Why does it take so long to gain wings?

Alexander the Great conquered the entire West Asia and defeated the Persian Empire before he, in a modern parallel, reached the final year of BCom.

- Abhishek Asthana

Albert Einstein got married, had a kid, and discovered the theory of relativity before the age of 26. Even most of our parents, by age 25, had started a family and applied for a home loan. Yet people today are clueless even at the age of 35, still "figuring out" and "evaluating options".

Are we spending too many years preparing for "responsibility"? Do we really need 10+2+4+2 years of education to occasionally unmute ourselves in meetings and say, "I have nothing to add"? To make pivot tables and speak flowery English? Much of those 18 years cancel each other out. Except for 0.001% of people, nobody is gaining from spending nights mastering aldol condensation. A Cannizzaro reaction is not helping you answer, in the quarterly sales meeting, why your territory didn't grow by 12% year-on-year. And it's not just education; this long, circuitous path to reaching your destination is a feature of all facets of life, such as starting a family.