The frontal lobe reaches full maturity around age 25, marking the cognitive maturity associated with adulthood…The executive functions of the frontal lobes involve the ability to recognize future consequences resulting from current actions, to choose between good and bad actions (or better and best), override and suppress unacceptable social responses, and determine similarities and differences between things or events.

– Wikipedia article

This is the flip side to my previous post.  As I said in that post, most everyone in my Linkshell is some flavor of awesome, and I love them to bits.   Then there are a few of the others that make me cringe.  It’s clear they have something to prove, but no idea what that something is.

My ability to pick out males under 20, particularly Americans, is a skill that I’ve acquired and honed to high precision inside FFXI.  As a older player (fogey?) with fully functioning frontal lobes, it’s a necessary skill to have, to avoid unnecessary drama.

The skill is something akin Name that Tune for me.   I can, with a high degree of accuracy, pick out American males that are under 20, in 7 words or less.

The last night in my Linkshell was puncuated by a plethora of sub-20 American males.  Although I can usually keep telling myself “they’re just young,” in order to avoid saying something that will create future consequences, last night was particularly odious.  I wanted desperately to reach through the game, grab some of these people by the throat and shout “‘Please, for once in your life, try to use your frontal lobes!” But then I remembered, they don’t have any, and just unequipped my Linkshell.

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