Comment by LiquidPolymer | Hacker News Reader

Comment by LiquidPolymer | Hacker News Reader

As I get older (I’m now 58) I see a marked tendency for mental acuity to go one of two directions.

The most common is a slow hardening of one’s opinions and perceptions that I consider a form of mental decline. These people are often susceptible to propaganda and conspiracy.

But I also know people who’s curiosity expands and their thirst for knowledge grows with a deep understanding of life informed by experience. You can have wonderful conversations full of nuance that are inspiring.

You can guess which is more interesting and rewarding.

Sometime ago I read a popular article that compared artists and scientists who peak early in their careers to those who peak much, much later - building on one hard earned success after the other. I wish I could find the link because my summary here is probably missing the mark a little.

Curiosity is a trait and belief, absolutely independent of aging. As the saying, the more you know the more you know what you don't know.

However, gaining the ability of being curiosity is something only can be trained in young age.

There is a huge propaganda against boomer going on right now, as the youth joked, covid is the boomer remover. However, contrary to the claim, it's not a biological difference rather a result of generational ideology. People like Steve Jobs however few, despite age as a boomer many would agree he's still a way smarter and innovative person than most millennium.

What's really driving the anti-boomer movement is the wealth gap in society. Let's say just leave to it if you don't want to dig it.

> The most common is a slow hardening of one’s opinions and perceptions that I consider a form of mental decline. These people are often susceptible to propaganda and conspiracy.

Maybe similar to people who always do the same exercise to keep in shape, and over time their body optimizes for that exact training so it becomes less effective, I wouldn't be surprised if our opinions become hardened because we thought the same patterns over and over.

But old people falling into propaganda and conspiracy theories? I have no other explanation for that besides mental decline. Younger people fall for those too, but many of them don't have the best mental condition to begin with.

Could you please post the article here you've mentioned if you'll find it?

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