Psychology says people who grew up in the 1960s and 70s don't handle hardship better than everyone else because they are stronger - they handle it better because they were never offered the alternative, and a person who was never offered the alternative develops a relationship with difficulty that people who were offered it spend their whole lives trying to build in a gym - Silicon Canals

"We handle difficulty better because nobody ever told us we didn't have to. We never got the memo that life was supposed to be comfortable. We just thought struggling was Tuesday—and Wednesday, and Thursday."

"When I was young, my old man's back went out on a job site. He came home, couldn't stand up straight, face white as a sheet. Know what he did the next morning? Got up and went to work. Not because he was tough. Because the mortgage was due and sick days weren't a thing."

"There's a fundamental difference between choosing to do something difficult and having no other option. When I was starting out as an apprentice, I got laid off three times in two years. Each time, I showed up at the union hall the next morning."

My generation handles tough times better not due to toughness, but because we were never told life should be easy. We grew up believing struggle was normal. When faced with challenges, we simply kept going without coping strategies. Unlike younger generations who have options like therapy and self-care, we had no choice but to endure hardships. This difference shapes our relationship with adversity, as we learned to work through pain and difficulty without the expectation of comfort.

Read at Silicon Canals