Quotation day!

[telophase]

As I am now somewhat stationary (for context, see my previous post), I am reading one of the Robert Sapolsky books that Amazon.com delivered to my door today. He's a professor of biology and neurology, and his latest book, Monkeyluv, is a compilation of essays from various magazines and journals. This is from his afterword to a tongue-in-cheek article examining the question of nature vs. nurture through the medium of the 1999 People magazine's "50 Most Beautiful People in the World":

And Ms. Spears, who only a few short years ago still had to be identified as "a singer," no longer needs an introduction for most readers; however, just around the time of career where most personal handlers would be convincing her that it's time for an image-burnishing trip to a Sudanese refugee camp as a special UN envoy, she is instead neurobiology's greatest teaching tool for demonstrating that the frontal cortex of the brain does not fully come online until around age thirty.

Comments

[rayechu.livejournal.com]

Heh. That's kinda funny. Do you recommend the book as a whole?
That is the part of the brain that handles higher functions, decision making, and goal planning correct? The thing I don't like is the way our society is set up you pretty much have to ignore that fact because you make a lot (if not most) of major life choices before the age of thirty. I am twenty-two and am really lagging behind everyone else because I made poor decisions about college and didn't have a clue what I wanted to do with my life.

[telophase.livejournal.com]

So far I do - he talks about various topics in biology and neurology and is pretty interesting, with a soupcon of humor. :)

I know what you mean - I'm still flailing around figuring out what I want to do, and regretting some choices I made previously, which means that now that I have a better idea of my talents and desires, I'm saddled with a huge student-loan bill that means I can't actually pursue what I'd like to do for some time to come.

[rayechu.livejournal.com]

Exactly. I am just annoyed with myself and with my counselors for saying. "Oh, you don't know what you want to do so go to community college until you find out." Well I have hated my time out there and it has killed any desire I had to do the things I once wanted to do. So instead of going off and attending real college and just picking a program and doing it I ended up working, flitting around and changing my major, and generally not getting anything done.

[mistressrenet.livejournal.com]

That guy is awesome.