> Have LLMs ruined our ability to think abstractly?

No. Well, maybe. You'd have to ask someone who uses them.

> It's practically a trope that taking the common, average path in life is not for everyone.

Exactly. It's a tired trope, and gussying it up with pontifications about the utility of personal stochastic processes, after a detour into the big bang and entropy, doesn't make it any better.

> If I wrote an article suggesting that not everyone will achieve self-actualisation by going to university at 18, getting a degree, entering the work force, buying a house, getting married, having kids, and retiring at 65, nobody would bat an eye.

And nobody would submit it to HN, either.

> The author is basically making this argument in a slightly novel way.

No. The article is tedious, and, as has already been pointed out, prescriptive rather than permissive.