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Comment by josefresco | Hacker News Reader

I wish I could upvote this more. A person in their 20's knows nothing, but thinks they've outsmarted the world. It's not until your 30's that you realize how big of an idiot you were/are and how much of the world you actually understand (read: little).

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This whole: "Twenty year olds don't know shit but 30 year olds are so enlightened" sentiment needs to stop. I agree that many younger people think they understand more than they do but that's just part of growing up and we all go through it.

You are misunderstanding the sentiment. No one is saying 30 year olds know everything, they are saying 30 year olds _realize_ they don't know everything.

Or as Socrates put it, "the only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing"

(probably one of the more Buddhist-ish gems from Western philosophy)

Why does it need to stop if you agree that its a fact of life. No one is saying 30 y/o's are enlighted, just that they have a bit more perspective. The same can be said for twenties vs. teens. It's not that teens are idiots - they are just teens with the life-experiences & perspective of a teen

This:

> A person in their 20's knows nothing, but thinks they've outsmarted the world...

Is a dangerous and gross generalization. I totally agree with the changing of perspectives point, but feel that this community has a very clear bias from the older gen (30s and up) against the younger gen (teens and twenties). That's all I'm saying. It's divisive. Instead of saying they "know nothing", it should be phrased, "still have a lot to learn."

That is just a semantics argument.

The semantics are relevant though as it highlights the sentiment I'm trying trying to shed light on in my original comment.

I dont believe that's accurate though, saying people in their 20's know nothing, or people in their 20's still have a lot to learn is just a way of restating the same fact. But that statement doesn't mean that people in their 30's are enlightened or smarter, only that they now understand how much they don't know.

> This whole: "Twenty year olds don't know shit but 30 year olds are so enlightened" sentiment

Deleted comment

Age is shorthand for "I've spent X years making a lot of mistakes and learning from them."

Watch Geohot do a CTF live: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=aZJM-iIpbqc

I think the point you are making is generally valid... But he is a savant. I don't think it is wise to apply generalities to him.

Yes, age will change some of his sharper edges, but he is already pretty unusual.

I took his meaning to say that with all the stuff about technology and AI, he's at a point where he feels like he can start innovating because he's learned enough (it says he went back to school to get his PhD and worked at an AI company before quitting to work on the car), hence the reason why he feels so sure that his technology is better than Mobileyes.

I don't think this has anything to do with saying he knows everything he needs to know in the world.

I'm not disagreeing, but it's in bad taste to make a personal judgement on someone without meeting them personally. The guy could be cocky, or the writer of the article could've just made the guy appear cocky.

Anyways, wouldn't you agree that it is better to be empathetic rather than thinking you're an idiot?

...said a guy in his 30's

Busted. Which is why I didn't say shit about what it's like to be in your 40's because ... I have no idea.

Oh it's horrible, you've seen whole cycles so know how even the good things you could do next go bad in the end. It's easy to fall into excessive cynicism, plus stop learning new stuff because of the 30s lesson of how hard it really is to learn in full.

To be honest, I recommend faking to yourself that you're in your 20s still :) Much healthier attitude.

Isaac Newton invented calculus in his early 20s

He also nearly killed himself with alchemy experiments. He was very right about some things, and very wrong about others.

And he started doing this in his 30's/40's when he had stopped contributing to physics. Maybe you grow more senile the more you age.

how many pioneering mods / hacks did you do in your 20's ?

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