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So, do you remember when you were a child and your parents sent you to bed before their guests came round to visit? And then you could hear this rumble in the background of voices and laughter, and if you had to get out of bed you'd come out and there'd be all these people and plates of food and wine glasses and beer bottles and everyone would look at you and go "Aww, you're sleepy, aren't you?" and then proceed to talk about you like you weren't there, while you cuddled up to the nearest available parent?

We've turned into those people, my friend.

P.S. By the age of 22, Jean Piaget had completed his PhD and published 20 papers, not to mention writing a philosophical novel (whatever that might be...). I mean, ok, I'm 22. I have a BSc, and if I'd used my time wisely and associated with the right people, I might by now have had a paper published in a mediocre journal, one which perhaps I contributed to in the lit review, or got credit for running some of the trials studied. I'd probably have Honours, and possibly a Masters (assuming I was a completely different person with completely different grades). There would be NO WAY IN HELL I would have a PhD by now. It's just impossible, unless I left school at 15. Or studied a really useless discipline.

What can we learn from this? Academia has become a lot more regulated since Piaget's time. (He did base many of his findings on observations of his own children. Some of them turned out to be wrong. I'm just saying.)

So don't feel too bad about yourself :-).