Do you know what a yuccie is? No, not yucky, although somebody will certainly say it is not that much of a difference, but a yuccie?
Yuccie is a recently coined term defining a new subculture (way of life, worldview, lifestyle, underline as necessary) that is likely to largely replace good old hipsters we all have come to know and… mostly just know, probably.
‘Yuccie’ is derived from ‘young urban creative’ in the same manner ‘yuppie’ is derived from ‘young urban professional’, and the similarity isn’t limited to the way these two words sound. However improbable it may sound, but yuccies borrow almost as much from yuppies as they do from hipsters, despite the seeming incompatibility of these two groups.
Just like hipsters, yuccies despise all things mainstream, hate traditional nine to five job mentality, seek creative self-expression, live in gentrified neighborhoods; they borrow a lot from them in the sense of style and preferences in art and music. However, when it comes to their attitude towards success and money, they are quite different. They avoid nine to five jobs and traditional careers not because they try to show their indifference to worldly success, but because they believe they can achieve it in other ways. Namely – via their self-professed creativity.
A yuccie believes his intelligence, creative capabilities and ideas are too powerful and valuable to be wasted in an office. He is too clever by far to spend years building up a career and climbing up a company hierarchy (even if he is completely capable of doing it; or at least believes so). Instead, he wishes both to retain his creative freedom and earn big money through it, be it through some artistic endeavor or entrepreneurship.
It would be, however, wrong to assume that a yuccie is a completely new and previously unseen phenomenon. On the contrary, belief in one’s ability to achieve greatness via personal creative work has always been inherent to American culture, and there always were people trying and succeeding in building their lives this way. But today it feels that whenever you turn you see a young person from a privileged background either leaving a well-paid job to start a small craft brewery, or a digital startup, or to try and write a novel, or something else along the same lines.
Thus, yuccies combine features characteristic both of yuppies and hipsters (hence other term sometimes used to define them – yupsters); it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that they are a cultural progeny of these two unlikely parents, reflecting the changing world around us. With the Internet becoming an immanent part of our lives, with new technologies opening up new horizons on a daily basis, with all the incredible things that appear every day, it is only logical for creative people (or those who deem themselves creative) to look for ways to harness this flow and not only express themselves, but earn money on the way.
Which doesn’t prevent them from being annoying at times.
