We share an age number! I also would like to reclaim "old" and simply be a Wise Elder, although much of my humour and snark might indicate I am firmly in the midst of my third childhood (First one: 0-18. Second one 19-50. Third one: 51-).
But the ageism that is prevalent around WE's runs against the changes in demography. As more people age, employers who discriminate against WE's will find they are increasingly reliant upon inexperienced younger folk who have certification but not wisdom.
One this that we might note is the acquisition of value systems. Current economics ensure that workers and politicians alike are replaceable parts, but younger people are less likely to stick to their values as they need to migrate between employers and countries, simply as a matter of survival and flourishing. Older folk are more or less set in their morals, which can be a problem but also means you will get employees/representative whose directions are not greatly affected by the temporary gusts and tumults around them, and that can be a very good outcome for social cohesion and stability.
Classical composers have, I think, always suspected the difference between fluid intelligence versus crystallised intelligence (even though they've not used the actual terminology). There's a general acceptance that almost all the greatest Austro-German song-cycles were written by young men - Schubert, Schumann, Hugo Wolf - and the only counter-example which I can think of at present is Richard Strauss's FOUR LAST SONGS, an unmistakable farewell to life from an octogenarian.
Conversely, it requires more often than not a certain maturity of outlook to write a great symphony, although there are counter-examples. (These include Mozart's and Mendelssohn's earliest manifestations of symphonic genius, which occurred when both composers were scarcely out of their teens.)
Strauss himself, in his seventies, told his (much younger) librettist colleague Stefan Zweig: "I am not one to compose long melodies as did Mozart. I can’t get beyond short themes. But what I can do is to utilise such a theme, paraphrase it and extract everything that is in it, and I don’t think there’s anybody today who can match me at that." That to me suggests the crystallising intelligence at work in him.
Angela Hewitt, in the course of an essay meditating on memory and aging, made a casual remark that has stayed with me ever since. She said that, having perfect pitch, when she was young if you played a chord she could instantly name all the notes that composed it; but now she has to think about it.
Being a non-musician, I had not previously conceived of perfect pitch in that way: a faculty for a particular cognitive task that can be degraded with age, just like other cognitive faculties. I suppose I had thought of it as a magical talent to be exercised effortlessly, if I thought about it at all.
"almost all the greatest Austro-German song-cycles were written by young men - Schubert, Schumann, Hugo Wolf" - now that just makes me wonder what those guys could have done if they had lived longer!
I found the following research published in 2019 important as it showed the most important wave of ageing peaked at 78 when a huge genetic switch happens.
68 is good! At that age I travelled from Bergen Norway to Saigon by train (except one short, unavoidable stretch of water) by myself, brilliant & unforgettable journey. Now 10 years later, about to go from the Scottish Borders to Sofia, Bulgaria, by train, again! A bit slower, a bit of concession to age but ..... don't die wondering!
And keep writing & publishing! It's great for people like me! 😉😉
Judgment isn't exclusive to old people, and plenty of old folk don't have good judgment. But judgment it is less likely to decline with age than most mental skills. Look at Joe Biden or Nancy Pelosi. (My favorite example is a bit obscure: a United States judge named Jack Weinstein, who may still have been the best judge on the New York federal bench until he retired at age 98.)
Judgment is not quite the same thing as crystallized intelligence. I'd call it the ability to make a good call despite inadequate information and inadequate mental models of the situation.
Although I am still a young old, I do occasionally have word-finding difficulties. And yet so far, in my experience, the problems of remembering ain't got a patch on the problem of forgetting. So much of what I learned in my youth just ain't so! But old "facts" will intrude themselves at awkward moments. Modern epistemology, which is provisional and empirical, has made our present material prosperity possible; but as I age, I begin to see the attractions of the older deductive and eternal way of seeing things. Pace Hume, it is not the philosophical weakness of induction that troubles me so much as the practical inconvenience.
Planck's observation is often quoted, but I don't think it is true; the Old Guard puts up stiff resistance, but if the facts are on your side, it will surrender in due course. This also happens gradually and then all at once. I remember Penrose saying that for a long time, nobody believed that black holes were physical; then one day, everybody did. Contrast that to things under the earlier epistemology: during the whole of Galileo's lifetime, not a single philosopher at a European university supported him on any topic whatsoever. And bear in mind that "any topic" comprises not just Copernicus, but also such matters as the law of falling (constant acceleration), and "ice floats because it is lighter than water".
"Now the years are rolling by me/They are not to be believed/I am older than I once was/Younger than I'll be/That's not unusual" - but, after changes upon changes, are we more or less the same? Paul Simon himself wrote those words when he was too young to really know.
I too have a 6 in front of my age, and for me, ageing is something I have had to experience in my own person to really know what it's about. This has been brought home to me from a number of angles. I may have more to write about this after I have cycled back up the steep hill to home.
Time to change the snapshot photo from "overworked middle-aged academic" to the far superior "Obi Wan Quiggin has seen it all and keeps smiling"one.
We share an age number! I also would like to reclaim "old" and simply be a Wise Elder, although much of my humour and snark might indicate I am firmly in the midst of my third childhood (First one: 0-18. Second one 19-50. Third one: 51-).
But the ageism that is prevalent around WE's runs against the changes in demography. As more people age, employers who discriminate against WE's will find they are increasingly reliant upon inexperienced younger folk who have certification but not wisdom.
One this that we might note is the acquisition of value systems. Current economics ensure that workers and politicians alike are replaceable parts, but younger people are less likely to stick to their values as they need to migrate between employers and countries, simply as a matter of survival and flourishing. Older folk are more or less set in their morals, which can be a problem but also means you will get employees/representative whose directions are not greatly affected by the temporary gusts and tumults around them, and that can be a very good outcome for social cohesion and stability.
Classical composers have, I think, always suspected the difference between fluid intelligence versus crystallised intelligence (even though they've not used the actual terminology). There's a general acceptance that almost all the greatest Austro-German song-cycles were written by young men - Schubert, Schumann, Hugo Wolf - and the only counter-example which I can think of at present is Richard Strauss's FOUR LAST SONGS, an unmistakable farewell to life from an octogenarian.
Conversely, it requires more often than not a certain maturity of outlook to write a great symphony, although there are counter-examples. (These include Mozart's and Mendelssohn's earliest manifestations of symphonic genius, which occurred when both composers were scarcely out of their teens.)
Strauss himself, in his seventies, told his (much younger) librettist colleague Stefan Zweig: "I am not one to compose long melodies as did Mozart. I can’t get beyond short themes. But what I can do is to utilise such a theme, paraphrase it and extract everything that is in it, and I don’t think there’s anybody today who can match me at that." That to me suggests the crystallising intelligence at work in him.
Angela Hewitt, in the course of an essay meditating on memory and aging, made a casual remark that has stayed with me ever since. She said that, having perfect pitch, when she was young if you played a chord she could instantly name all the notes that composed it; but now she has to think about it.
Being a non-musician, I had not previously conceived of perfect pitch in that way: a faculty for a particular cognitive task that can be degraded with age, just like other cognitive faculties. I suppose I had thought of it as a magical talent to be exercised effortlessly, if I thought about it at all.
"almost all the greatest Austro-German song-cycles were written by young men - Schubert, Schumann, Hugo Wolf" - now that just makes me wonder what those guys could have done if they had lived longer!
I found the following research published in 2019 important as it showed the most important wave of ageing peaked at 78 when a huge genetic switch happens.
https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/751115v1.full.pdf
Hi John!
68 is good! At that age I travelled from Bergen Norway to Saigon by train (except one short, unavoidable stretch of water) by myself, brilliant & unforgettable journey. Now 10 years later, about to go from the Scottish Borders to Sofia, Bulgaria, by train, again! A bit slower, a bit of concession to age but ..... don't die wondering!
And keep writing & publishing! It's great for people like me! 😉😉
loved this -- I missed it when it first came out, glad I came back for it.
Judgment isn't exclusive to old people, and plenty of old folk don't have good judgment. But judgment it is less likely to decline with age than most mental skills. Look at Joe Biden or Nancy Pelosi. (My favorite example is a bit obscure: a United States judge named Jack Weinstein, who may still have been the best judge on the New York federal bench until he retired at age 98.)
Judgment is not quite the same thing as crystallized intelligence. I'd call it the ability to make a good call despite inadequate information and inadequate mental models of the situation.
Although I am still a young old, I do occasionally have word-finding difficulties. And yet so far, in my experience, the problems of remembering ain't got a patch on the problem of forgetting. So much of what I learned in my youth just ain't so! But old "facts" will intrude themselves at awkward moments. Modern epistemology, which is provisional and empirical, has made our present material prosperity possible; but as I age, I begin to see the attractions of the older deductive and eternal way of seeing things. Pace Hume, it is not the philosophical weakness of induction that troubles me so much as the practical inconvenience.
Planck's observation is often quoted, but I don't think it is true; the Old Guard puts up stiff resistance, but if the facts are on your side, it will surrender in due course. This also happens gradually and then all at once. I remember Penrose saying that for a long time, nobody believed that black holes were physical; then one day, everybody did. Contrast that to things under the earlier epistemology: during the whole of Galileo's lifetime, not a single philosopher at a European university supported him on any topic whatsoever. And bear in mind that "any topic" comprises not just Copernicus, but also such matters as the law of falling (constant acceleration), and "ice floats because it is lighter than water".
The secret benefit of aging: you get old, learn anew and discard the dross of past ideas.
More people should embrace that.
"Now the years are rolling by me/They are not to be believed/I am older than I once was/Younger than I'll be/That's not unusual" - but, after changes upon changes, are we more or less the same? Paul Simon himself wrote those words when he was too young to really know.
I too have a 6 in front of my age, and for me, ageing is something I have had to experience in my own person to really know what it's about. This has been brought home to me from a number of angles. I may have more to write about this after I have cycled back up the steep hill to home.