The 6-7 Generation (Video Episode 9)

🎙 iLearn.tw · rosscline.com Radio Podcast · Episode 9 · Video

The 6-7 Generation

Kids who can't read a clock, talking back to the people who can

Ross Cline · Phnom Penh · 7 min 46 s · Strong language

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The receipts

Straight from my TikTok inbox: the video removed, a strike on my account, and the "reason." No rule named. Just "Community Guidelines."

Screenshots of TikTok's notices. Tap to enlarge.

A TikTok of teenagers telling people in their forties and fifties how clueless they are, because they didn't grow up with AI, got me thinking. Then I spent four hours, noon to four, teaching ten-year-olds four phrases on a clock: o'clock, quarter past, half past, quarter to. Many still couldn't do it.

This episode is about the 6-7 generation: kids who can't read a clock or spell "good," but who are fluent in talking back. Six seven? Six a.m. to seven p.m., six days out of seven, until you're sixty-seven. The joke's on them.

It's also about AI. I love it. I build websites with it every day. But if you can't tell time and don't have the words to say what you mean, what exactly are you going to type into it? And maybe the world isn't getting harder at all. Maybe it's getting simpler, and the software is the enemy.

0:00 · Talking back

The kids on TikTok say us older folks are clueless because we didn't grow up with AI. I was watching a video on TikTok that kind of inspired this. They were so pert and so condescending to older people, as they well should have been, because older people are, by and large, dumb idiots. I mean the baby boomers: "Why don't you just get a job washing dishes and pick yourself up by your bootstraps?" You're retarded. You are. So I get the frustration.

Now, there's two sides to every story. I spent four hours, from noon to four, teaching ten-year-olds four things. O'clock, quarter past, half past, quarter to. That's it. Four. Not the whole clock. Four. Little hand is the hour, and if it's halfway between the four and the five, brace yourselves, it's probably half past four. Four hours. Four phrases. You can't do it.

1:01 · Noise with attitude

But talking back to me? Fluent. Native speakers. Nobody had to teach them that. And I don't call it arguing. A real argument has logic in it. A reason. A point. This is just noise with attitude. Kind of like AI. And I'm the first person to tell you I love AI. It's just interesting. It's so exciting to see how far we've come. At what cost?

"Good" is G-O-O-T. Sounds close enough. Names don't get capitalization, ever. Periods, sentences? I mean, no. And IDK is "I don't know," of course, and there's an acronym for everything now.

1:47 · Six seven

And there's this "six seven." I'll do a six seven, and clap. I guess the clap is a reference to sex, because they hear the parents, you know, ha ha ha. But I think it's kind of cute, because I love everything that's rebellious. It's hilarious.

But here's the six seven generation. They always say "six seven, six seven." Six days out of seven, you'll be working. You'll be working till you're 67. And that's the six seven generation. Am I right? That's sort of what it's all about. And you'll be working six days out of seven, maybe seven out of seven.

2:22 · Harder, or simpler?

Now, I love AI. I build websites. I use it every day, and the kids are half right. The world is harder now, and it's much more complicated. Or is it? We can't tell the time.

And anyone who has a boomer parent knows this whole bullshit about "you just need to pull yourself up by your bootstraps," and "I know we went to the moon because I saw it on the radio." Yeah, yeah, I get it. I'm not that old.

But what exactly are you going to type into AI if you can't tell time? I'd say we should move away from long division and at least teach them some words that they can say. God forbid they know how to spell them. Or should they ever have to learn to spell anything? Because if they can just say it with their mouth, maybe the language will change, and it will just be "IDK," and AI will understand, of course, that's "I don't know." Pretty soon we'll be humanoids that speak like AI, making weird noises and grunts, and it will be able to decipher everything. Language always evolves. I get this.

3:47 · The small hand is the hour

But if you're ten and you're unable to tell the time, and the job is to do this on an analog clock with four choices… I mean, how many times do I need to explain to you that the small hand is the hour? So if the big hand's pointing at the three and the small hand's pointing a little past the eight, it's probably not "three anything," right?

4:17 · Software will be the enemy

But again, it really inspired me, that video of younger people saying how complicated everything is now compared to how it used to be. Oh no, it's actually a lot simpler. In the future, you're just going to be able to talk to your computer. There won't be a need for an operating system. "I just want you to make a blog post," and it does, because you just told it to. It's wonderful. Do you know how much bullshit I had to go through to figure all that tedious hell out? And it's only going to get easier.

Now we're going to have AI working to make our experience with software. Software will be the enemy, not what AI can create. It's no longer going to be a battle between "I use a PC" and "I use a Mac." The cult-like fanaticism over what brand of AI you're into is sort of the new cult, isn't it? I think Claude's got me by the balls there, because it's expensive as hell and it's a cult. But I've always been the kind of person who got into one pretty good.

5:32 · Late for their own wedding

I just wonder, though, when I see young people so unapologetically smarter than everyone around them at such a very young age. It won't be good when they don't get to their own wedding on time. Of course, they won't really have weddings in the future, because it'll just be a dystopia, just like in that… oh, what was the name of that movie? Anyway, that's where we're headed, real fast, isn't it? "People have relationships and stick together for a lifetime, and women know their place." Oh yeah, you're right. Yeah, right. Put on your seatbelt, folks. Those days are over. O-V-A-H.

6:14 · Even here

But I think it's a real curious thought, that ten-year-olds don't know how to tell time. They don't know how to write properly. And I'm in Cambodia, where the kids are real smart. Coming from the land of binary ones and zeros, TSMC, Taiwan's test-passing lifestyle, I can tell you they're really a lot smarter here. I've never seen kids as keen and as smart as the ones I've taught here in Cambodia. How's that for a little chill? So I don't even want to think about teaching Taiwanese kids to tell time. But it is an interesting thing. It's what's been going through my mind after watching that TikTok video.

7:16 · Are we turning into those old people?

Thank you for your time. I hope I've inspired you to have a conversation with your friends sometime about what the hell is going on with these kids. Are we turning into those old people? Well, yeah, we probably are. Cheers, my dears. Anyway, it's quarter past "I'm done." The full story is on rosscline.com.