Don't mistake Entitlement for Ambition either. Ambition isn't walking into a company and expecting to be well-paid with a lax dress code and ample time off. Ambition is starting your own company and making something you know will be awesome.
I'm 28, and I've worked with some of these millenials. They talk a big game, but they have no follow-through. All I hear is about how awesome they are and how they grew up with technology and are so productive compared to the crusty older generations. But all I see are a bunch of kids waxing rhapsodic in a mirror lined echo chamber while the rest of us get something done.
Ambition isn't walking into a company and expecting to be well-paid with a lax dress code and ample time off.
What I've noticed about "my generation" is approximately the following:
The best have a strong desire to work-- to be productive, to keep improving their skills, and to develop their careers at a rapid rate. They're willing to do grunt work, but only if they learn from it (and hopefully, can automate it so that they don't have to do it in the future). They have no loyalty to institutions and very little to individuals aside from close friends; their loyalty is to their projects and education.
The worst of our generation are lazy and yet have the same prima donna attitude. They're annoying. On the other hand, their most damaging trait is their laziness rather than arrogance, and our generation doesn't seem to have fewer or more lazy people than any other. So this isn't really a flaw that is particular to any specific generation.
People like the WSJ are angry about the former set of people: talented people who value growth and productivity over playing nice and paying dues. In essence, they're angry that they can't find the hot girl who thinks she's ugly.
Your best share the traits of the best of every generation. Because they don't fit even for whatever reason.
Your worst is your vast majority. And it is the arrogance that breed the laziness. They already know they are awesome and deserve all this stuff, so why aren't people just giving it to them already. Not to mention, the WSJ article seems to imply that there is a high reward/low risk expectation from these people.
And what you say about "talented people who value growth and productivity over playing nice and paying dues" is nearly the same traits that made up the stereotypical "arrogant computer person".
