I can understand all this, but when grown-ups exhibit similar behavior -- privileged grown-ups like CEOs and lawyers -- I roll my eyes. Lately we've been exposed to several high-profile examples of adolescent risk-taking which, applied to adults, flies under the name of sheer stupidity. Or arrogance.

It was a grown-up who capsized Bear Stearns by drinking the subprime Kool-Aid. Again, it's a bunch of grown-ups -- CEOs no less -- who are paying themselves $200 million to $300 million a year (think Countrywide's Angelo Mozilo) while tanking their companies. And even a teen could have told Eliot Spitzer that you pay hookers in cash and don't take them across state lines.

It's definitely a grown-up (Barry Diller) who decided to break up his company (IAC) without consulting his biggest shareholder, the formidable John Malone (who was already upset because the company's stock shriveled by 44% over the past year).

Teen-type arrogance is on vivid display day by day at the Anthony Pellicano trial. Celebrated and successful people clearly believed they were sufficiently above the law that they could retain the services of a professional wire-tapper. Their public position: They thought Pellicano was a skilled private eye who dug up dirt through careful investigation.

I've met Anthony Pellicano, and anyone who tells me that he comes across as skilled or careful should be banished to Bear Stearns.

The trial itself may be tedious and clumsy, but here's what we're glimpsing: We see executives who are so desperate to defeat their rivals that they don't care what tactics are employed; we see attorneys so bent on winning their cases that they are willing to take whatever legal shortcuts they deem necessary.

Again, these are folks who, Spitzer-like, seem to believe they're indestructible. Like dopey teens, they feel that no harm can result from their actions.

But reputations are indeed being damaged. The public can now understand that many power players win the game through intimidation, not through smarts. In hiring a Pellicano, attorneys are announcing that they're taking the low road, so get out of the way.

All of which returns us to this basic question: Why do so many high-profile individuals take such formidable risks when they have so much to lose?

Teens can plead naivete. With adults, it's all about the arrogance of power.

Some years ago, my friend Peter Guber and I each landed lofty studio jobs within the same week. Guber phoned me, not with congratulations but with an admonition: "Let's remember we're just renting our offices, we don't own them," he declared. Translated from Guberese, he was reminding us both of our vulnerability.

Only a fool believes nothing can bring him down. A lot of important people seem to share that delusion.