You want people to make sure to get the stupid stuff right. Yet you also want to leave room for craft and judgment and the ability to respond to unex… - Atul Gawande

Modernization did not demote the elderly. It demoted the family. It gave people — the young and the old — a way of life with more liberty and control, including the liberty to be less beholden to other generations. The veneration of elders may be gone, but not because it has been replaced by veneration of youth. It’s been replaced by veneration of the independent self. * * *

This is what it means to have autonomy - you may not control life's circumstances, but getting to be the author of your life means getting to control what you do with them.

We recruit for attitude and train for skill,