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Anecdotal data point from one who's old, by chronological criteria. I can't say I feel wiser than I was at 25 or 50. Different, definitely. I'm still unclear w

Anecdotal data point from one who's old, by chronological criteria. I can't say I feel wiser than I was at 25 or 50. Different, definitely. I'm still unclear what constitutes "wise". But as I age, I increasingly see the degree to which phenomena are interconnected, and the knock-on implications regarding complexity and unanticipated consequences. It biases me to err in the direction of generosity and empathy. Still, it would feel good to know what "wise" is. Not sure I'd recognize it if it bit me in the butt. That said, go read Staudinger's paper (SciHub is your friend). Set a reminder to rethink these issues everytime your age doubles. You'll be interested in your results.

badpun 8y ago
> Still, it would feel good to know what "wise" is. I always thought of wisdom as the knowledge/understanding required to live well.
EliRivers 8y ago
"I increasingly see the degree to which phenomena are interconnected and the knock-on implications regarding complexity and unanticipated consequences" Sounds like textbook wisdom to me; a body of knowledge and experience you already have such that new information does not exist in isolation but is related to what you already know, allowing you to take knowledge and experience from past situations and phenomena and apply it to the new.
hyperpallium 8y ago
I like to think our innate and cultural sense of morality - e.g. fairness - derives from enlightened self-interest from "experience" over speciological time, unconsciously. Unfortunately, there's a bunch of negative stuff that derives similarly - e.g. cheating - and, due to changing circumstances, the tradeoffs for all of it might not be in tune anymore - e.g. global consequences, intellectual property.
deleted 8y ago
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saiya-jin 8y ago
> But as I age, I increasingly see the degree to which phenomena are interconnected, and the knock-on implications regarding complexity and unanticipated consequences. > Still, it would feel good to know what "wise" is. I think that's a good partial definition of wisdom. I would add that at that point, life overall holds very few mysteries to you, people nor events in life don't shock-surprise you. I don't think I'll ever consider myself wise :) Although sometime after 30 I started to see rather clear patterns in human behavior, what leads to what and what to (not) expect. So far all this experience is being reconfirmed over and over, with very few exceptions.
nske 8y ago
>as I age, I increasingly see the degree to which phenomena are interconnected, and the knock-on implications regarding complexity and unanticipated consequences I think the same reasons that we have to thank for that we also have to blame for the fact that we are less easy to change our ways of modeling reality, both at the lower and the higher levels as we become older. In some ways we become more humble, in some other ways we are becoming more rigid. In practice I guess we are becoming better in modeling the world around us in those areas that have not changed too much, but at the same time we become less willing or able to revise our models drastically or create new ones, which would be a good thing in areas that have incurred some fundamental changes. This accumulated "wisdom" often leads to choices and behaviors that cannot be rationalized by those younger, but it can be tricky knowing when that's a case of modeling a situation better and when it's a case of reading patterns that did not exist or missing/underestimating some important variables. I think it is exciting but also a bit scary to see these changes happening to ourselves with age and trying to see how effectively we can identify and compensate for their negative side through awareness!

badpun 8y ago

> Still, it would feel good to know what "wise" is. I always thought of wisdom as the knowledge/understanding required to live well.

EliRivers 8y ago

"I increasingly see the degree to which phenomena are interconnected and the knock-on implications regarding complexity and unanticipated consequences" Sounds like textbook wisdom to me; a body of knowledge and experience you already have such that new information does not exist in isolation but is related to what you already know, allowing you to take knowledge and experience from past situations and phenomena and apply it to the new.

hyperpallium 8y ago

I like to think our innate and cultural sense of morality - e.g. fairness - derives from enlightened self-interest from "experience" over speciological time, unconsciously. Unfortunately, there's a bunch of negative stuff that derives similarly - e.g. cheating - and, due to changing circumstances, the tradeoffs for all of it might not be in tune anymore - e.g. global consequences, intellectual property.

deleted 8y ago

[deleted]

saiya-jin 8y ago

> But as I age, I increasingly see the degree to which phenomena are interconnected, and the knock-on implications regarding complexity and unanticipated consequences. > Still, it would feel good to know what "wise" is. I think that's a good partial definition of wisdom. I would add that at that point, life overall holds very few mysteries to you, people nor events in life don't shock-surprise you. I don't think I'll ever consider myself wise :) Although sometime after 30 I started to see rather clear patterns in human behavior, what leads to what and what to (not) expect. So far all this experience is being reconfirmed over and over, with very few exceptions.

nske 8y ago

>as I age, I increasingly see the degree to which phenomena are interconnected, and the knock-on implications regarding complexity and unanticipated consequences I think the same reasons that we have to thank for that we also have to blame for the fact that we are less easy to change our ways of modeling reality, both at the lower and the higher levels as we become older. In some ways we become more humble, in some other ways we are becoming more rigid. In practice I guess we are becoming better in modeling the world around us in those areas that have not changed too much, but at the same time we become less willing or able to revise our models drastically or create new ones, which would be a good thing in areas that have incurred some fundamental changes. This accumulated "wisdom" often leads to choices and behaviors that cannot be rationalized by those younger, but it can be tricky knowing when that's a case of modeling a situation better and when it's a case of reading patterns that did not exist or missing/underestimating some important variables. I think it is exciting but also a bit scary to see these changes happening to ourselves with age and trying to see how effectively we can identify and compensate for their negative side through awareness!