This is Why I'll Never be an Adult

The 'lack of maturity' part comes from just ignoring those things because they aren't fun.

This isn't the impression I got. She gets her stuff done, goes to the bank and responds to emails, but not in a timely and organised way and she's unhappy with that. You're right, this is a very lucky and privileged situation in the grand scheme of things, but her situation is not the same as yours.

What do you think would happen if she had a couple of kids? Would she a) Spend all day on Facebook and let them starve or b) Become a more organised person through her new responsibility?

Also bear in mind (from the FAQ): Yes. Aside from the odd exaggeration for comic effect, the vast majority of my stories are completely true to life.

"If you think that going to the bank, doing your laundry, and answering emails in a timely manner is some sort of accomplishment or difficult, ..."

In reality, the actions of the human brain appear to be directed by a complicated network of multiple pattern matchers that search for salient input. When one of them recognizes a pattern with sufficient intensity, it produces an output that directs attention and activity toward it. These pattern matchers vary across the population. Some people are entranced by music, some by tidiness, some by praise, some by chasing tail, some by financial work that they have been told needs to be done, etc. etc. etc.

There appear to be pattern matchers that work on thought itself, sustaining attention to an idea so that it spontaneously stays somewhere near the focus of attention with little perceived effort. This facility appears to vary a lot between people. Some people get stuck (obsessive-compulsive disorder), most folks remember the more important things most of the time, and for some people holding onto a thought is like trying to catch smoke. Studies of twins separated at birth show that this facility is about as heritable as adult height.

"Going to the bank is hard?!?!?"

Going is easy, but for some people it simply does not spontaneously float into the focus of attention. If the police aren't about the come asking awkward questions, if the person has enough folding money for food, and so forth, then it readily slips out their conscious mind. They'd rather it did not, but a weak meta-mind cannot readily fix itself with meta-thinking.

I fall on the easily-distracted-by-shiny-objects end of the spectrum. Somewhere around here I have a $50 refund check that I've had for ages. The cops don't care, nothing gets turned off if I ignore it, so it keeps falling off the radar. It will probably continue to be forgotten until it has more value as a collectible. One of my descendants will euphorically sell it for Federation credits and then promptly misplace their credit chip. They will feel really guilty, but this will not help them find their credit chip.

"I choose to be responsible because my kids can't do their own laundry or buy their own groceries."

Try choosing to be irresponsible for three straight weeks. Your kids will not be harmed by a few weeks of nachos and slightly-dirty clothes. I bet you couldn't do it. The salience detector in your brain would scream and you would be compelled to obsessively fix it, regardless of your previous "choice" to prove you could, and your brain's storyteller would then cook up a story about how you really meant to do laundry all along.

Banking doesn't seem that much of an issue anymore, with online banking. Maybe shopping could be replaced by ordering online, too. Cleaning is tricky - I still don't have a cleaning lady/gent, also because I worry about giving up some privacy.

Another way to ease the cleaning problem is to get a smaller flat and less stuff. (I don't think Roombas help that much yet, or do they?).

For someone with ADHD, it can be. The author mentions in her contact information that she does have ADHD so your situation probably doesn't compare with her's.

I read absolutely no self justifying in that blog. Just brutally honest, self deprecating humor.

I also feel that this brutal honesty about herself makes it more likely, not less, that she will eventually conquer this adult thing.

EDIT : I thought i would develop a bit on my post because it's really a borderline flame as is. What i mean is that, okay we're all gonna try hard and be adults, even the author of this post eventually, and maybe he is, because for all i can tell about the tone of the post, it may all be fictionnal.

The OP did a brilliant job (IMHO) in capturing this moment of loneliness you get when you have to process this seemingly endless stream of borderline useless daily tasks, that constitutes the basic things you've got to do in modern society, and hence the infrastructure of being an adult responsible person, and you somehow can't seem to manage it. It was very well done and quite humoristic if you can't tell.

On the other hand, you're just serving a bunch of empty moralizations that everybody already interned, OP included. In short, you're totally missing the point and tone of the post from what i can tell.

So far, this is about what grad school has felt like.

And that is far, far too much. I hate it. Stamps!? Envelopes? Pen and paper?!?! Sheesh...

Yes, yes, abolish snail mail now...

(and I'm not gen Y by any means, snail mail was frickin annoying back it was the only mail)

Other than the space it takes up, keeping your mail in a pile is a pretty efficient system. The important stuff like this month's bills are usually near the top, while stuff that's not that important has probably been buried by a few layers.

Everything else gets discarded immediately into the recycle bin kept next to the door for this purpose.

Set up your regular bills (mortgage, utilities, anything else with a draconian late fee) to be paid automatically.

The reality is that all the things the author lists are mundane tasks that have to be done over and over again, but provide no value to the world. These take time, and that time is spent not doing something you want to do.

Everyone has different ways of dealing with this. The author is introspective enough to realize that they are a drain on her productivity; they take time, and she feels like she accomplished something valuable after completing them, even though there is no real value in their completion. This makes it difficult for her, mentally, to even start the tasks, because there are so many negatives involved. Laziness is orthogonal.

Anyway, I'm pretty sure she does them anyway, but she just doesn't like to, and chose to write about that dislike. That's not a "mental disorder", it's storytelling.

Part of being a grownup is learning to enjoy living responsibly.