Young and Dangerous: The Challenger Effect
During the mid-90s, there was a series of Hong Kong studio movies chronicling the rise of a group of young Triad gangsters in the Hong Kong underworld. The actors were incredibly good looking and stylish and really romanticized that life a bit too much I would say. I watched this series religiously and it was how I learned mandarin Chinese, by reading the English subtitles but listening to the Chinese. It also explained why my crap Chinese sounded a bit too much like a young hood as my Taiwanese cousins complained to me.
But why I mention this, goes back to the title. Young and dangerous. Progress, innovation and change happens due to the youth. As German physicist Max Planck said: “Science advances one funeral at a time.” They question and they challenge. Think about really young children below the age of 10 who keep asking “why, why, why?” They look at the world with fresh eyes. Naivety can be powerful. One other advantage is they have brand new perspectives. Maybe even more importantly, they also have plenty of energy and vitality. An ability to endure the inevitable pain.
We see this in Silicon Valley which is built on new entrepreneurs and founders who question the status quo. People who ask the hard questions. Who find new fast growing niches while the incumbents stumble around in comfort and complacency trying to protect their cash cows.
We see this on the negative front on the growing crime in Europe and USA, as most criminals committing crimes tend to be young men with hormones coursing through their brains and an inability to think clearly. But also nothing to lose and a willingness to burn down everything around them.
We also see this at the geopolitical level. A still strong but aging USA-led Western World order being challenged by vigorous new (and old) players in China, Russia, Iran and others of the BRICS. It’s easy to see how the gerontocracy and old political class in the West are relying on old tools, tactics and strategies that have worked so well in the past but are declining in effectiveness versus the innovative hybrid approach the new Axis powers are using. It does seem like the West is just plain tired, weary and slow, unable to keep up to the challenges being presented. Death by a thousand cuts.
You can trace all the forms of revolutions in history to be driven by iconoclasts and young people. Who have only energy and are hopeful for a new order with no stakes in the present order. Opposed by people bound by old ideas, customs and traditions that might be out of date.
It’s so easy to get set in your ways, especially if you have been successful. Experience is very valuable but you end up relying on habits and tools that got you to where you are. And in a world of technological, societal and big geopolitical shifts, they may no longer be relevant or useful.
This is a great reminder that if you don’t rejuvenate your thinking, to challenge yourself, you will get left behind. So go hang out with young people, or listen or track what your kids or grandkids are doing. Watch and read different kinds of media and books. Get out of your filter bubble and get alternative views that challenge your beliefs. And even if you are older, keep doing hard things to take you out of any comfort zone. Comfort is death literally and figuratively.
