"Yuppies," "Mutiny," and "How to Start," Reviewed

When Did White-Collar Work Start to Look So Bleak? In the nineteen-eighties, an office job promised security and fulfillment. For graduates starting careers today, the prospect is often tinged with dread. The workplace's sense of control can prove illusory--as it did in the era of yuppie-wrought corporate consolidation, and as it does now for graduates entering an economy destabilized by new uncertainties. This spring, across the nation's auditoriums and quadrangles, members of the class of 2026 took their seats to receive remarks from distinguished guests. The graduation speech is a thankless form: generalized, impersonal exhortation/congratulation is almost guaranteed to be forgettable, if all goes well. But this year, on at least a few American campuses, all did not go well. At the University of Arizona, Eric Schmidt, the former C.E.O. of Google, told the crowd that artificial intelligence "will touch every profession, every classroom, every hospital, every laboratory, every person, and every relationship you have," a sweeping promise that landed like a threat.