My view is that at a younger age your optimism is more and you have more imagination etc. You have less bias.

Experience teaches cynicism, youth knows better

We tend to think of optimism as something you either have or you don't—a personality trait you're stuck with. But this observation flips that: optimism might actually be something we lose as we accumulate experience. Each time life disappoints us, each time a plan crumbles or a person lets us down, we add another small layer of protective cynicism. It's not wrong exactly, just realistic. Except that realism can become a kind of prison.

The less obvious part here is about imagination. We rarely connect imagination to how many possibilities we're willing to consider. A younger mind hasn't yet learned which doors supposedly don't open, so it imagines more freely. But adults aren't just more cautious—we're working with a mental filing system full of "I already know how this ends." That's efficient in some ways. It's also limiting. The bias isn't always against being hopeful; sometimes it's the bias of knowing too much, or thinking we do.

The interesting challenge isn't recapturing youth. It's occasionally asking yourself: what am I not imagining because I've decided it won't work? Where have I stopped trying because I've seen similar attempts fail? Those questions can crack open the protective shell without making you reckless.