In this essay Jennifer will introduce you to a theory of adult growth and development, muse about the implications of that theory for us and our lives—and the lives of the executives and soldiers and migrant workers and computer programmers and all of us. And she’ll offer her perspective on why this matters more than ever in our increasingly complex world. Then, perhaps most importantly, she’ll offer some ideas about what we can do about the disconnection between what the way we tend to think about the world and the demands that world makes upon us.