having turned thirty last weekend i was attracted to the things other people accomplished when they were your age page. i’m pleased to find that no one seems to have done anything particularly worth emulating at 30 so i don’t feel too left out by not being a billionaire (bill gates) or not overdosing on drugs and alcohol (hank williams). in fact i’m quite surprised to find that at thirty mark twain was just publishing his first short story.

of course you end up working backwards and finding all the amazing feats that other people were doing at younger ages. never mind, i don’t want to write pride and prejudice (jane austen, 20) or citizen kane (orson welles, 25). inventing the doughnut sounds like a good achievement to have under your belt (hanson crockett gregory, 15) but i think it’s been done.

[found via bifurcated rivets]