The yettie

　　First there were rebellious long-haired hippies of the 1960s (and their politically active siblings, the Y ippies). Then the hated Yutties of the 1980s, chanting the mantra "greed is good". Now it's the yettie. No, no t the abominable snow man but something more evolved: t he young, entre-preneurial technocrat.

　　Like their ancestors, yetties have an attire that s ets them apart from earlier generations—cell phones, Ra zor scooters and messenger bags. Yetties also have a di fferent set of values from their predecessors—a kind of techno-libertarianism. Sam Sifton, the author of "A Fie ld Guide to the Yettie", which traces the evolution and typology of the species, talked about the origins and d evelopment of this new social pedigree.

　　What is yettie?

　　Sam Sifton: Yetties are every where—they exist acro ss the spectrum of the american population. Anyone who has one of these high-tech and has trouble explaining t o his parents what exactly he does for a living is prob ably a yettie. Such as, "I'm a vice president for e-pre sence," or "I'm a product development tech for Oracle." It gets so confusing at times that even the vettie them selves have a hard time understanding what they do.

　　What are other identifying marks that set yetties a side from Yuppies?

　　Certainly business-causal fashion marks the yettie apart from the Yuppie. And let's remember that the Yupp ie usually worked in an established firm—as a banker ir something—and made his money, to quote Tome Wolfe, "off the crumbs of the cake," e.g., financial transactions. The yettie makes his money from entrepreneurial venture s, often of great risk.

　　What is the age range for yetties?

　　You'll find them mostly in their mid-to-late-20s. B ut they could be in their early 20s, and they could go up to being really, realy old, like in their 40s or 50s . So yetties do't necessarily have to be young. It's a state of mind.

　　How would you describe yetties' values?

　　It's a kind of rape-and-pillage libertarianism. Pri vacy and freedom are of the utmost importance to both h is political beliefs and to his bottom line. That's why nondisclosure agreements, or NDAs as they're called in the acronym-rich environment, are so important. So it's this kind of pseudolibertarianism that drives them.

　　Yuppies believed greed was good; yetties believe th at greed is a given and they don't give a damm about th e numbers. While it is about the nomey, it's not about the money. The greed is just accepeted. What matters is that you have a better idea than anyone else because th en you rule the world.