Why cant even

With blistering prose and all-too vivid reporting , Petersen lays bare the burnout and despair of millennials, while also charting a path to a world where members of her generation can feel as if the boot has been removed from their necks. Petersen's third book, a highlight-every-sentence-in-recognition survey of the anxiety and exhaustion baked into the lives of myriad young people , dispels many of the myths and misconceptions-the laziness!

Yet rather than pit millennials against boomers, Petersen makes meaningful and constructive connections between the toils and troubles of the two groups. A readable, well-researched guide to a generation Petersen commendably refuses her burnt-out millennial readers any inspirational uplift. Ours is not a dilemma that will be solved by more hard work or more positive thinking or more degrees.

Can't Even seeks to unearth the root of our generation's angst Peterson's personal interjections and deft contextualisation of current issues with American history and politics An intelligent and well-researched analysis The author is astute in unpicking the many factors that led to a whole generation feeling constantly exhausted Can't Even is comforting in its insistence that it's not your fault you feel this tired Can't Even is a reminder to the burned out generation that things can be different.

Search books and authors. Buy from…. View all retailers. An incendiary examination of burnout in millennials - the cultural shifts that got us here, the pressures that sustain it and the need for drastic change An incendiary personal and cultural investigation of burnout Are you tired, stressed and trying your best but somehow still not doing enough?

Reassuring, insightful and galvanising, Can't Even is essential reading for all of us. Also by Anne Helen Petersen. Praise for Can't Even. Whether you're looking for solutions or just looking to feel seen, Can't Even is a can't-miss Harper's Bazaar, "27 Best Books of " We think of capitalism as a way of organizing an economy. Can't Even is essential to understanding our age, and ourselves Ezra Klein, Vox co-founder and author of Why We're Polarized A cogent and sober analysis of the economic lives that decades of precarity has wrought, told in Petersen's smart, measured style Tressie McMillan Cottom, author of the National Book Award finalist Thick Reading this incredible book , I had the overwhelming feeling of someone arranging the chaotic fragments of my life into a cohesive whole.

Compassionate, wise, and incisive, it is a defining work about a generation defined by work Ed Yong, author of I Contain Multitudes Can't Even is a compelling exploration of the phenomenon of burnout and how an entire generation has been set up to fail. I wish I could give this book to everyone I know Taylor Lorenz, culture reporter, New York Times Peterson explores how low-paying jobs, overstimulation, and unattainable expectations have contributed to millennial malaise in this trenchant and well-researched account The result is an incisive portrait of a generation primed for revolt Publisher's Weekly [A] razor sharp book of cultural criticism With blistering prose and all-too vivid reporting , Petersen lays bare the burnout and despair of millennials, while also charting a path to a world where members of her generation can feel as if the boot has been removed from their necks Esquire Petersen's third book, a highlight-every-sentence-in-recognition survey of the anxiety and exhaustion baked into the lives of myriad young people , dispels many of the myths and misconceptions-the laziness!

Yet rather than pit millennials against boomers, Petersen makes meaningful and constructive connections between the toils and troubles of the two groups O Magazine Meticulously researched Read this and get a much-needed perspective Francesca Brown, Stylist Can't Even seeks to unearth the root of our generation's angst Yet, frequently characterised in the media as fickle and lazy, they have internalised their precarity as a personal failure, rather than recognising that the problem is capitalism.

I am a millennial child of gen X parents and boomer grandparents, all of whom worry that I will not be better off than they are. Petersen is reluctant to recommend actions to the reader — other books have, she says, and they were useless. But who are they? And what of all the other countries where voter turnouts are higher, even compulsory, where millennials remain overworked, overeducated and still largely without power? Petersen says she has tried to expand beyond the common understanding of both millennials and burnout; namely, the experiences of white, middle-class people.

But her concerns are overwhelmingly American. Admittedly, Peterson gives a handful of examples from people that aren't in the aforementioned categories, plus a gentle reminder every few chapters that "of course, this is much worse for non-white people.

On the bright side, I found an interesting observation on what Peterson calls "the fetishisation of lovable work" aka millennials' growing disillusionment with the "do what you love" ethos.

The idea that, after all, millennials are no longer obsessed with finding their dream job, rather adjusting their expectations and definition of what a "good job" is by "whatever pays the most and allows [me] to disconnect after five pm.

And Peterson doesn't make it better, either. She's cautious enough to say this is not a self-help or solution-oriented book. In other words, "I gave you the facts, now you go and fix the problem. View 2 comments. May 31, Charlotte Cantillon rated it really liked it Shelves: netgalley-arcs. Full disclosure - I am a huge fan of Anne Helen Petersen. I actually had this book preordered and was thrilled when I was given an opportunity to review it for Netgalley.

While not a uniquely white, middle class problem and Petersen is both aware of the privilege of her position and makes many references to other social groups who experience the phenomenon it does feel specific to this group.

I was really excited to read a longer version of her essay, and I think she does a fantastic job of going into more detail and elaborating on all the elements that have resulted in millennial burnout, from economic factors to technology to the gig economy, to the monetisation of hobbies to societal expectations and the visibility that social media provides.

This book is incredibly well-researched, but never feels dry. It also feels personal and relatable without seeming self-indulgent. Of course, the book was written in a pre-COVID world, and the preface of the book references this. Overall I found this book incredibly relatable and well-researched and I would definitely recommend it to my friends who are experiencing similar burn out.

View 1 comment. Dec 23, Nathaniel rated it did not like it Shelves: non-fiction. Mine was just "Burnout" by Anne Helen Petersen. The biggest problem I had with the book was that all of the interviews went something like this: Millennial: My parents worked two jobs and sacrificed to provide me opportunities, and now I have to have a side-gig and I feel burned out.

Petersen: Wow, it's amazing how only our generation experiences burnout It's not even you read a book where you end up feeling less sympathetic with the thesis by the time you're done, but this is one. Jul 26, Brendan Monroe rated it really liked it Shelves: non-fiction , america , audiobook , capitalism , topical , corporate-slavery , stress , youth , coming-of-age , live-better. Ragging on Millennials has become something of a favorite sport among certain members of the Boomer class.

I say "become," but really we've been made fun of for years for allegedly being thin-skinned, overly sensitive, brain-dead zombies who stare at our phones all day. While some of the criticism is true, it's amusing how older generations have managed to avoid being criticized for the same bad habits case in point: our moms are all way more addicted to their phones than we are. I don't need to cite all the familiar stats — in case you missed it, Millennials are the first generation in years expected to fare worse than their parents, to be burdened with such high levels of debt simply for desiring an education, to be forced to move back in with mom and dad because they can't afford to rent, much less buy, a home — but surely no one is naive enough to believe the job market in our lifetimes is anything like it was for our parents and grandparents.

The question is, why is that? Capitalism, pretty much, best embodied in the rather alien-looking figure of Jeff Bezos in his post-space press conference attempting to act, err, human? Just because you went to space in a ridiculous-looking cowboy hat doesn't make you a space cowboy.

Just because you know human speech doesn't make you a human, you blood-sucking vampire. Companies try to lure us with the promise that we can dress like we're five years old and play foosball in their "game room," but maybe all we really want is a job that treats us like human beings, not machines.

Give us health insurance, not an-in house gym. We don't want bean bag chairs — we want a retirement fund. For all the bad, at least one good thing appears to have come out of the pandemic — millions of us are finally starting to wake up and say "enough!

View all 10 comments. Jan 09, KLC rated it did not like it. Wow, this was not at all what I was expecting. Every single chapter in this book revolves around the author's personal experiences. It's not written for Millennials as a whole.

It doesn't mention expensive healthcare. I spent several years not going to a doctor, knowing that one medical bill could ruin my li Wow, this was not at all what I was expecting.

I spent several years not going to a doctor, knowing that one medical bill could ruin my life, and I know plenty of other Millennials who had similar experiences. But apparently that's not important to our generation because the author didn't go through it herself. Most of the book is about Boomer parents raising Millennials to go to college, work a lot, and strive for the middle class. My parents were Boomers and they wanted all those things for me, but I also have autonomy over my life and made my own decisions.

I didn't finish school and I now work for myself and make plenty of money. Your parents are people too. They're not perfect. You can't blame them for all your problems, especially when you've grown up privileged, like the author did. She spends almost 40 pages telling stories of the childhood "struggles" of various Millennials, like spending too much time with their parents, too many piano lessons I would've killed for piano lessons , and eating healthy all the time.

This book is a mess. In the second chapter, she talks for several pages on divorce. The whole time, I was thinking, How is this relevant to Millennial burnout? Then she says, "This is precisely what happened when my parents divorced when I was sixteen. She claims her mom became a workaholic and passed that habit onto her. First of all, both of my parents were workaholics and I'm not.

You've got to take some ownership for your actions. Besides, her mom was a teacher. It's also filled with grammatical errors, which really annoys me.

This book could've been so good. I would've liked it to be written in a way that bridges the gap between Millennials and Boomers, but it doesn't. If you unconditionally sympathize with Millennials, you'll probably like this book. If you don't like Millennials, this will only make it worse. I received an advance review copy from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt through Netgalley; all opinions are my own and honest. Disclaimer: I'm technically not even a millenial but a Gen Zer, though I'm on the cusp and in some ways relate more to millenials especially at present: contemplating post-college adulthood.

Which, as Petersen note I received an advance review copy from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt through Netgalley; all opinions are my own and honest.

Which, as Petersen notes, often feel like additional chores in and of themselves, increasing rather than alleviating stress and burnout. But productive discussions have to begin with accurately defining the problem; this also delivers on the book's premise without resorting to pop science or inflammatory opinion.

I applaud the efforts to take an intersectional view, rather than further perpetuating it's so hard to be white, cis, straight, upper middle class I'm not saying privilege negates your struggles, but it certainly changes the equation. And it also felt clunky, borderline performative, to have each respondent introduced with their race and socioeconomic class and occasionally as "queer" or "neurodivergent" or "single working mom" , especially in some cases where it wasn't relevant to a widely-applicable quote or experience.

Stylistically there's a kind of monotony to the book, with all the chapters structured the same and seemingly little variation in tone. It's not necessarily an inherent failing, but it certainly made for a dry read, and consequently I found the book interesting but not particularly engaging. Dec 03, Kelly added it Shelves: read-in , non-fiction. Some uncollected thoughts: 1. The first four or five chapters could be cut.

They're pretty irrelevant to anyone who didn't grow up middle class and that's such a huge oversight for someone who is trying to write about an entire generation. It was irritating to see her declare that millennials grew up with parents in careers and the pressures therein and pause to think, no, no one in my life ever had a career -- they had a job to make ends meet.

Those role models didn't exist in my life, and I sus Some uncollected thoughts: 1. Those role models didn't exist in my life, and I suspect for others who didn't have the middle class childhood, that will be frustrating. Once we get to the history of work, things get better. But nothing here is new. That said, I think what Peterson really does is distill dozens of self help and socio-cultural theories that folks who don't regularly consume those stories like I do will understand. On that level, she succeeds in explaining why the millennial is so burnt out.

But readers turned off by 1 aren't going to hang on to get to this -- I wasn't going to until I was encouraged to keep going since the other stuff WAS good. For burnt out millennials, that's asking a lot. So for me, there was nothing new in here because I've read this stuff before. It wasn't insightful or eye-opening. I mostly felt like an outsider looking in to start, then felt like I've seen it and heard it before.

But I say that knowing that 3 and 4 are true for me. Peterson purposefully doesn't offer solutions or a balm but rather means of having folks understand the why of the ways they feel. And again, beyond 1, she's successful. That said, I got to the end and wondered what my take away was supposed to be.

I didn't connect and I knew this stuff already. I'm not the reader for this book, and I think the framing of millennial here is misleading. Even in the beginning, Peterson says you can't collapse folks down into neat boxes. Last year, I read the BuzzFeed article that inspired this book , and Rebecca and I discussed this topic in an episode of our podcast.

Fortunately, I was still able to receive a review copy through NetGalley! I was very excited to dig into this book. Although in some ways this book could never have completely satisfied me—more on that later—Petersen nevertheless lays out many interesti Last year, I read the BuzzFeed article that inspired this book , and Rebecca and I discussed this topic in an episode of our podcast. Although in some ways this book could never have completely satisfied me—more on that later—Petersen nevertheless lays out many interesting ideas, theories, data points, anecdotes, and just in general a wealth of information that helps to describe, untangle, and name the systemic issue of overwork that plagues our society.

So first thing first: yes, I am a millennial. Petersen defines millennial as anyone born between and , and even if you quibble with those boundary conditions, I am firmly planted in So I kind of have an interesting perspective of being exposed to a variety of the phenemona Petersen describes here—for one of her points is that your experience as a millennial can still differ quite a great deal depending on when within the generation you were born, as well as where , of course, and in what conditions.

Petersen acknowledges the influences of race and class on upbringing; she carefully notes how the people she has interviewed describe themselves white, Black, mixed race, Latina, etc. As she says in her introduction, we have a tendency to associate the millennial stereotype with whiteness, even though, statistically, a great proportion of millennials in the United States are not white. A few other things about me: I am white, and I live in Canada, not the States. I also feel very privileged, because unlike many of my millennial cohort, I have fallen into a relatively stable teaching job, and I bought a house at the age of Yet I am not immune to burnout.

As Petersen points out, burnout is a systemic monster: you can avoid it, for a time, with care and self-care—more often than not, however, it creeps up on you all the same.

Much of what she describes was not new to me. I would have loved for Petersen to talk about trans people at some point, but I suspect this omission is more due to the lack of data on this subject than an oversight—she seems to be pretty inclusive. One of the early chapters discusses the effects of boomer parenting on millennials, and it was quite mind-blowing. It made me reflect on my own upbringing, and I realize now that my parents gave me a lot of time and space to do my own thing; they seldom pressured me to take certain paths or think about my resume.

Second, even for the parts that sounded familiar to me, Petersen includes compelling data and anecdotes that provide depth. She discusses intersections. She emphasizes that burnout is systemic , not personal. This is the most important yet also the hardest part of this book. The truth is that this book is short on solutions. As Petersen points out, individual fixes are temporary at best. You can seldom beat the system. More time off for new parents—more support for parents like childcare in general—and a more frank discussion of unequal parenting and household responsibilities.

Stop defining yourself by how much you work, and stop looking down at people for taking it easy. This past summer, as I lay on my deck reading a book and drinking tea, I told a couple of friends that this is how I want to pass my days. I want to live well, and be good, and of course I would like to advocate and agitate for change—but I can do that in a collective way. At the end of the day, I want people to remember me as that mellow girl who was there when you needed her.

I want to read good books, and have good conversations with interesting people, and live my life for myself instead of for the enrichment of others. I know—typical, entitled millennial. But if we are going to fix the culture of burnout, we have to begin by rejecting generational stereotypes.

We do not have a monopoly on it—rather, we get the distinction of that label because ours is the generation that has so solidly ingrained it into the capitalist culture of the United States.

This book is a mirror for millennials but an important read for anyone, regardless of age. Brush aside the stereotypes, and listen to the stories and the data.

I do not like the cover image at all. Originally posted on Kara. Reviews , where you can easily browse all my reviews and subscribe to my newsletter. Oct 22, Anne rated it really liked it Shelves: nerdette , netgalley.

I appreciated this book a lot. Petersen goes back in history to explain the emergence of the millennial generation, how their parents had it and what has really changed: the millennials are entering the toughest job market out there, the culture of being proud of overworking, high expectations for oneself and for each other, but also the economic crises which was just around the time millennials entered the job market and the internet era changing our everyday lives.

Particularly the part on ove I appreciated this book a lot. Many parts hit close to home for me - feeling of how much is needed of me and how many degrees one really needs to have job security is sometimes mind-boggling. The chapter about tech taking over our everyday lives, being addictive, but also making multi-tasking part of every moment was particularly painful to read..

While just mostly centred around the American experience, I think it is quite correct and I could see myself in lot, still, I feel that some parts will mostly speak to American readers.