Quick Take: Volodymyr Zelenskyy vs Vladimir Putin, The First Native Analog vs Native Digital War (And What It Means For Every CEO)

The analog world used to determine what happened in the digital world. Now, the two have flipped.

ARRRRRRRRR!!!! Pirates, as we continue to dig deeper into our mini-books on Category Design, we wanted to also begin experimenting with “quick takes” we believe are important to talk about but may not require an entire mini-book to communicate the point. Unlike our mini-books (for paid subscribers only), these Quick Takes will be sent to both free & paid subscribers. Enjoy!

Part I

Over the past year, we have written extensively about the bifurcation between Native Analogs & Native Digitals.

• Native Analogs are Baby Boomers and Gen Xers born anywhere from the 1940s all the way up to the early ‘80s. Today, they range between the ages of 40 to 75, and make up approximately 136.8 million Americans.

• Native Digitals are Millennials, Gen Zers, and beyond, born between the early 1980s to as recently as the 2010s. These demographics are around 35 years of age on the high end, down to as young as 6 years old, and make up approximately 140.1 million Americans. 

Much has been written in the past 20 years about “Digital Natives,” but this is a loose understanding of the chasm between these two demographics. When we say “Native Analogs” and “Native Digitals,” we are not talking about age. 

We are talking about identity.

“Native Digital” is not a mindset. It does not mean “some people embrace technology while others do not.” It also doesn’t mean if you’re old, you’ll never “get it.” We created the terms Native Analog and Native Digital to introduce shared language that would allow society to discuss the differences between people whose primary life experience is Analog-first (in the real world) from people whose primary life experience is Digital-first (online). For example: Pirate Eddie and Pirate Christopher cannot, and will never be “Native Digital,” even though they have worked with technology for over 30 years. And the reason isn’t because they “don’t get it” or refuse to embrace the digital world. “Learned Digital” is possibly a middle ground. But they will never be Native Digitals because their primary life experience still takes place in the real world. Their identity is still rooted offline.

Pirate Cole (a Millennial), on the other hand, is the opposite.

Between the 3 of us, we see these differences in our interactions constantly. And without the language of Native Analogs & Native Digitals, we may have fallen into the same trap corporate workplaces, organized education systems, and even the media fall into every single day: misunderstanding each other, judging each other, and failing to appreciate each other’s primary life experience. For example, every Friday we get together digitally to create and write Category Pirates together. When we asked ourselves, as a group, “What do we call our Friday sessions?” the two Native Analogs called it “a Zoom call” and the Native Digital called it “a face-to-face meeting.” This is not an accident. If you are a Native Analog, you see the digital world as an addition, extension, or even distraction to your analog life. If you are a Native Digital, you see the digital world as your primary life, and the analog world as an addition, extension, or even distraction from your digital life. 

Again, this is not an Old vs Young issue.

This is a first-time-ever-in-human-history phenomenon: Native Analogs are the last of a dying breed, and Native Digitals are a new category of human.

And from here on out, there will never be another Native Analog generation born ever again.

Think about that.

Part II

Native Digitals grew up integrated with the digital world.