# Who is the most influential Gen X-er? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [September 5, 2020, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-most-influential-gen-x-er/919858 "2020-09-05T02:04:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2020, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-most-influential-gen-x-er/919858/1 "2020-09-05T02:04:44Z")
A generation so forgotten, no one has thought to ask the question. Rules: 1. GenXer must be born from 1.1.1965 to 12.31 1980 2. An explanation as to your thoughts would be 👌 ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2020, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-most-influential-gen-x-er/919858/2 "2020-09-05T02:10:18Z")
Jeff Bezos. Who doesn’t buy shit from this guy almost everyday? ETA: Nixed by a year. Sorry. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2020, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-most-influential-gen-x-er/919858/3 "2020-09-05T02:10:30Z")
Elon Musk? I think he’ll be one of those ‘ahead of his time’ people. I bet people will still be talking about him 100+ years from now. ---
**Author:** ![galen\_ubal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/galen_ubal/32/4440_2.png) [@galen\_ubal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/galen_ubal)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2020, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-most-influential-gen-x-er/919858/4 "2020-09-05T02:12:20Z")
Jack Dorsey, maybe, one of the founders and CEO of Twitter. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2020, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-most-influential-gen-x-er/919858/5 "2020-09-05T02:33:00Z")
Sergey Brin and Larry Page, perhaps. They founded Google. ---
**Author:** ![swampspruce](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/swampspruce/32/261_2.png) [@swampspruce](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/swampspruce)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2020, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-most-influential-gen-x-er/919858/6 "2020-09-05T21:36:40Z")
Clearly it’s me. My influence has been completely subtle and the effects won’t be seen for about another decade. Trust me, you’ll like it… Or more seriously, I’d say Elon Musk or Kevin Smith. ---
**Author:** ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2020, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-most-influential-gen-x-er/919858/7 "2020-09-06T00:21:09Z")
In politics, there are 20 current US senators who fit the bill, including well known names like Gillibrand, Duckworth, Booker, Cruz, and Rubio, and 14 current state governors including Newsom. In other countries, Emmanuel Macron fits the bill. Kamala Harris and Boris Johnson just misses the date cutoff. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2020, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-most-influential-gen-x-er/919858/8 "2020-09-06T00:34:56Z")
> [@bibliophage](#): > > In politics, there are 20 current US senators who fit the bill, including well known names like Gillibrand, Duckworth, Booker, Cruz, and Rubio, and 14 current state governors including Newsom. How about the Supreme Court? ---
**Author:** ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2020, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-most-influential-gen-x-er/919858/9 "2020-09-06T00:37:45Z")
Two on the Supreme Court: Kavanaugh and Gorsuch. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2020, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-most-influential-gen-x-er/919858/10 "2020-09-06T00:40:30Z")
> [@Joey\_P](#): > > Elon Musk? > I think he’ll be one of those ‘ahead of his time’ people. I bet people will still be talking about him 100+ years from now. Elon Musk shows all the signs of becoming a Bond villain. He’s literally preparing for the apocalypse by planning to save the super-wealthy and protect them from the rest of us. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2020, 12:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-most-influential-gen-x-er/919858/11 "2020-09-06T00:41:31Z")
> [@swampspruce](#): > > Clearly it’s me. My influence has been completely subtle and the effects won’t be seen for about another decade. Trust me, you’ll like it… > > Or more seriously, I’d say Elon Musk or Kevin Smith. Kevin Smith stopped being influential when he decided to become a wake-and-baker. ---
**Author:** ![QuickSilver](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quicksilver/32/7832_2.png) [@QuickSilver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/QuickSilver)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2020, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-most-influential-gen-x-er/919858/12 "2020-09-06T00:50:42Z")
> [@Acsenray](#): > > Elon Musk shows all the signs of becoming a Bond villain. Best characterization of Musk thus far. I expect he’s already started training beautiful young couples for a secret space mission to recolonize the planet. ---
**Author:** ![snoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/43a26b/32.png) [@snoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snoe)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2020, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-most-influential-gen-x-er/919858/13 "2020-09-06T00:55:44Z")
Not intending to threadshit, but some might find this interesting: [Kamala Harris, Gen X Vice President](https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/kamala-harris-joe-biden-boomers-genx-millenials-1042881/) > While many demographers mark 1965 as the beginning of Gen X, that’s, culturally speaking, horseshit. Harris was born in late 1964, the same year as Eddie Vedder, Courtney Love, Chris Cornell, Eazy-E, Sandra Bullock, Lenny Kravitz, and Keanu Reeves.`` ---
**Author:** ![Deeg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/deeg/32/2955_2.png) [@Deeg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Deeg)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2020, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-most-influential-gen-x-er/919858/14 "2020-09-06T00:59:19Z")
What about Kurt Cobain? He helped usher in the alternative era and the Seattle grunge movement. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2020, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-most-influential-gen-x-er/919858/15 "2020-09-06T03:31:53Z")
> [@Acsenray](#): > > Elon Musk shows all the signs of becoming a Bond villain. He’s literally preparing for the apocalypse by planning to save the super-wealthy and protect them from the rest of us. That’s why I added in the line about people still talking about him 100+ years from now. After some time passes, people won’t talk as much about the mad scientist part, they’ll talk about SpaceX and Tesla and Paypal and Starlink and Hyperloop etc. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2020, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-most-influential-gen-x-er/919858/16 "2020-09-06T03:41:09Z")
Susan Wojcicki Engineers overestimate the importance of the software. ---
**Author:** ![Omniscient](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/omniscient/32/3290_2.png) [@Omniscient](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omniscient)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2020, 5:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-most-influential-gen-x-er/919858/17 "2020-09-06T05:15:26Z")
I have what is probably a cop-out answer, but it’s probably someone we haven’t heard of yet. I subscribe too the theory that AI is going to transform the world in the next 50 years in ways that even the internet and the iPhone can’t begin to compete with. Someone has been born, and odds are very good that it’s a Gen-Xer, who is currently working towards creating some new AI that will become the foundation of a massive company that will ultimately disrupt the world economy and society at large in ways that should be both terrifying and thrilling. Much like the previous tech revolution, where the Gen-Xers provided much of the labor an innovation, it was a Boomer (at least according to the stupid charts) who got all the credit, Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, Reed Hastings, etc. The Millennials will be heavily involved of course, but the person we remember for the next tech revolution will probably be a soon-to-be grey haired Gen-Xer. Odds are that it won’t be one of the guys we already know, it won’t come from Google, Amazon or one of Musk’s companies. It may not be an American, but for the good of the world I hope it is not someone Chinese (unless we see a dramatic change in the politics there before it happens). ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2020, 7:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-most-influential-gen-x-er/919858/18 "2020-09-06T07:02:25Z")
Randall Munroe. Oh, wait. He’s younger than I thought. ---
**Author:** ![Charlie\_Tan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/charlie_tan/32/12582_2.png) [@Charlie\_Tan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Charlie_Tan)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2020, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-most-influential-gen-x-er/919858/19 "2020-09-06T14:39:35Z")
Douglas Coupland (b. 1961) Or perhaps Billy Idol (b. 1955) Too many whippersnappers want to appropriate that cool X for themselves, not realizing that being a GenXer is more of a state of mind, than a clear cutoff at a given year. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2020, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-most-influential-gen-x-er/919858/20 "2020-09-06T15:06:43Z")
They’re not GenX. And it’s literally defined as a period of time, not a state of mind. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-most-influential-gen-x-er/919858.md?page=2)