People of every age tend to believe they have grown and changed a great deal up to the present, but expect that their personality, tastes and values will stay roughly the same from here on. A 20-year-old predicts smaller changes over the next decade than a 30-year-old remembers from the decade just past. Psychologist Daniel Gilbert, one of the key researchers, named this the end-of-history illusion. The illusion appears in teenagers, middle-aged adults and seniors alike. Gilbert suggests it reflects how hard future change is to predict, and our satisfaction with who we are now.

Hampi is a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Karnataka, India, with more than 1,600 surviving remains spread over 4,100 hectares. It was the capital of the Vijayanagara Empire from 1336 to 1565. Travellers from Persia and Portugal described it as a prosperous, wealthy and grand city with temples, markets and farms along the Tungabhadra River. By 1500 it was estimated to be the world's second-largest city after Beijing, and probably India's richest at the time. In 1565 a coalition of Muslim sultanates defeated the Vijayanagara Empire, its capital was conquered and destroyed, and the city was left in ruins. Hampi remains a religious centre, with the active Virupaksha Temple at its heart.