She is building him up in her brain as someone that he's not. Similar to what people do with those they respect in authority positions or very accomplished. "Wo

She is building him up in her brain as someone that he's not. Similar to what people do with those they respect in authority positions or very accomplished. "Wow look at the way that Paul Graham gets yelled at by his mother that's so surprising!". Also I think you have to separate the "balding middle age" from those that "are middle age that live in Mom's basement". Living in Mom's basement whether middle aged or not (regardless of hair loss) is probably makes you (except if there are mitigating circumstances) what we would perhaps call "a loser". Otoh it's clear that being middle aged and bald is literally meaningless in terms of what you have achieved and something you have no control over (unlike having to live in your mom's basement except if there are mitigating circumstances). [1] Now notice I said "mitigating circumstances" so yes there are valid reasons why someone might have to live with their mother (at any point) but as a generality if you were taking a 100 people like that not the case. [1] Notice even with this that if your mom was wealthy and she had an estate and you lived in a big house with a wing of your own (or an outhouse) it wouldn't be viewed the same way but perhaps even with a halo around it. So specifically here the issues is "basement" or "ordinary house bedroom" that causes the deprecation of the individual (as well as the age). Edit: Explanation of downvotes would be appreciated.