Why you get old and get in a rut and become useless.

It's your brain. I'm gonna punch my brain in the face if it keeps calcifying on me.

TESTOSTERONE NATION - ATOMIC DOG: Weasels Ripped My Flesh:

"...Sapolsky kept asking himself, why? Is there an age from which a person passes from an open-minded, adventure stage to a close-minded, comfortable stage?

...Sapolsky found that radio stations use something called the "Breakthrough minus 20" formula. Let's say Billy Joel had his first breakthrough hit in 1976. That means his first fans were born about 20 years earlier.

Breakthrough = 1976 — minus 20, or 1956.

In a nutshell, the music you got to high school and college with is the music of your life, and that's the premise commercial radio stations are built on.

From the ages of 14 to 21, you're open to new music. Once you hit about 35, most people won't tap their pencil to anything new, no matter how dynamic. At age 35, your ears, and unfortunately, your mind, close up shop and go to the ranch in Texas to clear out brush...forever.

...But Sapolsky didn't limit his research to music. He wondered if people are more adventurous regarding food when they're younger, so he called up 50 sushi restaurants in the Midwest.

...After 39, you're stuck with the same old foods you've always eaten. Your window for new foods not only closes, but you pull the drapes down and turn off the lights.

Sapolsky decided to look at one last area that seemed to be the exclusive domain of youth: piercing.

After talking to 50 tattoo parlors and body piercing studios, he determined that the window of tongue piercings is pretty much restricted to ages 16 to 23. Only 5% of tongue-piercing customers are older.

While Sapolsky found the door on belly button piercings isn't as tightly regimented as tongue piercings, it's a pretty safe bet that there aren't too many women over the age of 40 getting them.

What is it about the ageing brain that makes us pass from the novelty stage to the predictable stage? Obviously, there are those who continue to be open to new music, new food, and new circumstances of any kind, but are there any specific characteristics that the stodgy hold in common?

A psychologist named Simington, an expert on ageing, believes those who don't retain their sense of adventure have two characteristics:

1. They stay at the same job for a long time.

2. They become eminent or especially successful at that job.

For whatever reasons, this combination ramrods you into a debilitating state. As soon as something new arrives, you're screwed. Your brain short circuits. You spend your free time yelling at kids to get off your lawn..."