On 4/30/13 3:46 PM, Ed Leafe wrote: > On Apr 30, 2013, at 5:05 PM, Gene Wirchenko <[email protected]> wrote: > >>> Ironic that this is quoted on a VFP list. ;-) >> >> Well, some of us, when we find something, we quit looking for it. > > Which directly contradicts the study's findings: that older workers > continue to learn about more recent improvements, rather than acting as > though the state of the art is fixed in time.
I didn't read the study, but my own experience is that I was way more set in my ways (in general and in programming) when I was younger. I think I felt that if I opened my mind to everything I wouldn't be able to focus on anything. Now, I spend much more time every day keeping up on the newer ways to do stuff and am more willing to spend an hour or two trying something out. As I'm aging I'm taking my time more, exploring more, documenting more. Of course also, I'm also gaining the wisdom to leave well enough alone so for example I still have a VFP application even though I've long switched to Python, I haven't migrated any of my source code repositories from subversion even though I'm totally smitten with git, and my main server is still running on a 6-year-old OS that's been up for 742 days straight. I also used to obsess on relatively unimportant details at the expense of the project as a whole. So yeah, my self-assessment is that as I age and gain more experience, I get better at what I do and am more open to trying new ways of doing things, comparing them to how I did things the past, and synthesizing from that the appropriate solution to the problem at hand. Highly-intelligent youths produce a few gems by raw energy, determination, and drive. They also produce a lot of things that can't go anywhere. Highly-intelligent adults probably produce less, but overall what they produce is of much more practical use because of all the accumulated wisdom that went into it. Aging: it's value added. :) Paul _______________________________________________ Post Messages to: [email protected] Subscription Maintenance: http://mail.leafe.com/mailman/listinfo/profox OT-free version of this list: http://mail.leafe.com/mailman/listinfo/profoxtech Searchable Archive: http://leafe.com/archives/search/profox This message: http://leafe.com/archives/byMID/profox/[email protected] ** All postings, unless explicitly stated otherwise, are the opinions of the author, and do not constitute legal or medical advice. This statement is added to the messages for those lawyers who are too stupid to see the obvious.
