Nine Things Revised for Gens X, Y, and AI

September 25, 2025

This essay is the work of a dumb dinobaby. No smart software required.

A dinobaby named Edward Packard wrote a good essay titled “Nine Things I Learned in 90 Years.” As a dinobaby, I found the points interesting. However, I think there will be “a failure to communicate.” How can this be? Mr. Packard is a lawyer skilled at argument. He is a US military veteran. He is an award winning author. A lifetime of achievement has accrued.

Let’s make the nine things more on target for the GenX, GenY, and GenAI cohorts. Here’s my recasting of Mr. Packard’s ideas tuned to the hyper frequencies on which these younger groups operate.

Can the communication gap be bridged? Thanks, MidJourney. Good enough.

The table below presents Mr. Packard’s learnings in one column and the version for the Gen whatevers in the second column. Please, consult Mr. Packard’s original essay. My compression absolutely loses nuances to fit into the confines of a table. The Gen whatevers will probably be okay with how I convert Mr. Packard’s life nuggets into gold suitable for use in a mobile device-human brain connection.

Packard Learnings	GenX, Y, AI Version
Be self-constituted	Rely on AI chats
Don’t operate on cruise control	Doomscroll
Consider others’ feelings	Me, me, me
Be happy	Coffee and YouTube
Seek eternal views	Twitch is my beacon
Do not deceive yourself	Think it and it will become reality
Confront mortality	Science (or Google) will solve death
Luck plays a role	My dad: A connected Yale graduate with a Harvard MBA
Consider what you have	Instagram dictates my satisfaction level, thank you!

I appreciate Mr. Packard’s observations. These will resonate at the local old age home and among the older people sitting around the cast iron stove in rural Kentucky where I live.

Bridges in Harlen Country, Kentucky, are tough to build. Iowa? New Jersey? I don’t know.

Stephen E Arnold, September 25, 2025

Written by Stephen E. Arnold · Filed Under News, Personnel, Training

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Stephen E. Arnold monitors search, content processing, text mining and related topics from his high-tech nerve center in rural Kentucky. He tries to winnow the goose feathers from the giblets. He works with colleagues worldwide to make this Web log useful to those who want to go "beyond search". Contact him at sa [at] arnoldit.com. His Web site with additional information about search is arnoldit.com.