Conventional wisdom posits that a child’s most formative years are generally from birth to around age 7 or 8. This period is when the brain does most of its mapping, forming 1 million neural connections every minute.
Neural connections are like the roots of a tree, the foundation from which all growth occurs
Similar rapid change and personality-setting occur in adolescence, due in part to a combination of hormonal, neural, and social changes. On top of structural changes to the aforementioned proverbial tree, the pressures of life start to have an impact. Changing weather patterns, if you will. It is during this second formative period that our personalities begin to take hold. Our sense of identity develops, along with an ability for delayed gratification. We realize our parents have faults, our social networks expand, and most relevantly, our peers begin to influence our interests.
It is the latter changes that are most palpable, evident in what we wear, watch, read, and listen to. This idea is generally accepted across all generations, as we find ourselves debating whether Kings of Leon is a better band than Dire Straits, without acknowledging that we were both 14 when we formed our respective opinions.
The Grant Study was a 75-year longitudinal study that primarily followed 268 Harvard-educated men beginning in the 1940s. The study analyzed the outcomes of the group’s traditional measures of success, as well as general happiness and life satisfaction. The results have been widely published, namely in Triumphs of Experience and Robert Waldinger’s TED Talk, and are absolutely worth a read (and re-read).
The study’s finding that is most pertinent to this piece relates to change. Specifically, that adult development continues beyond adolescence. People can change. And do! This was true in the 60s when the study’s subjects were in their forties and still true in the 90s when the subjects were nearing old age. It’s never been more true than today.
For decades (centuries even!) cultural influence was a sort of trickle-down, from older siblings, neighbors, or classmates, and a limited number of productions and publications. Today, however, influence neither trickles nor flows exclusively downward. It comes from all directions, in innumerable quantities. This firehose creates a formative window that is not only wider, but longer.
Anecdotally, this was true for me and at least two of the other nine people at a friend’s birthday dinner last week. People in their mid-to-late-20s who feel they’re riding yet another formative wave, discovering and immersing in previously untapped interests. I get the sense that this is increasingly common in today’s increasingly connected society.
The data supports my inkling. Both that we are not only susceptible to, but in search of, change and simultaneously living in a world that itself is changing faster than most of us can keep up with. The result of which seems to be moving away from consensus gentium (that we become who we are in adolescence) and towards a New Normal™️, in which our formative years occur (again? continuously?) later in our lives and for a longer period. And who can blame us? There has never been a better time to explore a new interest than now.
The Tao of Wee Man
With Jackass 4 coming out at the end of this week, the players are out doing press. (Again, since the movie’s release date was pushed. I’d also enjoyed this GQ profile—the photos are amazing— of Johnny Knoxville that came out in May.) This New York Times Magazine piece on Wee Man is really endearing. It’s nice to see someone being so well-adjusted to fame and its trappings.
—Justin
Tangle
My news diet consists of two outlets: The New Paper, a three-minute M-F newsletter whose mission is to “overcome sensationalism by making fact-first news easy to consume.” and Tangle. The latter is a politics newsletter (also comes in podcast form) that summarizes arguments from the left and right on a major news topic each day. As I wrote a few weeks ago, my goal for this year is to embrace the nuance and think deeper. Of course, this is a national issue politically and nobody is doing a better job to fight it than Isaac Saul’s Tangle.
—Andrew
Map of Contemporaries
Inspired by Wait But Why’s Horizontal History, this is the history of the world in famous people’s lifespans. I saw this a few weeks ago for the first time and have come back to it on the toilet when I have a minute here and there. There are filters for field (politics, military, art, etc.) and place of birth. Enjoy learning things like Pocahontas and William Shakespeare were alive at the same time, which was also the same time as Galilelo.
—Andrew
Jennifer Packer: The Eye Is Not Satisfied With Seeing
Last Friday morning, I went to the Whitney. Depending on your perspective, I was either playing hookie or seeking inspiration. (I prefer the latter, and highly recommend you do the same. Weekday mornings are a great time to museum if you can make it work.) I was there to see the Jasper Johns retrospective Mind/Mirror before it closes on February 13. As impressive as the breadth and depth of that exhibition was, the one that really moved me was a few floors up. I wasn’t familiar with Packer’s work before, but I was really blown away by the emotions that her paintings stir up. The subjects have a ghostly quality while at the same time feeling very concrete and real. They immediately spark curiosity and make a viewer ask, “What else was going on here.”
—Justin