4 ms·

Is it just me, or are 40-year old "adolescents" kind of terrifying?

by B1FF_PSUVM 10y ago

charlieflowers 10y ago
We're not all that bad.
angersock 10y ago
You shouldn't be down voted, but you should probably elaborate on your feeling here a bit better.
- B1FF_PSUVM 10y ago
  I meant as a mass phenomenon. For most of history, an 18 year old was a fully grown man, capable of military command, albeit inexperienced. Now we are mass-infantilizing those men in their most fertile years. (Rare mavericks we've always had, of course, and a few may turn out enormously 'lucrative', so to speak, for society.)
qntty 10y ago
It would probably be fair to call Henry “aimless.” After he graduated from Harvard, he moved back in with his parents, a boomerang kid straight out of a trend piece about the travails of young adults. Despite graduating into a recession, Henry managed to land a teaching job, but two weeks in, he decided it wasn’t for him and quit. It took him a while to find his calling—he worked in his father’s pencil factory, as a door-to-door magazine salesman, took on other teaching and tutoring gigs, and even spent a brief stint shoveling manure before finding some success with his true passion: writing. Henry published his first book, A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers, when he was 31 years old, after 12 years of changing jobs and bouncing back and forth between his parents’ home, living on his own, and crashing with a buddy, who believed in his potential. “[He] is a scholar & a poet & as full of buds of promise as a young apple tree,” his friend wrote, and eventually was proven right. He may have floundered during young adulthood, but Henry David Thoreau turned out pretty okay. (The buddy he crashed with, for the record, was Ralph Waldo Emerson.) http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2016/01/when-are-you-really-an-adult/422487/ http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2016/01/when-are-y...
koder2016 10y ago
From immaturity straight to infertility.
pmarreck 10y ago
44 year old successful programmer into the latest tech (Elixir/Phoenix) and gamer into the latest games (Overwatch, Fallout, etc.) here. No kids (adds to my "immaturity," I guess), live with a girlfriend. A little offended/saddened at your comment, actually. Tech ageism at its finest, I guess. You'll eventually figure out that as you age, it's just your body aging mainly. You will continue to learn things and get "wiser," but your personality is immutable data, basically. I first noticed this at my 20-year high school reunion... I grew up without Facebook so this was the first time I had seen many people in 20 years... and I didn't recognize many of them (usually the ones who gained a bunch of weight... note, I did not)... until I looked into their eyes, and/or until they cracked a joke or said something, and then suddenly it was like OMG THAT IS THE SAME EXACT FUNNY PERSON THEY WERE IN HIGH SCHOOL, clear as day.
- et-al 10y ago
  > A little offended/saddened at your comment, actually. Tech ageism at its finest, I guess. Think we may be a bit quick to jump on the parent commenter. If an "adolescent" is someone still financially dependent on their parents, then I think most of us would agree there's something not quite right with that situation at 40-years old. If it means being a responsible adult (a loaded phrase), but partaking in hobbies we enjoyed back in our teens, then who cares?
  - pmarreck 10y ago
    You're right, the term requires some clarification perhaps.
- emodendroket 10y ago
  Generally tech ageism runs in the other direction.
  - deleted 10y ago
    [deleted]
  - pmarreck 10y ago
    Tech ageism runs against younger people? Since when is this?
Retra 10y ago
The world makes much more sense when you pretend that every person is a child, regardless of how many candles on their cake or wrinkles on their face.
- type0 10y ago
  As far as nature of humanity is concerned you pretty much make that argument, we are guided on so many levels by our adolescent evolutionary complexity that shaped us and don't even realize it for the most part. When people understand the collective "we" with all the culture and societal playground and think that means they know themselves it is misguided perception. It easy to think that we are in control, that we know how we would react in particular situations in life because we can project it with our simulation of reality by our mental capacity. In many ways it's an illusion albeit useful one. Self deception is a tool, it's powerful one at that, it allows you train other people to serve your purpose, spread ideas that might benefit the humanity or might benefit your own wealth. That's way we have a choice to be a cult leader or debunk pseudoscience. Our minds are to malleable to external ideas and that makes us a dangerous species capable to start wars, revolutions and tyrannies of the chosen few.
oldmanjay 10y ago
No. I can't imagine how a person living a life with no impact on mine could terrify me.

Is it just me, or are 40-year old "adolescents" kind of terrifying?

charlieflowers 10y ago

We're not all that bad.

angersock 10y ago

You shouldn't be down voted, but you should probably elaborate on your feeling here a bit better.

B1FF_PSUVM 10y ago
I meant as a mass phenomenon. For most of history, an 18 year old was a fully grown man, capable of military command, albeit inexperienced. Now we are mass-infantilizing those men in their most fertile years. (Rare mavericks we've always had, of course, and a few may turn out enormously 'lucrative', so to speak, for society.)

qntty 10y ago

It would probably be fair to call Henry “aimless.” After he graduated from Harvard, he moved back in with his parents, a boomerang kid straight out of a trend piece about the travails of young adults. Despite graduating into a recession, Henry managed to land a teaching job, but two weeks in, he decided it wasn’t for him and quit. It took him a while to find his calling—he worked in his father’s pencil factory, as a door-to-door magazine salesman, took on other teaching and tutoring gigs, and even spent a brief stint shoveling manure before finding some success with his true passion: writing. Henry published his first book, A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers, when he was 31 years old, after 12 years of changing jobs and bouncing back and forth between his parents’ home, living on his own, and crashing with a buddy, who believed in his potential. “[He] is a scholar & a poet & as full of buds of promise as a young apple tree,” his friend wrote, and eventually was proven right. He may have floundered during young adulthood, but Henry David Thoreau turned out pretty okay. (The buddy he crashed with, for the record, was Ralph Waldo Emerson.) http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2016/01/when-are-you-really-an-adult/422487/ http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2016/01/when-are-y...

koder2016 10y ago

From immaturity straight to infertility.

pmarreck 10y ago

44 year old successful programmer into the latest tech (Elixir/Phoenix) and gamer into the latest games (Overwatch, Fallout, etc.) here. No kids (adds to my "immaturity," I guess), live with a girlfriend. A little offended/saddened at your comment, actually. Tech ageism at its finest, I guess. You'll eventually figure out that as you age, it's just your body aging mainly. You will continue to learn things and get "wiser," but your personality is immutable data, basically. I first noticed this at my 20-year high school reunion... I grew up without Facebook so this was the first time I had seen many people in 20 years... and I didn't recognize many of them (usually the ones who gained a bunch of weight... note, I did not)... until I looked into their eyes, and/or until they cracked a joke or said something, and then suddenly it was like OMG THAT IS THE SAME EXACT FUNNY PERSON THEY WERE IN HIGH SCHOOL, clear as day.

et-al 10y ago
> A little offended/saddened at your comment, actually. Tech ageism at its finest, I guess. Think we may be a bit quick to jump on the parent commenter. If an "adolescent" is someone still financially dependent on their parents, then I think most of us would agree there's something not quite right with that situation at 40-years old. If it means being a responsible adult (a loaded phrase), but partaking in hobbies we enjoyed back in our teens, then who cares?
- pmarreck 10y ago
  You're right, the term requires some clarification perhaps.
emodendroket 10y ago
Generally tech ageism runs in the other direction.
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
- pmarreck 10y ago
  Tech ageism runs against younger people? Since when is this?

Retra 10y ago

The world makes much more sense when you pretend that every person is a child, regardless of how many candles on their cake or wrinkles on their face.

type0 10y ago
As far as nature of humanity is concerned you pretty much make that argument, we are guided on so many levels by our adolescent evolutionary complexity that shaped us and don't even realize it for the most part. When people understand the collective "we" with all the culture and societal playground and think that means they know themselves it is misguided perception. It easy to think that we are in control, that we know how we would react in particular situations in life because we can project it with our simulation of reality by our mental capacity. In many ways it's an illusion albeit useful one. Self deception is a tool, it's powerful one at that, it allows you train other people to serve your purpose, spread ideas that might benefit the humanity or might benefit your own wealth. That's way we have a choice to be a cult leader or debunk pseudoscience. Our minds are to malleable to external ideas and that makes us a dangerous species capable to start wars, revolutions and tyrannies of the chosen few.

oldmanjay 10y ago

No. I can't imagine how a person living a life with no impact on mine could terrify me.