The defining feature of Gen Y is that they are not objective. It makes teaching very interesting.

Forget defining a table, forget listing the principles of table-building.

You have to begin with what they could use a table for right this minute, where to get one quickly . . and you won't have time to explain that someone makes tables.

That is the one thing that puzzles me. At what point does someone learn to make tables? Who learns to make tables? Or does it not matter?

I suspect, but I am not sure, that this is half the story behind the shocking state of contemporary customer service (the other half being shocking management and business models). If you have always had abundant choice and could 'click away', where do you learn to deliver a business that someone wants? Where do you learn to deliver what someone else wants?

I am all in favor of JIT infrastructure. I think managers have to deliver to their employees before employees will deliver to customers. But this extreme passivity masquerading as choice puzzles me.

Here is an example: I left a motorway and a heavyish van had broken down on the slip road trying to move from the right lane to the verge. A tailback quickly developed but no one took charge. No one pulls over and takes a red triangle and mounts it further back. No one stops other traffic and extracts some burly guys to push the offending vehicle to the side of the road. Every one just pushes and shoves their way through the queue. Eh?

What is British here? What is Gen Y? What is the law of the land? Someone enlighten me, please!

Flipside: opportunity for a product/service. Message to a website which tweets back to satnavs - obstruction ahead - ten burly guys needed and three people capable of directing traffic. Message back - team assembled. Pull over, move van, done. Everyone on their way.

In the meantime, "teach you children well". Road safety on the internet comes down to
a) practice & participate b) learn to check provenance like an art dealer! c) develop a sense of internet ethics (don't mislead).

I am interested in the tailback problem. Where do we train managers in this here society of ours? If you want your kid to get useful developmental experiences, where . . .

I would think that t-shirt would be actually more effective (and reflectiive of the power of viral media) if it read:
"F**k Google! Ask me how!"

I have a bunch of wacky t-shirts myself but have not seen this one before. Anyone have any ideas where to find them??