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Growing up, you must have known people older than yourself - be they schoolteachers, coworkers, academic professors - who seems to be "with it" who accepted and
by DaiPlusPlus 9y ago
Growing up, you must have known people older than yourself - be they schoolteachers, coworkers, academic professors - who seems to be "with it" who accepted and embraced change. I wondered what made them to be like that compared to the crotchety elders we've known, who are very resistant to change.
Is it merely attitude, or does neuroplasticity come into it? I'm not even old yet (at least I don't think so) but I remember my mind being very resistant to adopting git over SVN and TFS because it was so different to what I was using and "if it ain't broken..." but now I love it. That experience has taught me to persevere: to not criticise something until I understand it, but what if I'm unable to understand something in future? Can I maintain a healthy mental state in that situation?
- lgas 9y agoMy bet is that to the degree that neuroplasticity is involved at all, it's effects are largely dominated by more mundane effects, such as the fact that as you get older you have kids and other commitments that keep you from spending as much time learning new things as you used to. Likewise an 80 year old that sees themselves as having less than 20 years left might require a higher bar for the payoff for dedicating themselves to learning something new than a 20 year old that sees themselves as having 80+ years left.
- mmirate 9y ago> 20 year old that sees themselves as having 80+ years left Any such 20-year-old is delusional; becoming a centenarian (let alone having good enough health to appreciate it) is not much more common than winning the lottery, at best.