v27.2.7

created: 2026.06.12. 22:38 · modified: 2026.06.13. 15:30 ·  · license
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This post was automatically translated and has not yet been reviewed by me. Please read with discretion.

I had an errand in Sejong this evening, so I made a quick trip there. After spending day after day at my desk trying to finish my dissertation, the outing cleared my head. An interesting thought came to me in the car, so I’m writing it down.

The title means that, as of today, I’ve been alive for 27 years, 2 months, and 7 days. I didn’t plan it, but those numbers look rather nice. Perhaps they’re telling me to write this today.

I want to write about what’s happening at this point in my life. I’ve written before about things I’ve come to see differently as I’ve grown older. Those pieces were about changes that depended on me—on what I encountered, read, and thought about. This one is a little different. Today I want to talk about what I’ve observed as the consensus among people my age at this particular moment. Since I’m describing a “representative value” that averages out individual differences, my exact age seemed like a fitting title. It might be fun to write a life-version update log like this from time to time.

I call it a generational consensus, but my observable universe is very small, so I should say up front that it may differ greatly from the ground truth. If anything, this post might show just how narrow the world I experience is.

v27.2.7 Update

• Many people my age now live in households of their own—unless they live and work in the same area as their families and the city’s punishing housing prices make moving out prohibitively expensive. We sometimes visit one another’s homes. There’s much less need to fret over finding a café or bar that stays open late. Some have cars, and even those who don’t can sometimes afford a taxi, so the last bus or train is less of a concern, too.

  Not many are married. Women tend to marry earlier than men, so a few cases are starting to appear, but there still aren’t many. I suspect that will change substantially before long—perhaps within the next year or two. Someone I met recently, only a few years older than me, said that about half of his friends seemed to be married. I was honestly a little surprised, especially since he was a man. Even with the age of marriage rising, the wave is coming. A wave of childbirth and parenting will soon follow. Those who aren’t the oldest child can often already watch an older sibling ride that wave up close.

  As someone who prefers quiet places, I felt I was at the peak of independence in my life while sitting at home with friends, chatting into the late evening. But if we intend to marry—myself included—this period won’t last long. It shouldn’t. It’s a brief golden age in which we have the means to live independently but don’t yet have families of our own to care for. To start a family, we must be ready to give up that golden age and accept the merging of our worlds with those of a spouse and children.

• Back in high school and even early in college, differences in aptitude mostly prompted thoughts like, “Oh, this friend is good at that.” But a substantial amount of time and effort has since built up on those differences, and we’ve now branched into entirely different species_species according to our fields. Our ways of life have diverged that much, and staying in touch with people of another species takes a special effort.

  Few people are just starting out in the arts or sports now. Quite a few are closer to the end of their careers than the beginning. Many are entering their prime or are already in it; in certain fields, such as professional Go or esports, that prime has already passed.

  Success tends to come later for people in academia, the professions, and the startup scene—including me and many people around me—than it does for those in the arts or sports. Almost no one in my circle has achieved definitive success yet, and even looking beyond it, I could count such people on one hand. But I’m starting to see people who have a good chance of getting there. I look forward to seeing, in five or ten years, how sound my judgment was.

  The moment for people in business and politics comes later still. Even beyond my own circle, it’s hard to find anyone my age who has so much as entered those worlds.

• The end of life no longer feels vaguely, immeasurably far away. Our parents have already retired or soon will, and with each passing day it becomes clearer that we should be caring for them rather than receiving their care. Many of the public figures whose deaths are announced are people whose names I already know.