The privilege of experience — explained with cake.

Generation X knows how to work hard. It’s not that we work hard. Time in the trenches has tempered us. When we deliver, we make it look easy.

“How is it so easy for them (the older generation) to access results while it is hard for me (the younger generation)?”

Let me explain…

There are three ways to have a cake.

1. Buy a cake. Serve.
2. Open a box of cake mix. Add water and an egg. Bake and serve.
3. Mix butter and sugar. Add eggs. Add flour and baking powder. Add vanilla and possibly lemon zest. Is the batter too thick? Add a few tablespoons of milk. Bake and serve.

If you have only ever bought cake, you will look at the person baking a homemade cake with awe. You may have failed at purchasing the ‘right’ cake. Your wallet may be light. Cakes aren’t cheap!

If you have experience making boxcakes, you will look at the home baker with awe. You may have failed on account of the oven or baking dish. You often experience guilt that you’re a fraud.

What if you bake from scratch? You have had the experience of failed cakes. You understand failure on a different level. Not only have you failed because of your mixer, the oven, and the dish, but you have learned that eggs at room temperature and shifting the flour or adding ingredients in a set order will make your cake incrementally better. You have at least one skeleton in your closet due to mixing up the sugar and salt. This is the knowledge and experience earned from the trenches.

How to learn from another’s experience.

When I make a cake, an observer must watch me closely. It’s possible that I grated some nutmeg or citrus zest into the mix.

When my son tries to remake my cake recipe, all I have provided him with is a queue card with a list of ingredients.

Unless he has followed me around the kitchen for that recipe, he will not know the steps to make that cake.

Why make it so hard for him?

I don’t do it on purpose.

The recipes are a collection of the last thirty-plus years.

The kitchen has changed since I started baking.

When I was a university student, I didn’t have a mixer. I had to beat eggs with a whisk. Later, I bought a hand mixer. Today, I have a professional countertop mixer. Sometimes, I pull out a whisk or a wooden spoon because I’m looking for a specific texture or can’t be bothered with cleanup.

The ingredients are changing.

Vanilla went from being artificial to being an extract. Later, we could buy vanilla pods, and now you can purchase vanilla powder.

Living in Ireland, eggs are stored at room temperature. In Canada, they are in the fridge.

Don’t get me started on types of salt (Kosher, sea, table).

When I was a teen, we used margarine to make our cakes. I’ve since switched to using various oils and butter.

I have internalized my ability to make a cake.

How to translate making cakes to everything else.

I was 24 when experienced scientists hired me to help them Y2K (2000/2001) proof their code. At the time, I was baffled by how these knowledgeable men knew nothing of MS Excel and spreadsheets. I had spent my high school and university career becoming proficient.

I benefitted from the advanced technology these men in their 50s and 60s did not have. They used slide rulers or tables for their calculations. They were slow and inefficient in my eyes.

I brought a fresh perspective to things they didn’t even realize were a problem. This is what the younger generation brings.

Perhaps youth have better access to recipes or advice online to improve their baking at a higher velocity. They can ask AI to provide them with the best recipe on the internet.

They may spend a month learning what it took me years.

Applying themselves, they will learn more efficiently and faster than I realized because everything has changed for the better.

Hard work and the occasional failure is required.

Expect failure as a means of realizing experience

Too often, my kids and mentees are frustrated and challenged by failure. It’s ok to fail. You don’t look stupid for trying. You aren’t stupid if your original hypothesis has been proven wrong.

The irony is how impressed we are when underdogs win.

You can change anything anytime.

… and you can learn.

The problem with shortcuts.

If you want to eat good cake, making box cakes or buying your cake will not serve you in the long run. In the same way, taking shortcuts to get yourself to ‘done’ will not give you the experience you need to master your desired task.

Shortcuts are great if you are in a time crunch. Experience and knowledge will allow you to take shortcuts while providing a high-value product.

For example, if I had to make a cake in the next hour, I would use the microwave to soften my butter, place my eggs in warm water to bring them to room temperature, and turn on my oven. The cake may not be the best, but it will be ready by teatime. I will have made it in less time and expense than it would have taken me to run out to the store.

Also, a mentee seeing me making such a cake would think the bar is impossible to cross.

Our culture of hustle and grind leads to people focusing on the Instagram photo that shows perfection. This bar is too high for anyone.

There is real work, TIME, and cleaning up involved.

Conclusion

Slow down. Take the time to learn and reassess your choices. Challenge yourself to fail. You will be surprised by what you can accomplish and learn!

If you’re stuck, try to master baking a cake from scratch. Then, see if you can apply these principles to your real challenge.