4 ms·

Why does her age matter?

bittercynic 5y ago
Some might take her young age to mean she's less likely to have already been bought by the companies they'd like her to reign in.
- jedberg 5y ago
  To the contrary, a young person has a long career ahead of them, and a less scrupulous person could be bribed by the promise of a lifetime cushy job after government.
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
towergratis 5y ago
Experience and maturity matters. When I was young I too thought I knew all I needed to know. The older I get the more I understand that experience is very important.
- kilbuz 5y ago
  In both cases, young and old seem to believe what is in their self-interest.
  - towergratis 5y ago
    My comment was on older-self vs younger-self. It's not in your "self-interest", the way you mean it, to review your ideas and believes from when you were younger and realize that with your extra experience you see things differently now. And just to be 100% clear, I am all for having younger people in critical positions and don't try to argue that one is better than the other. My reply was on how age matters. Don't know why you try to twist it to a generational flame-war.
  - jollybean 5y ago
    One has the advantage of having been in both situations.
- o0-0o 5y ago
  I often think about the old parable about a man walking down a road that comes to a fence. There is another man on the other side. He asks him to open the gate, and the man replies, "I'll open the gate if you can tell me why the fence is here".
  - kwhitefoot 5y ago
    Chesterton's fence: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G._K._Chesterton#Chesterton's_fence https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G._K._Chesterton#Chesterton's_...
- standardUser 5y ago
  What matters more is recognizing the grand variance of human experience, and that while some may take a lifetime to accumulate even a little wisdom, others can possess unusual abilities and perspectives at any age. It's not like this is news, history is full of such young figures.
  - towergratis 5y ago
    Completely, but it is still worth mentioning the age. I don't know why people get triggered by it. It's like saying the 16yo chess champion, or the 18yo self made billionaire
- gigatexal 5y ago
  Read her paper on Amazon.
twalla 5y ago
In this context it’s because she’s the youngest person to hold the position of FTC Chairperson.
- gigatexal 5y ago
  look at her work. Her work is what brought her to the forefront. Automatically assuming being overly ideal just by way of being young is whist at best and dumb at worst.
tenpies 5y ago
Because in general it's a very good indicator of idealism vs pragmatism. Obviously not a be-all, and highly dependent on experience (e.g. are you 32 and spent all your life in academia, or 32 and have 10 years of industry experience, or somewhere in between). You can also make a myriad of applicable observations based on age, but ultimately it's probably relevant because she is the youngest person in that position ever.
slaughtr 5y ago
I'd say in this case it's an indication of her likely familiarity/experience with some of the issues she'll work on in the FTC - particularly "Big Tech" as the article calls out. Less likely to ask Google how an ad showed up on their kid's iPhone, for example.
- oh_sigh 5y ago
  Young people are probably better at manipulating phones than their elders, but do they actually have a better understanding of what is happening? Pointless anecdote, but my friend, who is a well educated non-tech white collar professional in their upper 20s who is very active on tiktok/IG, recently let on that they believed cell phones communicated directly with satellites. I asked them why they thought dead zones existed in the countryside, and they said that was probably because there wasn't a satellite overhead. I asked them why they thought they were called "cellular phones", and after a minute of pondering it must be because the phones are very small.
  - InitialLastName 5y ago
    It isn't totally wrong to surmise that cell phones communicate directly with satellites; Mine is constantly listening to radio streams from satellites and using those to figure out where I am.
    - ZephyrBlu 5y ago
      I'd say it's pretty wrong considering there are literally satellite phones.
      - InitialLastName 5y ago
        Oh, it's for sure pretty wrong, but I can see how someone would get that impression (especially if they knew satellite phones were a thing but didn't know how uncommon they are).
rvz 5y ago
It really doesn't and who cares. The source of this article is from the BBC and they and every clickbait tabloid media company does it all the time. What really matters is if she and her assistants can do anything about the Big Tech problem or not. Otherwise it's a huge waste of time and nothing happens.

Some might take her young age to mean she's less likely to have already been bought by the companies they'd like her to reign in.

jedberg 5y ago
To the contrary, a young person has a long career ahead of them, and a less scrupulous person could be bribed by the promise of a lifetime cushy job after government.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]

towergratis 5y ago

Experience and maturity matters. When I was young I too thought I knew all I needed to know. The older I get the more I understand that experience is very important.

kilbuz 5y ago
In both cases, young and old seem to believe what is in their self-interest.
- towergratis 5y ago
  My comment was on older-self vs younger-self. It's not in your "self-interest", the way you mean it, to review your ideas and believes from when you were younger and realize that with your extra experience you see things differently now. And just to be 100% clear, I am all for having younger people in critical positions and don't try to argue that one is better than the other. My reply was on how age matters. Don't know why you try to twist it to a generational flame-war.
- jollybean 5y ago
  One has the advantage of having been in both situations.
o0-0o 5y ago
I often think about the old parable about a man walking down a road that comes to a fence. There is another man on the other side. He asks him to open the gate, and the man replies, "I'll open the gate if you can tell me why the fence is here".
- kwhitefoot 5y ago
  Chesterton's fence: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G._K._Chesterton#Chesterton's_fence https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G._K._Chesterton#Chesterton's_...
standardUser 5y ago
What matters more is recognizing the grand variance of human experience, and that while some may take a lifetime to accumulate even a little wisdom, others can possess unusual abilities and perspectives at any age. It's not like this is news, history is full of such young figures.
- towergratis 5y ago
  Completely, but it is still worth mentioning the age. I don't know why people get triggered by it. It's like saying the 16yo chess champion, or the 18yo self made billionaire
gigatexal 5y ago
Read her paper on Amazon.

twalla 5y ago

In this context it’s because she’s the youngest person to hold the position of FTC Chairperson.

gigatexal 5y ago
look at her work. Her work is what brought her to the forefront. Automatically assuming being overly ideal just by way of being young is whist at best and dumb at worst.

tenpies 5y ago

Because in general it's a very good indicator of idealism vs pragmatism. Obviously not a be-all, and highly dependent on experience (e.g. are you 32 and spent all your life in academia, or 32 and have 10 years of industry experience, or somewhere in between). You can also make a myriad of applicable observations based on age, but ultimately it's probably relevant because she is the youngest person in that position ever.

slaughtr 5y ago

I'd say in this case it's an indication of her likely familiarity/experience with some of the issues she'll work on in the FTC - particularly "Big Tech" as the article calls out. Less likely to ask Google how an ad showed up on their kid's iPhone, for example.

oh_sigh 5y ago
Young people are probably better at manipulating phones than their elders, but do they actually have a better understanding of what is happening? Pointless anecdote, but my friend, who is a well educated non-tech white collar professional in their upper 20s who is very active on tiktok/IG, recently let on that they believed cell phones communicated directly with satellites. I asked them why they thought dead zones existed in the countryside, and they said that was probably because there wasn't a satellite overhead. I asked them why they thought they were called "cellular phones", and after a minute of pondering it must be because the phones are very small.
- InitialLastName 5y ago
  It isn't totally wrong to surmise that cell phones communicate directly with satellites; Mine is constantly listening to radio streams from satellites and using those to figure out where I am.
  - ZephyrBlu 5y ago
    I'd say it's pretty wrong considering there are literally satellite phones.
    - InitialLastName 5y ago
      Oh, it's for sure pretty wrong, but I can see how someone would get that impression (especially if they knew satellite phones were a thing but didn't know how uncommon they are).

rvz 5y ago

It really doesn't and who cares. The source of this article is from the BBC and they and every clickbait tabloid media company does it all the time. What really matters is if she and her assistants can do anything about the Big Tech problem or not. Otherwise it's a huge waste of time and nothing happens.