I thought there's also a selection effect at play. People who get to be successful in life and live a good old age (you tend not to talk to or see the opposite

I thought there's also a selection effect at play. People who get to be successful in life and live a good old age (you tend not to talk to or see the opposite) -- with all those years of experience behind them, they start to think that the traits and opinions that got them there are probably correct. And that radically different or new things that they might benefit from learning, probably in their mind aren't going to be more successful (or of much potential benefit) than what worked for them already. There's basically a full slate of things that made them successful. And that's not a bad thing! People couldn't survive so well without a sense of what good things worked for you. But I think as you get older (unless you're exceptionally alert and open-minded), this confirmation bias of your own success starts to close your mind off to new, different thoughts and pathways. Unless you actively make it a point of erasing and making space for new ideas, you fall back on the old and don't seek out the new to fill your mind.