought "how can they be so complacent and moody? Isn't there more to life?" Maybe it's because of the internet but there's just so much to do and learn now that I'm never bored of everything like…
> I watched "Reality Bites" and read Coupland's "Generation X" and thought "how can they be so complacent and moody? Isn't there more to life?" I'm trying hard not to come off as acerbic, but maybe it's because you've taken two pieces of fiction and tried to cast…
That size seems high. 100 sqft would be a nice sized office. Cubicles are more like 30 square feet. Douglas Coupland gave cubicles the name "veal fattening pens" in Generation X but they're actually smaller now - calf enclosures are 30-35 sqft. The latest fad with standing desks is even smaller. https://www.wired.com/2000/05/is-your-cubicle-shrinking-too/
on “Open-plan offices decrease face-to-face collaboration: study” ↗…were. She remembers them of course, but not as a point of abrupt change. She did not become politically aware until some time after, when the war of terror was in full swing. There's a bit in Coupland's Generation X where one of the main characters talks about remembering the Vietnam war being constantly in the news until one day it just disappeared, but his little not remembering it at all, to him it was just history.…
on “Oregon Trail Generation” ↗A neologism from Douglas Coupland's 1991 book Generation X: Option Paralysis: The tendency, when given unlimited choices, to make none.
on “Customers given too many choices are 10x less likely to buy” ↗