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No, I'm perfectly happy with the year (1973) and country (West Germany) I was born into.

Grew up in a world with the first home consoles and affordable home computers.

So I enjoyed all the arcade classics (a few in Arcades, but most of them ported to Atari 2600 or C64... and later I enjoyed the original Arcade versions a second time via emulation). I experienced the beginnings and the further development of many game genres, subgenres and gaming hardware. Decades later, I'm still enjoying new gaming features like raytracing and pathtracing and new ways to play like VR games. And I'm looking forward to the technical improvements of the next 3 - 4 decades.

Because I started with Basic, AmigaOS and MS-DOS before GUIs like Windows dumbed everything down, I got a lot of computer knowledge, which is still helpful in the present.

I was there when music became portable with Sony's Walkman and when the CD revolutionized many areas of home entertainment.

As a big fan of movies and TV shows, I enjoyed the beginnings of video rentals in the 1980s... suddenly you weren't limited to the TV program of the few TV channels anymore, but you were able to rent (and/or copy) almost any movie (a few months after their release in the cinemas) and watch them when YOU wanted.

In the 1990s / 2000s new media formats and video/audio hardware with big quality improvements (DVDs, Blu-rays, HD-TVs, surround sound...) became available just when I finished my education and vocational training... so just in time when I had a lot of money to spend on home entertainment hardware, movie collections and games.

When I finished school in the early 1990s it was a great time to find a good job. Job offers were plenty for Gen X... I wrote ~10 applications and I received several offers to choose from. No worries if my career path will be obsolete due to AI replacements in a few years like young people today. I only have to work another 10 - 12 years, so if my career path will be obsolete until then, the financial impact of my early retirement would be minimal.

When I was born, West Germany already had completely recovered from the second world war and has stayed out of any wars since then (except a few career soldiers who chose to participate in NATO conflicts). The cold war anxiety / nuclear anxiety never affected me personally... maybe is was a bit naive, but I couldn't imagine that things get so bad that any country/government starts World War 3 and destroys the whole world. Ignorance is bliss, I guess.

Last edited by Conina - on 05 May 2026