Age shall not wither

The youngest children are all observation and no analysis, while our elderly tend to be all analysis and no observation. Don't we have room for both?
Infants only acquire their reasoning ability slowly: if I push my fingers in the plug socket I'll get a shock, if I do it again I'll get a shock, let me see what happens if I push my fingers in the plug socket...
As the senses dull, the elderly abandon their capacity to examine anything but move straight on to passing judgement. Things and people are good or (more usually) bad, irrespective of any facts we might be bothered to observe.
This might lead us to believe that the period in between offers a healthy balance between looking and learning. But our adolescence is so overcome by peer pressure and hormones that we think Busted are the saviours of rock. And just as adulthood offers us the chance to escape these shackles and breathe the air of independent thought we indulge in media and dodgy blogs that show us what we know already and tell us what to think about it.