doesn’t wash. In fact, compared to Gen X, they have a greater propensity for saving money and possess a sense of frugality, by, for instance, patiently recognizing that there is a “point of readiness” at which you can buy a home. Meanwhile, Centennials show a more extreme development of the same responses. They’re much less inclined to see themselves as “about fun”, or to do anything risky. And they are already and actually worried about the future, in particular, the environment. So this is the American Millennial challenge: just being one coincides with a period in history when the good times are running out. And that does mean the emergence of distinct characteristics. They are much less likely to own homes, or to use credit cards, or to buy or drive cars, or to get married at the same age their parents did. They are much more likely to share. And to value diversity, and to believe that all lives matter – black, gay, white, straight. Thank goodness for Millennials. But then there’s a great danger of stepping into a second fallacy. It’s the great millenarian fantasy that the social equivalent of a Second Coming is nigh. But most Millennials are not millenarians. Most do not believe that they will usher in a golden age where people don’t have to work, where they trade in homegrown vegetables, and where they all live together in emancipated bliss. That dewy-eyed commentary is based on some exaggeration from quite minor trends. “Normcore”, for instance – the fashion for wearing only commonplace items, bought from Walmart or LL Bean – does not seem to me likely to destroy the world’s fashion industry. (And Normcore is hardly new: I have practised the extreme form of it – wearing second-hand clothes – with great satisfaction in the past without ever inciting a Second Coming.) Of course, Millennials don’t have the same view of work, as anyone who employs them – and Ogilvy & Mather employs them in the thousands – knows. The old view was linear and compartmentalized. A Millennial is, in my experience, much more demanding – and rightly so – of how work fulfills his or her potential. That means more sideway shifts, more path changes, more of a link to personal interests, more opportunities to take a break and do something else. It may be difficult to manage, but who can deny that it is more civilized? And, again, we have to be careful. We are not about to witness the complete reform of organizational structures or the abolition of hierarchy. Rather, the system adapts – if it is intelligent enough.