A friend once showed me a Tweet that said, “It would be nice if there was a ding that told you when your frontal lobes finished developing.”
My layman’s understanding of the frontal lobe is that its development increases your maturity. [1][2] I’ve heard various estimates of when your frontal lobes finish developing, ranging from 25 to 30.
Regardless, at 23, my frontal lobes are not finished developing.
I understand the appeal of wanting to know when your frontal lobes finish developing. I’ve done a lot of dumb shit in my life, as has anyone who’s ever been under 25. Remembering these moments makes me physically cringe (mercifully, the stupidity happens a lot less than it used to).
Putting aside the issue that I doubt there’s a clear point where your frontal lobes finish developing, I don’t think we should try to delay all our important life decisions till our late 20’s. [3]
Making important life decisions thoughtfully makes your more mature. When you try to handle an important decision thoughtfully and still manage to screw it up, the way you handle the fallout determines how much you’ll grow from the experience.
So if, like me, you have underdeveloped frontal lobes, don’t despair! We’ll keep making asses of ourselves for a few more years, but we can increase the quality of our decision-making by confronting our problems, rather than shirking them.
…But on the other hand – dumb shit can be pretty fun. We can grow up later.
[1] Per Wikipedia: “The function of the PFC [Prefrontal Cortex] involves the ability to project future consequences that result from current actions. PFC functions also include override and suppression of socially unacceptable responses as well as differentiation of tasks.” The Prefrontal Cortex is the largest part of the frontal lobe.
[2] To see the consequences of not having a frontal lobe, check out the story of Phineas Gage.
[3] I didn’t read the Tweet that inspired this post, so I could be misrepresenting the author’s arguments. If so, it’s unintentional. (Given that it was a Tweet though, I doubt much thought was put into it.)
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