One Big Web: A Few Ways the World Works
Joseph Tussman, a UC Berkeley philosophy professor, wrote in the 1960s that, “What the pupil must learn, if he learns…
When trying to make sense of why humans can be ruthless and greedy, it helps to watch a brainless, thoughtless, emotionless plant ruthlessly destroy everything around it. Nature is ruthless and greedy.
Lots of things work like that. Take brands, relationships, and reputation. There are things that, once lost, will likely never be regained, because the chain of events that created them in the first place can’t be replicated. If you realized how valuable those things are you’d be more careful about risking their loss.
Critical period (linguistics): There is a period from early childhood into adolescence when people can master new languages without difficulty and without a foreign accent – after puberty, it becomes much more difficult. There is a window when the language-learning part of your brain is malleable and open to new information; afterwards, it tends to lock into place. I think it’s similar for so many life experiences: Your views on politics, economics, religion, and relationships are heavily influenced by what you learned and experienced between childhood and your mid-20s. It’s not impossible to re-learn in your later adult years; just much harder.