Evolution cheated on the design that our brains have according to the author. Our brains are not as indestructible as we would like to think; one scientist thinks it is quite frail and susceptible to delirium, forgetfulness and repeating actions that we know are wrong in the long run. We have a spinal column that would be better if it were made of several supports than just singular. Many of us complain of back problems that might not have occurred would our upright posture supported more efficiently.
Younger people are apparently “wired” differently because they have still to recognize how it would be better to keep some friends before dropping them. Many make hasty decisions on ruining friendships before realizing that dialogue often solves problems that can be worked out. That is why so many lose friends very quickly when they later realize how valuable that friendship could be. They may be rash in their decisions rather than pragmatic as their less volatile adult parents are. Not all teenagers fit this label and many are more mature than their parents but generally there is a period of acquiring information that takes time and that means going through a maturation process. Part of this is due to their not having assimilated information that had been acquired when they learned that a certain behavior is going to turn people away.
We do something that we know is wrong because of the frontal lobe saying it is wrong but the old part of the brain says its cool. So a person who knows that doing something risky will often continue to do so even though he recognizes that there is a danger to his health.
We are also distracted very easily. As species we are quite easily lead astray from what we concentrated on. That may be complicated by having a lot more sensory input than we have been able to keep up with on an evolutionary scale. We also do not remember as well as we would like when we get older. Many of us apparently occlude things as we get older and short-term memory disappears.
