Rory Sutherland

You have an inflection point.

So my parents couldn't believe this.

When I was 20, 25, and I told them that when I was 11, I used to cycle 11 miles to the nearest town to see my grandmother on my own at the age of 11.

And then when I told them, which they didn't know, I used to, at the age of sort of 11, climb up onto the apex of the roof and just wander around on the roof 30 feet up.

My parents were aghast that they'd ever allowed it to happen.

But if most people did that... At the time, it was normal.

It was completely normal.

They'd be locked up today.

My parents would have been locked up for several of the things which I was allowed to do when I was young.

Now, what happens, I think, is that you reach a threshold or a tipping point where in my childhood, let's say someone had abducted me or I'd been hit by a car.

I'll give the exact year, 1974, 75, 76, that kind of era.

If I'd been hit by a car cycling to Monmouth or I'd been abducted by a paedophile, my parents would have been described as unlucky.

You get past a threshold where that behavior becomes weird and now my parents would be held as irresponsible and would be blamed.

I don't think it occurred to them.

I was, funnily enough, hit by a car.

It was my fault, I'll be absolutely honest.

I failed to signal before maneuvering.

I was hit by a car.

Nobody suggested it was my parents' fault for allowing me to cycle around the place.

That was just a normal thing you did.