The Defining Decade

"Everyone learns things the hard way at some time or another, and our brains take pictures so the learning stays with us. This is the basis of the saying "That's the lesson you'll never forget." It is a jarring - but efficient and often necessary - way to grow.(...)As we age, we feel less like leaves and more like trees. We have roots that ground us and sturdy trunks that may sway, but don't break, in the wind. The wind that blows by can be more serious. "You're fired!" is much scarier when you have a mortgage. The things we do wrong at work are no longer typos but may be losing a $500,000 account or releasing software that crashes the company website for a day. But older adults - and even twentysomethings who work at it - can be rooted in the confidence that problems can be solved, or at least survived."