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Comment by cousin_it | Hacker News Reader

I don't understand what exactly is the difference between adults and "pre-adults", in the author's opinion. Is it just that "pre-adults" haven't been "domesticated" by women who demand money and care?

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A pre-adult is an embarrassing man-child who thinks playing videogames and posting anime on 4chan is something grownups do. It's a state of perpetual teen.

I've often asked myself whether some activity is useful, or entertaining, or just a waste of time. But I've never once asked myself whether it's "something grownups do". That smacks of ignoring any actual merits in favor of identity politics.

The article is basically a rant from someone who thinks their parenthood hobby should be universal, as though our little tribe of 6.7 billion still needs reinforcements.

Identity politics? No, it's a simple statement of maturity. Youth today live longer at home with their parents, for example, and adulthood is postponed longer than previous generations. Many of them justify it with bitterness toward standard expectations, such as with your comment about a "parenthood hobby" and your derision of population numbers.

That is not limited to adulthood. Old age, too, is postponed longer than in previous generations.

It would not surprise me if both correlated highly with life expectancy.

"I will do X because my kind of people do X" is substituting stereotypes for reasoning. The very existence of standard expectations about how individual human beings conduct their lives is toxic, and I heartily approve of any resistance. Society can't possibly compensate you for sacrificing what you want in favor of what the majority is doing (whether or not they actually wanted to).

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