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Brain has five 'eras' with adult mode not starting until early 30s
- fidelity2482 10mo ago[flagged]
- crazygringo 10mo agoWhy would you even bother to post such a shallow dismissal like this, without engaging with the article at all? What are you hoping to achieve?
- fidelity2482 10mo agoThere is nothing to engage with. I think tersely. Some researchers could learn. I find it annoying that a large part of research is the obsession of taking a perfectly smooth, gradual phenomenon and introducing artificial boundaries, sometimes even with formal labels. And then we spend the next few decades rolling it back as we inevitably find out that reality is nuanced, and the arbitrary categorization is more of a distraction than a meaningful tool. But I'm sure this fantastical finding was great for somebody's career.
- crazygringo 10mo agoMeaningful categorization is a necessary and foundational aspect of science and understanding in general. We categorize matter into categories such a solid, liquid, and gas, because this has meaningful consequences beyond merely temperature. If you think the categories in this article are useless, you're going to need to justify that. Aging is well-known to encompass phases with nonlinear transformations, such as puberty or menopause. So what you find "annoying" is actually a building block of science. And while disagreeing in a particular case is certainly valid, you're going to have to either present evidence to the contrary, or else find weaknesses in the particular methodology used. So there's plenty to engage with. But you're not doing it, so your comments are just snark with no value.
- speedylight 10mo agoExcept the five eras in the article are based scientific observations of how the brain changes overtime where’s yours are based on having a snide attitude.
- billy99k 10mo agoI had kids and finally settled into a career at 33. It certainly forced me into adult mode after this. I just met up with my Brother-in-law and his friends for our yearly gathering. All of them are in their 30s and none of them are in what I would consider 'adult mode'. They are all un-married/no kids, barely scraping by, partying every weekend/wasting money on weed and booze. Certainly no careers (mostly retail, some unemployed and still living with parents). I wonder if these numbers will change with the new generation, because so many are not having kids or getting married.
- y0eswddl 10mo agoDid you read the article (or hell even the title) before commenting...?
- hoppyhoppy2 10mo ago>Please don't comment on whether someone read an article. "Did you even read the article? It mentions that" can be shortened to "The article mentions that". https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- basisword 10mo agoI know plenty of people that had kids in their 20's - still didn't 'grow up' until their 30's. Just because they're not partying anymore doesn't mean they still don't act like adolescents when navigating complicated situations they're in (because they're had kids before they were necessarily 'ready') compared with someone in their 30's. I would argue that taking away that time in your late 20's where you can more easily make mistakes and try new things (while also having a bit of stability in terms of money) before having kids will lead to less maturity rather than more long term.
- piva00 10mo agoProbably not, the comment read more as a way to rant, self-boast, and judge others' lifestyles than anything insightful.
- Joshua-Peter 10mo ago[dead]
- pjc50 10mo agoSo .. the thing is, this is a descriptive account of the biology of the brain. However, I sometimes see the "discourse machine" building narratives around pushing the age of majority later, and I suspect this will get used in ammunition for normative purposes.
- readthenotes1 10mo agoThe older people get, the less they want youngsters to vote, drink, and drive--unless they believe they have something personally to gain from it
- hiAndrewQuinn 10mo agoThis is why you've gotta actually think about what you believe morally speaking at an early age and then stick to it. I don't vote, drink, or drive myself, and never will, but I hope I will always defend the rights of the youth to.
- mecsred 10mo agoHow do you plan on defending those rights if you dont vote.
- vixen99 10mo agoI'm not sure about the evidence for that gross generalization but young people are much less likely to vote than older people. Plenty of data on this: https://theharvardpoliticalreview.com/gen-z-voter-barriers-2024-election/ https://theharvardpoliticalreview.com/gen-z-voter-barriers-2...
- jl6 10mo agoSeems a stretch to use this as the basis of any radical change like raising the voting age to 32 (although maybe it supports reducing the minimum presidential age from 35 to 32!), but it does perhaps suggest looking at what kind of soft-paternalistic structures might help “adolescents” make better life choices. It is a little absurd that we expect an 18 year old to navigate the world with the same competence as a 40 year old.
- baerrie 10mo agoAnecdotally I’ve felt this shift over the past few years. I am 33 and have always been a huge proponent of personal growth, change, pushing yourself to be better. In the past few years Ive felt the opposite urge, an urge to accept myself, flaws and all, as the hand I’ve been dealt and I must merely play that hand, not focus so much on what-ifs, etc. Perhaps this is my brain solidifying.
- AnimalMuppet 10mo agoThere is wisdom both in trying to change what you can, and realizing that you maybe can't change everything. If you've been trying to change things, by 33 you may have a fair idea of what you in fact cannot change.
- jamespattn 10mo ago29 and feeling the same. It's kind frustrating and freeing at the same time. I feel like I'm making less progress, but at the same time don't feel the pressure to make progress.
- Cthulhu_ 10mo agoI'd also like to add anecdotally that a lot of people develop burnout at that age, probably because they keep pushing themselves and/or get sucked into their own enthusiasm / passion instead of set limits and the like. But then, I also think people get less resilient to stress and the like after 30, less able to compartimentalize or bounce back quickly. What you end up getting is people ~10 years into an exciting career where suddenly they can't perform or cope as well as they used to. But they can also be in a pretty senior position by then and be pushed out of their comfort zone.
- baerrie 10mo agoTrue, I think this happened to my partner, she had to face the hard limits on her working style and therefore had to shift careers. Thankfully I changed careers 6 years ago preemptive of burnout, etc so I'm still growing skills-wise and motivated by that challenge
- integralid 10mo agoAs the authors mentioned, ~30 years is the age many people have kids, and it is already well known that female brain changes after giving birth, for example. The authors didn't research if being a parent can explain a part of the difference (and also if parent brains are any different than childless people brains). I'm personally curious about this: I'm slightly above 30, I observed significant changes in my behavior recently... and I became a parent this year.
- jewayne 10mo agoAre you insinuating that childless people never fully mature? Because as a childless person I've noticed that a lot of the distance I felt with my friends with kids disappeared as soon as their kids were grown. Essentially we're all childless now, and think of the world in the same terms.
- philipwhiuk 10mo agoI think it's not about maturity just about socio- and bio-logically induced re-prioritisation.
- integralid 10mo agoNo, I'm not insinuating anything. The authors charted human brain and divided it into "eras" where they saw significant changes based on age. Major life events can affect brain structure, and becoming a parent is one of the most important adult life events. Becoming a parent in early 30s is common. Just these facts combined mean that being in early 30s correlates with brain changes somehow. The authors explicitly mention that they know about this, and that they didn't control for this it yet. Back to your question, I never said anything about maturing. It is a well-known fact, that female brain changes after childbirth. There is also research that suggests that first-time fathers brain changes too. This doesn't necessarily mean becoming more mature.
- pbhjpbhj 10mo ago>Becoming a parent in early 30s is common. Retiring in late 60s. If you make it, becoming too infirm in body to get around in 80s. These seem like brain changes at these transitions are more likely to be effects rather than causes.
- volkk 10mo agoI've always thought that I'm just extremely late to mature. I'm 36 now and haven't really felt like I sort of "get" things until my early 30s. My 20s were full of learning experiences, failures, and addiction to doing whatever the hell I wanted. I got a puppy with my wife at 29 and it felt like my life was over. This all really makes a lot of sense to me. It also makes me wonder why the human body rewards young parents when their brains are just simply not fully finished cooking. I couldn't have imagined raising a child at 22 with the way I acted and how important freedom was to me. I would've simply been a miserable father.
- goalieca 10mo agoThousands of generations of parents had children much younger than today. I think we’re too worried about having everything perfect and de-risked these days. Also realize that parenting is what grew me up. I don’t think people are ever “ready”
- denvrede 10mo agoExactly that. It's not an arbitrary dated threshold that lead to "growing up". It was the event of having kids. I'm still able to look at my current life through the lenses of a 25 year old me and hell, that looks bleak. But I can say with confidence that I'm content. Of course there are little things here and there but mostly everything is fine. I only wonder if there is going to be a next stage, the magical "midlife crisis", where I'm going to question all my decisions up to that point and I'm curious how I'm going to handle that.
- anthonypasq 10mo agoalso its a lot easier to have kids at 20 if the kids grandparents are only 40 instead of 70
- wise_young_man 10mo agoIt’s a lot more complicated financially for people. You used to not have to rely on dual incomes just to survive. Wealth inequity, housing affordability, and healthcare have all changed. This is why many are choosing to have kids later in life or not even at all because of those reasons and even the environment with climate change it’s a hard decision to make to bring new life into this world to suffer in it.
- pfd1986 10mo agoFascinating study. The stats warrant some caution, though. The main finding is based on figure 4 [1] and I wouldn't be surprised if the number and location of these 'eras' varied a lot if the authors use 40,000 people instead of 4,000. [1] https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-025-65974-8/figures/4 https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-025-65974-8/figures/4
- integralid 10mo agoEspecially the last era - over 83 - is suspicious. With 4000 people and ages 1-90, how certain can we be about this? But I don't want to cast unjustified doubt, I'm sure they did the math.
- IAmBroom 10mo agoHaving seen a lot of research papers lie, or simply use incompetent math, I'm not sure at all.
- mewpmewp2 10mo agoI do have felt similar shift around that age, but I wonder if it is due to reaching certain points in career where you are put into more leading position and have more confidence in what you do even if you don't have children? Easy to go into horoscope style confirmation bias here though. Nonetheless I am never going to stop saying I still feel like I am 16. Just more confident 16.
- slfnflctd 10mo agoIt took me until my mid-30s to feel like I had crossed a threshold in processing grief and trauma from my late teen years. I was capable of adult behavior long before then, but my concept of the world and how I fit into it (or don't) was still childlike in many ways on a fundamental level. Like most such things, I'd expect this to be a spectrum, and I may be somewhat of a late bloomer. Regardless, I have a theory that there is somewhat of a protective effect operating here. Believing in a simpler reality which involved future wish fulfillment for me - however unrealistic it was - may have helped me survive. Coming to acceptance of what I see as a more accurate but far bleaker perspective required me to grow strong enough to sustain my will to live despite that perspective. Biggest lesson learned: I could not do it without at least one other person (or more) who I trust almost 100% with all of myself. Realizing that going it alone is futile is definitely part of what I consider becoming an adult, and it can take a long time to fully accept that.
- nradov 10mo agoA person becomes an adult once they take responsibility for their own actions and the consequences thereof. Many people never reach that status, regardless of age.
- IAmBroom 10mo agoIt's not helpful to redefine terms separately from the article.
- butlike 10mo agoIt's not so tersely defined as that, I don't think. It's kinda like wax in a lava lamp of information. Some gloops, the others glop, until eventually you gloop and glop and feel confident. Rigid labels and markers on the spectrum don't really hold universally true, I'm finding.
- frikskit 10mo agoCan you elaborate on the last point? As someone going through a very hard time with my wife at the moment I’d love any words of wisdom.
- riazrizvi 10mo agoJust the headline gels with my experience at age 54.
- freehorse 10mo agoWasn't it 25 that the prefrontal cortex matured and people could be considered adults? We will have to infantilize people until their 30s now? The problem with such reports (the studies themselves method-wise etc are in general fine I guess, but how the results are interpreted and disseminated is the issue) is that unless we find some specific correlations with behavioural and such measures, it makes no sense to give these kind of meanings such as "adolescence", adult mode", behavioural/mental/cognitive matureness or whatever cultural or other norms one may think a "mature/adult person" should abide to. Especially since these abstract topological measures, while interesting, are not that trivially linked with real outcomes in a causal sense, and instead of eg simply reflecting rather environmental or other changes in a person's life.
- fwip 10mo agoI haven't read this paper, but for the "25" paper, it was a longitudinal study that stopped observing people at 25. The result "brain continues to develop up to at least age 25" was misinterpreted as "stops developing at age 25" by media & social media. I have similar concerns about reporting on this paper - feels ripe for pop-sci misunderstandings.
- IAmBroom 10mo agoAll research is ripe for pop-sci misunderstandings. Always. But this study at least didn't have a cutoff for ages studied.
- IAmBroom 10mo ago"Infantilize" is a needlessly hyperbolic verb. I've always found it interesting that laws are set by politics to allow privileges at certain ages (16, 18, 21), but car rental companies - whose motives are more purely data-driven - won't rent to anyone under 25. I'm certainly not advocating withholding suffrage until 25, but driving... the data is very strong that it would save lives.
- deleted 10mo ago[deleted]
- escapecharacter 10mo agoI am personally supportive of any research that continues to define my age as having just achieved adulthood.
- mythrwy 10mo agoSo you aren't an adult until your early 30's and you are an old slow guy not worth interviewing less than 10 years later.
- deleted 10mo ago[deleted]
- IAmBroom 10mo agoWhere did you get that from? The article mentions changes at age 9, 32, 66, and 83.
- d-us-vb 10mo agoIt's just the popular wisdom these days. Companies tend to deprioritize hiring engineers in their 40s, especially if their overspecialized. At face value, Companies want high-energy 20-somethings that they can mold into their specialty. More likely, they know that 20-somethings expect a far smaller salary.
- IAmBroom 10mo agoSo you aren't discussing the article at all? And you imply mythrwy isn't either?
- wolttam 10mo agoYeah I could distinctly feel my brain shifting into its adult era over the last couple of years (I'm 31) It was kind of odd. I'm more serious now (but at the same time.. less?). I'm way more easily able to focus on what actually matters in this life. (In saying that, I think it's more likely that my brain has finally decided what's important... in a way I feel like a passenger)
- SwiftyBug 10mo agoI have the exact same feeling. Turning 30 was like flipping a switch for me. Since then, I've even felt like I've become more intelligent, especially in math. It's like everything suddenly clicked. I struggled with math throughout my entire school life, but now that I've gone back to college, I'm amazed by how easily I grasp concepts. I've recently taken on challenges that I always thought were exclusive to "smart people," like systems programming in Rust and Zig or building compilers.
- exasperaited 10mo agoThis is interesting and alarming to me because judging by the changes in my life I appear to have entered the age-66 phase more than a decade and a half early despite remaining intellectually curious and physically fit enough. In the last year or so I have begun to adjust my life expectations. My father was in his nineties when he died, but I no longer believe I will reach my seventies. Things like this only tend to confirm my sense that I am neurologically ageing at a rate that is unusual.
- thedudeabides5 10mo ago33 year olds really should not be allowed to date 28yr olds
- GrumpyGoblin 10mo ago> based on the brain scans of nearly 4,000 people aged under one to 90, mapped neural connections and how they evolve during our lives. That is an absurdly small sample size to make such a conclusion. It seems this age range could at least partly be culturally attributed. In modern industrialized life, many people don't have to "grow up" until a later age. At the risk of generalizing, people have more support from family, friends, and society at large. Is the forming of those neurons based on some natural law, or is that people just haven't had to live the experiences that do so until their 30's nowadays? As far as I know, forming neurons isn't something that "just happens". It happens due to catalysts in life. In pre-modern society, and indeed most likely in under-industrialized nations today, those catalysts, those experiences, would happen earlier. As others mentioned, there is a clear correlation with the typical age in which modern society gets married, settles down, and has kids. I wonder what that era age would have been 200+ years ago.
- AHatLikeThat 10mo agoNot sure why this is downvoted. The authors themselves note that parenthood could be a catalyst for the change at 30-- in previous centuries, when parenthood happened much earlier, why could it not affect the brain's timeline? This study is simply descriptive of a particular dataset, a collection of snapshots at a particular time and place. Certainly the brain is elastic and responsive to external conditions. What I noticed is that the 4000 samples are all from England and the U.S. Replicating this study with a greater geographical and socio-cultural diversity would be very useful in supporting or expanding these results.
- GeoAtreides 10mo ago>That is an absurdly small sample size to make such a conclusion. Please show the statistical calculations in support of such assertion.
- GrumpyGoblin 10mo agoYou require "statistical calculations" to support the notion that a sample size of 4000 people in two countries, two of the most modernized and affluent nations on the planet at that, is too small for a study to conclude how the human brain works across billions of people alive today across the world, Much less in human history? How about common sense? Ok, let's do some math. Approximately 108 to 117 billion humans are estimated to have lived in human history. Let's take 110 billion (the low end) for our purposes. 4,000 / 110,000,000,000 = 0.000003636% Let's just go with people living today, which is approximately 8 billion (the low end). 4000 / 8 billion = 0.00005% Not sure if that covers the "statistical" part of your requirement, but it covers the "calculations" part. I myself would be hesitant to make claims about knowing how neurons and brains and ages work based on a sample size of pessimistically 0.000003636% or even optimistically 0.00005% of the human population and their brains.
- ranyume 10mo agoThen when you're not on the era you're supposed to be it's called a "regression" or "skipping stages". People are very stubborn to classify development in terms of age or time.
- lutusp 10mo agoThis is another psychology narrative put forth as a quantifiable scientific finding. Q: "Is this based on a clearly expressed scientific theory?" A: "Be serious -- it's just an idea, a narrative." Q: "What would constitute a basis for either statistical validation or falsification?" A: "You're confusing psychology with science. That's naive."
- potato3732842 10mo agoThis study seems like finding a way to quantify the well known and then twisting it to make a good headline. People don't grow up until they need to. Of course you're gonna see college educated rich westerners delay whatever mental markers you're looking at. And likewise people who "stay active" seem to stave off the mental decline of old age.
- lemonwaterlime 10mo agoExactly this. With a comfy life, you can mature later. The more hardships and adversity one must overcome the faster that maturation happens. Particularly so when the hardships put one on an abnormal path. Losing a close relative or a job is normal adversity that everyone will go through but not everyone has. Going through those other things while having a different philosophy or life ethos than those around you, thus also causing you to prioritize and pursue different things in life adds a different layer of challenge. That causes you to have to figure stuff out on your own and thus contributes to maturing in a different manner and at a different rate.
- yomismoaqui 10mo agoI don't know if it was adulhood, but after 30 I started feeling calmer & more adult than before. There was no special event in my life that kickstarted this, it was tge beginning of a more mature way to look at things & people. I started to see some repeated events & behaviours that I had already experienced and this also contributed to have a more tempered way to manage things. As you age of course you still face unknown things, but you star to see that supposed new things rhyme with things you already know.
- erfgh 10mo agoSo midlife crisis has not hit yet.
- yomismoaqui 10mo agoI'm almost 50 so that train has already passed (right over me)
- erfgh 10mo agoNot really; midlife crisis is a misnomer because it can start at 50-60 years old.
- john-carter 10mo ago[dead]
- Fire-Dragon-DoL 10mo agoThe feeling is definitely there,but it's hard to say of it was parenthood or aging until 36 that made me more adult. Probably both
- grvdrm 10mo ago>At around the age of 32 the strongest overall shift in trajectory is seen. Life events such as parenthood may play a role in some of the changes seen, although the research did not explicitly test this. “We know that women who give birth, their brain changes afterwards,” said Mousley. “It’s reasonable to assume that there could be a relationship between these milestones and what’s happening in the brain.” >From 32 years, the brain architecture appears to stabilise compared with previous phases, corresponding with a “plateau in intelligence and personality” based on other studies. Brain regions also become more compartmentalised. -- I felt this 32-year-old shift, but later (now 43). I joke with friends that I was a bone-head like most males until about 30. Joke yes, but feels right. Prior to 30ish, I was more insecure. Lacking in emotional intelligence. My conclusions from my experience, not projections from what I've read about that time. My career and relationship history reflect that switch-flip in a way. Only during the second half of my 30s did I begin to feel more secure and more confident in my career, despite not achieving some outrageous senior position or level of income. That career is now in a better and more measured place - in which I recognize what I do well and what I don't do well, and don't beat myself to a pulp for not having "it" Only in my 30s did I robustly embrace the power of compromise in friendships and relationships. Now I'm near 10 years married (and happy, most of it, let's be real) with two wonderful kids. And now I'm much capable of reasoning with my anxities, emotions, and insecurities. Do I still ruminate? Yes. Do I still react? Yes. But I know how to redraw situations to reset my in-moment feelings and/or avoid unecessary negative action.
- Esophagus4 10mo ago> and don't beat myself to a pulp for not having "it" Sounds like a stage of brain development I haven’t reached yet :) [sent from my steady state of pulp]
- grvdrm 10mo agoThe work never ends, friend. Try this. Think hard about what you think "it" is. Is it CEO? Making $1M a year? Making $5M a year? Healthy family? Etc. I think what you realize in the brainstorm is you have some of "it" already. But something's missing. So, then ask this question: can you change your situation to attain that missing thing? If so, how? And if you aren't doing that, why? Ask why again. A third time. Inaction is a very easy way to get stuck overthinking "it" when you might get that thing just by changing/trying your situation to the best of your ability. I am articulating what seems linear but in reality its messy and not very linear. It's work and it's trial and error. But more than ever, I'm ok and comfortable with the construct of my life. I don't make anywhere near what I hoped to make. I'm not an executive. I don't now think that I NEED (and am missing) those two things to fufill my life. (those are examples, I have others)
- dec0dedab0de 10mo agoI definitely felt older back in my early thirties, but I feel like I got younger now in my mid 40s. I think it's because my kid is in college and doesn't need me as much as they used to. Plus, I'm debt free and make enough money to not worry about the cost of going out. In my late 20s/early 30s I was under water on my house, not getting paid enough, and had a small child. It was clear that I had to step up and "be a man." Which, I intuitively think had a bigger effect on me than simply getting older.
- cies 10mo agoSemantics sure. But adult mode starts most likely at 13. Early 30s is mid-life mode. Why? Because time and time again research shows we should treat people 13 and up as adults. Even when they get some extra years of youth-judgement in court, and we put 18/21 in place as lawful adult...
- alentred 10mo agoI question the correlation and causality. I wonder how much of these eras are caused by brain physiology and genetics versus changes in the behavior with age, which can even be caused by external sociological factors, for example. Or a mix of both. > From 32 years, the brain architecture appears to stabilise compared with previous phases, corresponding with a “plateau in intelligence and personality”. For example, here - is this *caused* by genetics, or is it because in today's society this is about the age when you have finished your schooling and first working experiences and have simply less to learn? I know my examples simplify the reasoning, but the question about causality still stands, I think.
- boogieknite 10mo agoat some point when i was 32 it hit me: "ive accepted the idea of giving up perceived freedom and having a kid" (adoption or old-fashioned-style) my spouse is 3 years younger and when i told her my conclusion i added that i feel no urgency, only that something shifted this was 3 years ago and now my spouse is 32 and said the same thing to me, someone who previously had NEVER wanted to go through the process of childbirth[0]. had to remind her that we had the same convo when i was her age incredible that shift has been pinned down with research [0] 10 years of big hospital nursing can be like "scared straight" for pregnancy
- bicepjai 10mo agoI’m in my early 40s and went through a really intense, almost midlife crisis type period at the start of this year that turned out to be surprisingly transformative. I have come out of it feeling more patient, focused, confident, kind, and much better at honest self‑reflection. It’s just one anecdote, but my working theory is that people hit these developmental turning points at different times; some earlier, some later. studies like this make me wonder how much of that is brain wiring catching up with the lives we have lived so far
- cyrusradfar 10mo agoThanks for sharing the longitudinal brain-development framework from the Cambridge study. However, I don’t see strong direct practical value for an individual or educator in the life-stage breakdown (~birth–9, ~9–32, ~32–66, ~66–83, ~83+) beyond broad observation. In contrast, frameworks from learning theorists such as Vygotsky, Piaget, Bloom, Gagné, Maslow, Bruner and Kolb provide more explicit actionable guidance for parents/teachers (e.g., scaffolding learning in the “zone of proximal development”, designing spiral curricula, applying experiential learning cycles). My perspective guides me to prefer the pragmatic actionable frameworks. That help someone guiding children (or students) set norms, limits and scaffold growth in daily practice. I do like the conversation that's cropping up here though from this article. A lot of lovely self-reflection.
- iJohnDoe 10mo agoPeople really miss the point about why military recruiting occurs so early at 18. The brain is not fully developed yet. At 18, people have not learned right from wrong, love, death, loss, true responsibility to someone else. Sure, someone at 18 have gone through these things and it hopefully helps guide them in life, but it may not penetrate the brain as a life lesson yet. The brain is basically a blur up until your thirties, because you don't have any of these experiences to compare to until you encounter them again. That's why as you get older you start to understand what the heck is happening in your life, because you finally have multiple experiences to compare to. Then you can finally understand what is meant to be traumatic and what is right and wrong. The first time you went through something you were basically numb to the experience.
- Qem 10mo ago> People really miss the point about why military recruiting occurs so early at 18. The brain is not fully developed yet. I thought it was because if people die in battle at that age, they were statistically unlikely to leave widows and children to collect pensions.
- iJohnDoe 10mo agoI think that’s fair as well. I think it’s more about as you get older and wiser you realize war isn’t such a good idea for your future.
- deleted 10mo ago[deleted]
- MarkusWandel 10mo agoAt age 58, going on 59, I'm feeling an alarming decline in physical (luckily not mental at this point) ability. Sure enough, men have relatively abrupt aging events at about 44 and 60. I hope that's what it is and it's not still coming and making things even more pathetic. So I have, on average, another 7 years until I'm officially a typical old man? Great, just great. But I can vouch for the earlier milestone. I grew up as a socially challenged geek with nobody to tell me that I'm just wired differently and it's not my fault, I didn't somehow not do my homework, that I'm not like the cool kids. Right around age 30 I had this epiphany... this is how I am! Instead of always looking for someone or something to teach me how I think I should be... just embrace what, in fact, I am. If I'm a geek, then just live my life best as a geek. The resulting increase in self-confidence did help socially. So just another prerogrammed "adulting" threshold? Maybe.
- RansomStark 10mo agoTurns out the Hobbits had it right [0]. [0] https://andreian.com/hobbits-coming-of-age/#:~:text=What%20you%20are%20responsible%20for,Pursue%20fulfillment%20aggressively. https://andreian.com/hobbits-coming-of-age/#:~:text=What%20y...
- GCA10 10mo agoSo a while back, I was interviewing business people still active in their 80s and 90s -- as part of a very intriguing project that got cut short but did produce some fascinating notes. I remember asking one 95-year-old guy still serving (competently) on a bank board if there was anything that he did better now than when he was in his 60s. His answer: "I'm a better writer." The Cambridge research cited in this study categorizes late-life changes in brain function as nothing but declining capability, all the way down. My guess is they are mostly right. But I'm intrigued by the notion that some of that elder erosion might lead to new clarity about how everything fits together.
- jleyank 10mo agoBizarre. This says that most children are had by adolescents. And that they’ve always been mostly had by adolescents. Maybe this is an example of culturally-driven development? Or does this explain why there’s so many bad parents?
- Bender 10mo agoI think that environment is probably also a factor. My only parent died when I was a teen and I had to grow up really fast. I got a lot of things wrong but my brain did not have any other options either way.
- wrp 10mo agoSupport for part of this from another source. I've read through the collected letters of many famous intellectuals (just for hobby), and I've noticed a common dramatic shift in personality starting around age 28-30. People become more attentive to the needs of others and their own role in a network of social responsibilities. It's no longer "me, me, me".
- clickety_clack 10mo agoSeems like the “adult” phase is too suspiciously bookended by the start of parenthood and the start of retirement.
- antognini 10mo agoIt's kind of interesting to compare this to Ptolemy's eras. In the Tetrabiblios, Ptolemy argued that man went through seven ages in his life, each associated with a different celestial object. 1. Infancy --- The Moon. Since the Moon waxes and wanes more rapidly than any other celestial object, this period is characterized by the fastest development. 2. Childhood --- Mercury. As Mercury is the fastest of the planets, at this age children have the short attention spans and flit from one thing to the next. 3. Youth --- Venus. Starting around puberty, a man's mind starts to become focused on love. 4. Young Adulthood --- The Sun. A man comes of age, he starts to think about his work and people begin to take him seriously. 5. Middle Adulthood --- Mars. In his mid 30s a man's demeanor becomes more severe. He realizes he has certain goals he would like to accomplish and there is not much time left to achieve them. 6. Maturity --- Jupiter. By his mid 50s, having achieved what he can in his life, he has arrived at a position of authority in the community. He has gravitas and respect. 7. Old Age --- Saturn. By his late 60s, he starts to decline physically and mentally.
- ryandv 10mo agoIt is worth noting that this exact sequence (the Chaldean sequence) of the seven classical celestial objects follows the same paths as the Serpent of Wisdom coiled about the Tree of Life in the Hermetic Qabalah. This is the western analogue to the Hindu notion of Kundalini, which shares the same serpentine symbolism; both of which represent the process of the psychological maturation of man. See Liber 777 Col. VII [0], Key Scales 3 through 9 inclusive. Also note that Key Scales 4 through 9 in Col. XCVII, excluding Saturn in old age, correspond to the "Ruach," "soul," "mind," or (one could say) "post-bicameral ego" of man. [0] https://ia902906.us.archive.org/22/items/Liber777Revised/Liber777revised.pdf https://ia902906.us.archive.org/22/items/Liber777Revised/Lib...
- alexjplant 10mo agoI sat down and divided my own life into thematic epochs not long ago. Mine are split differently and more specifically to my own lived experience but I, too, arrived at the fact that I'm entering #5 in my mid-30s. Interesting coincidence!
- BrandoElFollito 10mo agoI feel that at some point there is stagnation. I am 55 but my brain tells me I am 35 or 40. This is not a "crisis of the 50s'", I did not change anything in the way I behave, it is just that I somehow stopped changing my behavior when I was around 35-40. This was not intended and it is only now that I realized it. When I look at pictures from this time, I am very similar. I aged of course but the clothes and behavior is the same. The interests are the same. My opinions and overall maturity is the same. It does not mean that they are great, just that they do not change. I wonder when the next change will be, when I will look at the past and say "I changed"
- phendrenad2 10mo agoOnce again armchair evolutionary psychologists are ahead of science. Science dismisses the amateur sociologists online who share anecdotes and observations, but they should really try to test these theories.