By the age of twenty, you know you’re not going to be a rock star. By twenty-five, you know you’re not going to be a dentist or any kind of professional. And by thirty, darkness starts moving in- you wonder if you’re ever going to be fulfilled, let alone wealthy and successful. By thirty-five, you know, basically, what you’re going to be doing for the rest of your life, and you become resigned to your fate……I mean, why do people live so long? What could be the difference between death at fifty-five and death at sixty-five or seventy-five or eighty-five? Those extra years… what benefit could they possibly have? Why do we go on living even though nothing new happens, nothing new is learned, and nothing new is transmitted? At fifty-five, your story’s pretty much over.
Douglas Coupland, Player One: What Is to Become of Us