I have had this book for almost three weeks and have found it an uninspiring read. I've picked it up to read it a number of times but in all honesty, it is the driest piece of non-fiction I have read in a long time. In my former job, I was not a stranger to reading dry material, however this material is much worse than anything I remember.
Generation Ageless is clearly written to help those in the marketing business sell products and services to the Baby Boomer generation. As a Baby Boomer myself, I find a lot of the information in the book to be flawed, in my opinion (although I have no research to back up my opinion). The writers (J. Walker Smith and Ann Clurman both of Yankelovich Inc.) present very little documentation for the claims and generalities that are made in the book. Chapter One, Ka-boom!, is the launching point which sets out the very impressive statistics of the sheer numbers of the Baby Boomer generation. It also points out some of the problems that these numbers will cause in our not so distant future (for example, p. 9 tells us that by 2020 there will be a shortage of four thousand cancer specialists due to the number of aging and ailing Boomers).
The book is dry, difficult to read, and not "Boomer friendly" in that the print is difficult for aging eyes and the graphs and tables presented on almost every page, are quite difficult, in many cases, to match up with the reading. The references to the figures, within the reading itself, are not bold faced or italicized, which makes them very difficult to find within the text. Consequently, it was difficult to quickly connect what the figures were supposed to be highlighting about the text.
The Boomers are portrayed as selfish individuals that live in the moment, only for themselves, and are not concerned with what happens to anyone after them. [Page 24 shows Boomers as having a "defining focus" of youthfulness; an attitude that "…Now is more important than the future…"; and we spend money rather than save it. Page 212 "…Boomers want a mission, but not to leave a legacy. They want to make a difference for themselves today." ]
What I did take away from this book was that we, as Boomers, are in for a lot of sales pitches that are "geared" toward us. I'm not so sure that the book's claims are accurate so perhaps those pitches will fall flat! Perhaps the Boomers can show what we're really made of. Perhaps we can show them that we do care about what happens when we are gone. We do care about leaving a legacy . We do. I do. I know the rest of you do, too.
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Comments: 8
I mean, perhaps advertising will work, but not because Baby Boomers specifically are self-centered and like to spend money. It's because some people are like are and do. What else in new?
Ironically, I don't disagree with your viewpoint although it differs from mine. You and I are like the two witnesses at the scene of an accident... differing perspectives. I would venture to say that you are much more discriminating in many areas of your life than the majority of us... but this would still be a rather widespread Boomer trait.:)
Gutsy review, by the way. I do enjoy statistics and facts and figures (I am a numbers lady professionally after all), so perhaps the average person might find this much drier than I did.
I keep shaking my head, thinking I must have missed something but I had to go for honesty in my review. Honesty as I see it. I certainly don't mean to imply that anyone was less than honest in their review. It's just a matter of different strokes for different folks, I think.
I found your review helpful and will probably avoid attempting to read said book!