In an Age of Information, Why Are Our Youth Still Lost?

We are Stella and Amy. We share firsthand stories at the crossroads of tech, business, and culture, helping leaders craft actionable cross-cultural strategies. Together, we bridge cultural divides and bring the world a little closer—one step at a time.

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Felix started his little experiments of apprenticeship inside his family, taking young relatives on business trips and showing them how he worked. When he began sharing his experiences and thoughts online, something unexpected happened: his inbox filled with messages from strangers desperate for guidance.

"During their growth process, I suddenly realized they don't get any guidance from people with broader experience," Felix reflects. "All they can get comes from their own families or relatives. If none of these relatives truly went out to see the world or had broader insights, they lack people to give them guidance."

What Felix discovered through hundreds of conversations with Chinese youths in their late teens and early 20s reveals a hidden crisis in how we prepare the next generation for an uncertain world. While his mentorship work happened primarily in China, similar societal patterns are present in the US and other APAC countries as well. In an age of infinite information, young people are paradoxically more isolated from meaningful mentorship than ever before. They have access to every tutorial, course, and self-help article imaginable—yet they're starving for authentic guidance from someone who's actually walked the path.

“Get a Government Job”

The pattern Felix encountered among young people in China was consistent. When asked about their future plans, the response was almost universal: "kao gong kao bian(考公考編)"—take the civil service exam, get a government job.

"Why are they doing this? They don't necessarily know. They also aren’t incredibly excited about the career. But it’s what their families tell them to do," Felix explains. The same pressure extends to other life decisions: women in their mid-twenties face constant pressure to get married through arranged meetings. Many youths feel a deep sense of uncertainty about their lives so they seek to follow the stable paths.

The tragedy isn't that some young people choose stable government jobs or traditional marriage paths. The tragedy is that many feel they have no choice at all.

This creates a compound disadvantage. Young people from families with limited professional networks not only lack practical connections—they lack the knowledge that alternatives exist. They don't know what questions to ask, what skills to develop, or even what's possible.

The internet, for all its democratizing potential, can't fully solve this problem. The internet nowadays is driven by algorithms that prioritize entertainment and create echo chambers. Young people need someone who can help them connect dots, understand context, and navigate the gap between what they read online and how the world actually works.

Another reason why young people, despite having access to infinite information on the internet, cannot find alternative paths is that they're bombarded with advice from people trying to sell them something. Social media is full of "entrepreneurs" hawking courses about drop-shipping, crypto trading, or personal branding. Even well-meaning career advice often comes with underlying commercial motives.

"I write articles that might not have any commercial purpose. This motivation is relatively pure, making them more willing to believe and commit," he explains. This purity of motive creates trust that's very difficult to cultivate through marketing or personal branding.

The Traditional Guidance System

Felix's mentorship experiments show a broader societal problem among the current generation in China, and perhaps beyond: we've dismantled traditional systems of apprenticeship and guidance.

Historically, young people learned trades and life skills through extended apprenticeships with masters who had both technical expertise and personal investment in their development. These could take forms like craftsmen passing techniques and skills to apprentices, or companies having extensive training programs that aimed to train and retain talent for the long term. These relationships provided not just skill transfer but also character development, professional networks, and gradual socialization into adult responsibilities.

Modern education systems provide information and credentials but often lack the personal relationships that help young people translate knowledge into practical wisdom. Career counselors and academic advisors mean well, but they typically lack deep experience in the fields they're advising about.

Meanwhile, the gig economy and remote work—for all their benefits—have reduced opportunities for organic mentorship through workplace relationships. Young people can acquire skills through online courses, but they miss the context that comes from watching experienced professionals navigate real challenges over time.

Mentee Selection

The young people most likely to benefit from mentorship—those willing to do uncertain work without guaranteed returns—are often the ones who would succeed anyway given enough time and experience.

Meanwhile, those who most desperately need guidance—young people stuck in limiting belief systems or lacking basic frameworks for thinking about their lives—are often least willing to engage in the difficult work of self-examination and skill development.

This creates a selection effect: effective mentorship naturally gravitates toward people who are already showing signs of initiative and a growth mindset.

The real value of mentorship isn't just information transfer or even emotional support. It's modeling what it looks like to approach uncertainty with curiosity rather than fear, to invest effort without guaranteed returns, and to maintain agency in the face of social pressure.

The Value of Mentorship

Looking ahead, the need for authentic mentorship will likely become more urgent, not less. As AI automates routine tasks and changes the nature of work, the most valuable human skills become those that can't be easily codified: judgment, relationship-building, creative problem-solving, and the ability to navigate ambiguity.

These skills are learned through practice and relationship, not through information transfer. They require the kind of personalized feedback and emotional support that Felix provides to his mentees—helping them develop confidence to take risks, resilience to handle setbacks, and wisdom to make good decisions in uncertain circumstances.

The young people thriving in this environment will be those who've learned to seek out diverse perspectives, invest effort without guaranteed returns, and maintain agency in the face of social pressure. In other words, they'll be the ones who've had good mentorship—either through relationships like Felix provides or through their own initiative in seeking guidance and learning from experience.

We also see a lot of value in mentorships and guidance throughout our careers and even now. We believe this is especially important in the age of AI, where the fast advancements of technology often confuse people or scare them from taking bold steps. In this context, human mentorship becomes not just helpful but essential—providing the emotional support and real-world context that helps people navigate technological change with confidence rather than fear.

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