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Unpopular Opinion:
Saying someone is X years young is just a way of saying they are so old and decrepit you feel like you are insulting them by even uttering their age without trying to offset this by saying young instead of old.
The day people start referring to my age in this way is the day I know im an old geezer.
In my view, age is nothing. Mindset and the value a person show to others matter.
value maybe not a good word here, I mean vision and attitude.
I tend to agree. Even when we talk about children I often find age is not relevant but it becomes relevant only because of how people treat kids.
A 100 years ago a 14 year old would be doing things a mature adult would do and would handle the responsibility just fine. But we treat our kids like they cant match an adult, so they mature much later than they otherwise would.
I remember being in my geography class when I was like 14 and the other two students were a 13yr old and 12yr old girl.
(It was a homeschool coop. A lot of rightwing conservative religious propaganda/indoctrination, but the best teacher-to-student ratio ever XD )
And we. just. did it! Like we took responsibility for our own education; we didn't have to be *made* to learn—I mean it wasn't our favorite subject, but we made it fun and even made up our own course material! :>
And most of those same adults tell us "well anarchy/communism/leftwing ideals can't work *because humans are immature and irresponsible and have to be forced to do the right thing*"
and that's the only reason the world has to be this way?
pfft if 12 year old Stephanie can be completely mature and responsible and have completely lucid conversations about international politics and socioeconomic systems above the level of most world leaders
Why do we need "leaders" again? X'D
@codepuppy @freemo @Sphinx Communism and anarchism don't work *at scale* because we're not ants or wolves.
Not only do humans have certain patterns of loosely coupled version of eusociality, but also human neurodiversity plays a big role: eg differences in ambition, ability, interests, extroversion, extrinsic motivation.
There's this saying in software that projects end up with architecture based on the structure of their teams. Humans seem to thrive best with hybrid social systems at scale because we're so diverse.
As for leadership, it's so tricky! Being a great leader means a balance of listening to what the people want, doing a better job than your average constituents of determining what direction is best, and selling them on it.
Of course delegating such power and responsibility to anyone is full of both opportunity for success and abuse. Usually you get both, in the same person.
@freemo @Sphinx @codepuppy People mature under independence, adversity, exploration and free social interactions. When any of those is constrained, kids grow up more slowly.
Such as:
- Overplanned schedules
- Not facing problems alone with real consequences
- Being sheltered from bad feelings
- No unsupervised socializing with peers
- Lots of prechewed questions and answers (answer the homework with quotes from the textbook, or using a formula)
- Lack of exposure to open ended questions and exploration
- Not enough unmoderated hot debates
- Too few viewpoints
- Too many structured, fake activities (school, sports, games) and not enough real world ones (part time jobs, side hustles, leadership roles, buying used items, fixing things)
@Sphinx @freemo @codepuppy True. Importantly, there's no guarantee that people mature forward in time: sometimes people can actually regress and be less wise and less responsible at an older age than before. Often that's just during certain periods, like after a divorce or car accident but for some it's lasting.
@airgoa @Sphinx @freemo I've noticed that too
I wonder if it might have to do with understimulation / underappreciation / etc.; like if they think there's no point in being mature or etc. because their voice won't matter in an organization or relationship or etc., then perhaps they don't put effort into trying to be.
@codepuppy @Sphinx @freemo I think the reasons for regression and immaturity are really diverse, depending on both person and circumstance, and while it can be specific to a context it's often a pervasive personality change.
I think you're onto something in terms of roles of responsibility. Having agency and being responsible for things that affect others seems to promote maturation and I imagine the reverse is likely true. I suspect that the way a lot of welfare programs are devised they might actually create that problem, come to think of it.
I've also seen people react to certain traumatic events that way. It's not so much about the trauma itself but how people deal with it, and the build-up of toxic emotions like anger, resentment and self-pity.
I wonder how much people's jobs, friends and family affect their response to hard things too. Feeling supported but also not encouraged to indulge in harmful framing and ideation, and being brought into real world responsibilities might help people experience post traumatic growth, which is the normal response, rather than regression.
@freemo I never remember my age anymore. When it gets close to my birthday I gotta subtract .. I'm usually either a year younger or older than I think I am.
@djsumdog Same, once I was past 21 I could pretty much only tell you my age to the nearest decade.. all I know is im between 30 and 40.
@freemo
Dr. Freemo is [NaN] years of age.
:3