My 16 year old: "I can't wait until I can do whatever I want!"

Me: "I thought the same thing. Turns out it's not as fun as it sounds."

There is a term for this, but I can't remember what it is.

It's a phenomenon where a person goes through their formative years in a given structure, where you are raised by your parents, go to school, and are given set goals for every year - do X and you'll get to Y. This goes all the way up to your early twenties if you go to university, possibly longer if you join a structured company with similar guardrails, or much longer when you join the armed forces and live in a regimented way.

Once people leave these guardrails, some really struggle with the freedom they are granted. No one has a goal to point you towards, no one cares if you fail, and ultimately your life has a degree of freedom you haven't experienced ever.

One thing we're terrible at as a society is either guiding people with no clear path, or supporting those that don't want a clear path and want to find one of their own. Some people really struggle with this, and the freedom of being able to do shit like overindulge on drugs/alcohol/food with no support or community support can ruin lives.

There are no guardrails in life

Except for, of course, any actual guardrails you encounter.

Nah. Unless you have a severe condition like psychopathy or some other neuro divergent state, your brain is pretty consistent with giving you warnings. These take the form of "bad feelings" and second guessing. Most of us just choose to ignore them and then begin the mental gymnastics, altering the chemical pathways to justify and continue the behavior.

Does not necessarily apply to financial decisions because this is an artificial system with no basis in reality, brain is not wired to assess properly. Also why it's easy to con people so easily. No natural defenses.

The pop up is called natural selection. Any of your distant ancestors who clicked “Yes” to eating dirt did not survive.

Sadly, we have been so good at protecting people from stupid, we need the popups again.

Picks up bleach.

What the fuck does that mean clippy?

Ah, but have you considerd trauma? You might regret your choice for the rest of your life.

I mean the taste of the dirt is kind of the warning?

Nothing is true.

Everything is permitted.

Windows users first time on linux be like

The are you sure message is your parents and peers looking at you like you are stupid.

Autonomy FTW

* Goes outside *
* Tries to fly *

I think I've been lied to on the internet...

You want a Clippy for everyday life?

Jesse, what the hell are you talking about?

Thats what religion is supposed to do. If only it would stop at that....

This is the perspective of a generation that has had total guardrails their entire lives. They can't comprehend how fucking wrecked you can get from your own actions.

That's what parents are for.

I need to get out more, there's guardrails all over this town. :-/

I think about this now and again, because the canals where I live often don't have fencing alongside to stop you falling in. A piece of the brutality of the universe in the city.