The word "screed" is a sign of intellectual dishonesty. In practice it means no more than "something someone wrote that I disagree with," but by hidi… - Paul Graham

Adults lie constantly to kids. I’m not saying we should stop, but I think we should at least examine which lies we tell and why. [...]

A lot of the things adults conceal from smaller children, they conceal because they’d be frightening, not because they want to conceal the existence of such things. Misleading the child is just a byproduct.

This seems one of the most justifiable types of lying adults do to kids. But because the lies are indirect we don’t keep a very strict accounting of them. Parents know they’ve concealed the facts about sex, and many at some point sit their kids down and explain more. But few tell their kids about the differences between the real world and the cocoon they grew up in. Combine this with the confidence parents try to instill in their kids, and every year you get a new crop of 18 year olds who think they know how to run the world.

There's no switch inside you [high school students] that magically flips when you turn a certain age or graduate from some institution. You start being an adult when you decide to take responsibility for your life. You can do that at any age.

Prediction: Because the quality of abstract art is (ahem) hard to judge, it will be a lot easier to revise the history of that period to adjust the representation of great artists to suit present and future fashions.