Maybe social forces as well. I don't have the same 'local trust networks' that my parents did for finding someone nearby to do something--probably because I spend most of my time online. And I had more confidence in what I found in the paper Yellow Pages that got delivered to my door than I do in what is presented in an online search, say, for local contractors.
A chain of trust - aka a local village, is not always just the historic medieval village. Often it is just a experience value: I know that guy, i trust his/her judgement when it comes to "topic".
So when s/he recommends me a plumber, i know i can trust that guy..
So a chain of trust naturally accumulates over a lifespan- and by the time you will be as old as your dad was at point of reference, you actually would have a chain.
Depending of course on the quality of acquaintances. As kid, all you have is your parents and relatives. Some with wild swings. We all had that story telling grandpa whose tall tales we proudly propagated.
Sorry, local village- what was i thinking. Its a chain of entitys (mostly persons) who using there expertise, chain other entities to the chain and thus extend thrust to that entity. A village can hold many chains, but the trust regarding a topic, may only be given to certain parts of those chain networks.
I can't find it, but I think pg also said something like "when you're 20 if you're not doing bad you feel good. When you're 50 if you're not doing good you feel bad."
Which seems like common sense. A 50yo has fewer years to with to save up for any retirement, they face age discrimination, increasing health issues, etc. A 20yo has many years to work and pivot on case of setbacks, less age discrimination, usually fewer health issues.
Most private schools are heavily discounted from their advertised price--currently well beyond 50% discount on average (see below)--so don't focus too much on sticker price. The old wisdom among the college marketers was 'high prices [i.e., tuition sticker prices] send a signal of quality in the market' and that worked for quite a while. ('Ha! I got a great education and a great discount!') The Forbes article might suggest that's not the case any more.
I jokingly discussed with friends that we have to buy some when Elon renamed Twitter with the idea that people are going to invest thinking it's Elon's X.
Not sure if that happened but the stock went up quite a bit since then.
