There is a stubborn myth that people who grew up in the 1960s and 1970s had innate grit and laser focus. That is incomplete and mildly romantic. Neuroscience, however, gives us a way to take that romantic feeling and translate it into mechanisms. This piece argues that the environment of a pre-digital childhood repeatedly exercised … Read more
I keep meeting people in their 50s and early 60s who shrug at a crisis like it is a mildly annoying telegram. They do not wear serenity like a brand name. They have grooves—small habitual moves—that let them move through pressure in a way younger colleagues, friends, and family often find baffling. This isn’t nostalgia. … Read more
There is an awkward truth nested inside the warm nostalgia of school reunions and vintage playlists. People born in the 1960s and 1970s often arrive at later life carrying emotional habits that look unusual to younger onlookers. Those habits are not mere manners or generational quirks. Psychologists and clinicians increasingly note that certain emotional strengths … Read more
There is a quiet impatience in the way many people born in the 1960s and 1970s look at the world of instant hype. It is not grandstanding. It is a preference carved out of repeated disappointment and small wins. They have watched movements crest and collapse, seen fashions and platforms burn bright and then dim, … Read more
I keep hearing people my age say the same awkward thing when they talk about childhoods that involved porches and paper routes and real chores. They do not mean to romanticise the past. They mean to register a loss that is practical and moral not romantic. Responsibility in the 1960s and 1970s arrived as a … Read more
There is a stubborn truth I keep noticing in meetings and in the corner of my local pub. When a plan needs completing or a long slow job needs a person to see it over the line the ones who reliably do the finishing are often the people born in the 1960s and 1970s. This … Read more
Growing up before the internet rewired attention and expectation taught people born in the 1960s and 1970s a different grammar of fixing things. This is not nostalgia dressed up as analysis. It is an attempt to trace a set of habits and attitudes that shaped how an entire cohort approached knots of daily life when … Read more
There is a particular look people of a certain age give when the conversation turns to childhood. It is not merely nostalgia. It is a mixture of irritation and quiet pride. Modern psychology is finally catching up to that look and saying out loud what those raised in the 1960s and 1970s have quietly known … Read more
There is a stubborn, slightly uncomfortable observation circulating in psychology circles: people who spent their childhoods in the 1960s and 1970s often display a steadier capacity to sit with annoyance, delay gratification, and absorb small humiliations without immediate meltdown. This is not a nostalgic paean to vinyl or a claim that everything was better then. … Read more
There is a curious steadiness about many people born in the 1960s and 1970s. They do not erupt at the first sign of a hiccup. They do not perform panic as a default mode. The pattern is visible in cafés and train carriages and the comment threads you secretly skim. It is not universal and … Read more