Generational Differences Are Less Important Than You Think

We shouldn’t read too much into pop sociology, especially when investing other people’s money. William Strauss and Neil Howe built a following by perpetuating a scholarship that embraces substantive differences among generations: Baby Boomers, Millennials, Gen-X and so forth.

But that view is mistaken, according to Bobby Duffy.

Duffy asks whether our lives are largely shaped by when we were born, as popular “generational analysts” try to convince us. Or are generations more similar than different? In a new book, The Generation Myth, Duffy, a British policy scholar, argues — somewhat effectively — for the latter.