It's perspective. Young people have little perspective, by definition. They can't predict how things will play out, or what the consequences of various actions

It's perspective. Young people have little perspective, by definition. They can't predict how things will play out, or what the consequences of various actions will be on an emotional level. You can try to gain perspective by doing things like reading realistic novels or realism-based historical studies (as opposed to the morality tales so in vogue today). I think this type of vicarious emotional absorption is the best that young people can do if they are actively trying to improve their perspective. But then you are at the mercy of how accurately the author or historian is portraying life -- older people can detect "false notes" more easily, and I see many false notes when I watch media or listen to music, some so egregiously false as to classify those works as deception. Then you can get into a situation where your emotional depth is getting worse with time because you are learning things vicariously that aren't accurately describing how life works. But most people will eventually come to have enough authentic emotional experiences as to be able to gain some depth, e.g. perspective, even if they have consumed a lot of false vicarious experiences. In fact, those authentic experience might be incredibly jarring. I've heard that Ruskin had lots of sexual issues in his life because he was trained to work with sculptures of naked women with no pubic hair or realistic features, and was shocked when he saw an actual (non-idealized) nude woman. He may never have managed to purge himself of the false notes he absorbed as a young art student. When a brand new CS student who has never written a program, or has only written a handful of exercises, are thrown into a large codebase, you expect them to make poor decisions. That's why their work is supervised. Not because they lack intelligence, but because they lack perspective. They are not thinking of how X will be maintained over time, or the consequences of creating some dependencies, etc. Over time, they acquire that perspective and make better decisions, at which point they need less supervision and can eventually supervise others. So it is with everything that requires the exercise of judgement, whether writing code or handling your emotions or finances, or relationships. It takes time to acquire sufficient perspective to exercise good judgement. This is why historically nations had committees of elders who could block laws deemed reckless, and why traditionally young people were not allowed to vote and only gradually were entrusted with privileges that required the exercise of judgement such as signing contracts.