According to AI (so question it), The Mentor was 21 when he wrote this. There's something about the early 20s that makes many people believe that the world has deeper significance and scope than it really does. It can be a delusional time. This is also, coincidentally, when people who get schizophrenia often start to show symptoms. I'm not saying The Mentor has this particular affliction, I'm saying that the early 20s is a trigger that brings out a lot of things in people, which they later get over.

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StarGrit a day ago | parent [-]

Is there any direct evidence of what you claim? Otherwise this is speculation.

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phendrenad2 12 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Very few things that get called speculation actually are.

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ratelimitsteve 19 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hacker_Manifesto hacker manifesto written by Loyd "The Mentor" Blankenship in 1986

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgamedesigner/7426/loyd-blanke... Loyd Blankenship born 1965

	▲	StarGrit 16 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Thanks. I was vaguely aware of who this person was. I was more referring to the schizophrenia.

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hitarpetar 19 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

there is direct evidence that disorders like schizophrenia and bipolar tend to manifest in the early 20s. generalizing that to everyone's experience of their 20s is obviously a bit tenuous

	▲	bitwize 18 hours ago \| parent [-]
		The last of your prefrontal cortex's major systems come online in your earlier 20s, which can lead to bipolar or schizophrenia if those systems are disordered. In most, it just happens to lead to "your first deep thoughts about the broader world and your significance in it" and may lead to writing youthful cringepieces like "The Conscience of a Hacker". It's kind of like a second puberty. The underlying cause is the same, if the results are vastly different.