The Gen Z Factor

“GENERATION STORIES ARE BULLSHIT.” THAT ASSERTION, aired during an early editorial meeting about this issue, is fair. Articles that make sweeping statements about groups of people born within the same 20-year chunk of time do tend to be bullshit. Generations are arbitrarily defined, often by marketers. They are diverse. For every Gen X slacker, there’s another who founded a tech company with a name now used as a verb; for every millennial whose political lodestar is Alexandria Ocasio-cortez, there’s a Joe Rogan fanboy.

And yet . . . generation stories aren’t complete bullshit. The drift of history during one’s formative years matters, and it leaves a mark that plays out over time in a collective way. We can argue about this if you like (and wow, do people love to argue about generations), but I maintain that membership in any given generation does say something about a person—even if they act in opposition to whatever reductive clichés supposedly define them.

For Gen Z, born between 1996 and 2010, approximately, the drift of history has been more like a series of raging squalls: the global financial crisis, climate change, the rupture of the Trump years, the pandemic, and the halting, uncertain economy in its wake. How will these events shape their attitudes and priorities around work, money, and careers?

That’s the question we’ve tried to answer with “The New Rules of Gen Z,” fronted by Kyla Scanlon—who has become Tiktok-famous by explaining the economy in 60-second bites—and spearheaded by deputy editor David Lidsky and Gen Z intern Laya Neelakandan. It is early to attempt such a project. The oldest members of college-educated Gen Z entered the workforce only about five years ago, which means that roughly 75% of that cohort hasn’t even started full-time work. But you can learn a lot from a five-year sample size—if you know whom to ask.

There are actually two Gen Z economic gurus in this issue. In addition to Scanlon, who was one of Fast Company’s Most Creative People in Business for 2022, we spoke with Joey Politano, whose data-driven newsletter helps 28,000 paying readers make sense of today’s economy. Politano is one of 54 honorees we celebrate in this year’s installment of Most Creative People, which was overseen as always by editorial director Jill Bernstein. MCP is a year-round endeavor for our staff, who constantly scour the business world for people doing things that have never been done before. At a moment when all anyone can talk about is how clever computers are getting, the list is an extraordinary testament to the unlimited range of human creativity.