Quote Originally Posted by Ash View Post
I have an Arsenal pencil from a secret santa the other year, so it's ok.
It all fits really. These are the children of the Divorced Parents and Abandoned Families generation. As B points out, the whole point of having a career used to be to feed your wife and bairns. But what happens when your own parents always made it clear that families were really an optional, even undesirable, extra. So, if there's no intention to raise a family, there's no need to take preparation for a career, or even a career itself, seriously, either, is there.

Unless there is? Rather than a means to an end, work becomes an end in itself; Arsene Wenger, for instance. Or it becomes a mere frivolous, incidental, inconsequential, almost optional activity; like IUFG's post-grad applicants, seeking only to earn enough money as is necessary, as quickly as possible, to finance their next trip around the world, or their fledgling rock band or whatever.

We've actually managed to go full circle here. And in both directions simultaneously; a successful career means no time or energy to raise a family. And, indeed, the initial disinclination to raise a family, in fact, frees up enough time and energy to have a successful career. But, perhaps ironically, fewer people nowadays will really desire either outcome