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Comment by Top19 | Hacker News Reader

Literally just came to Hackernews to post this article. I don’t really hangout with older people or come into contact on a frequent basis, but Jesus H. Christ this is the most horrifying thing I’ve read in terms of scams in a while.

For what it’s worth, I think older Americans have a ton to offer to younger people in terms of mentorship. Probably the dumbest person you know now will grow into an older person with some valuable wisdom to share. Imagine then how smart most older people are...

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Not that I don't know some great older folks, but I've also encountered my fair share of racist, narrow-minded old farts.

I'm trying to understand what value you thought this anecdote added to the conversation.

On hn your reply must oppose its parent comment or at least be snarky (like this comment of mine)

It's a counter to the idea that old people would be great mentors to the younger generation. If a bunch of them are racist old farts, then they won't exactly be good mentors.

As an aside, I've been seeing a lot of people use the term "racist" as a phrase for those who prefer certain cultural values. There is a difference between race and culture.

OP never said all older people would be good mentors, they said older people would be good mentors. Leaving out the all means the reply bringing racism into the conversation is completely unnecessary, adds nothing to the conversation, and just shows closed mindedness with just a hair of ironic ageism.

Here we go with more -isms.

Noting that older generations tend to be more racist is not ageism, it's just a trend. Just like how noting that Asian Americans make more money on average than whites isn't racism, it's just the way things are.

You are right about me saying "all" when OP didn't actually say that. I've edited my comment, thank you for the constructive criticism.

I wonder if the benefit of interaction between young and old works both ways. Where I live now and in many countries, older people are much more integrated into society than in the US (e.g. extended families living together, grandmas cooking food around the market, grandparents monitoring the younger kids while the parents are working).

I used to hardly ever interact with old people, but now I do every day. Some of the friendliest people in my neighborhood include a very elderly lady who counts the money and makes change where I buy coffee every morning (she has tremors, and has maybe had a stroke, but still has a function in society) and another older women who rides in on a bicycle carrying a large basket of really excellent fruit. I definitely think having a purpose, even if it's because poverty requires everyone to pitch in regardless of their limited abilities, does tend to keep people happier and more social as they age.

The fact that they made it to old age in the first place shows that they know what they’re doing, in a way.

The stupid ones die early. Survivorship bias, etc.

That is ignoring all sorts of degenerative diseases. However, unless they really are suffering from dementia or debilitating disease, they should be even better at decisions.

Unfortunately authorities like to apply general statistics in specific cases which is wrong.

This isn't 3 million BC

But it COULD be!

This presumes there's something better about surviving to old age than not, that people learn correct lessons from their life experience, that experience is a better guide than information that can be easily accessed from books and the internet, and that people retain correct memories into old age. I don't think any of these presumptions really hold in a general sense.

Books and the internet can get you a long way in terms of things like learning JavaScript APIs, but life is a fair bit more complex. In particular, when someone tells you a story, especially in person, you can see how it affected them emotionally.

Even if you decide to disagree with the person, you are enriched by the story having been told to you.

Closely related: the piece of information most often missing from, say, online documentation for software is the reasoning behind a feature, the decisions that led to it, the mistakes along the way.

That's what talking to someone who's been around the block a few times can give you: comprehension of not just the what, but the why and the how.

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