An article in today’s Wall Street Journal asserts that, while various life skills seem to deteriorate as people get older, our skill at making personal-finance decisions doesn’t peak until the ripe age of 53. “Baseball players are said to peak in their late 20′s,” writes David Wessel. “Chess players in their mid-30′s. Theoretical economists in their mid-40′s. But in ordinary life, there’s an obvious tension between sheer smarts, often seen in the supple minds of the young, and experience, which comes only with age.”
The article is based on research by the economists David Laibson, Xavier Gabaix, John Driscoll, and Sumit Agarwal. This is an interesting finding, if not all that surprising: good financial decisions would seem to be based in large part on past experience, especially past failures.
But what it got me to thinking about is what other activities or pursuits we tend to get better at later in life. A lot of the most visible competitive acts in modern society — especially sports and fame-grabbing — favor the young, and youth is rewarded in a variety of other ways (or perhaps it would be more accurate to say that age is punished). I’ve always thought that writers and actors get better with age, but that’s complicated by the fact that most unsuccessful writers and actors stop writing and acting by the time they’re in their 40′s or 50′s.
How about cooking? Gardening? Driving? What do you all think are the pursuits that people do better as they get older?
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This question has been very much on my mind. I’m an early-career science fiction and fantasy author. I’ve got about 200 short stories in print, two small press novels out, my first New York house book out this coming June, three more books scheduled in the next two years after that. I’ve also won several major awards, and have been a Hugo and World Fantasy Award finalist.
In other words, I’m generally considered successful by my peers in the field, and by the critical establishment.
But I couldn’t get arrested, let alone sell a story, until I was 37. I spent ten years working at this, to no avail whatsoever except the joys of practice, then spent the last six years breaking out like crazy.
So, as a writer, I was utterly unsuccessful in my 20s and most of my 30s, but in my late 30s (and now my 40s) I became increasingly successful. It sometimes bothers me that I didn’t come to this point in my career sooner — I have a sense of the number of years, and books, available to me, and would liked to have leveraged the nearly two decades of functional, productive adulthood I spent on other pursuits that held far less meaning to me.
The counterargument of course is that I had to live long enough to have something to say. It’s one I like to trot out every now and then simply to convince myself.
This question has been very much on my mind. I’m an early-career science fiction and fantasy author. I’ve got about 200 short stories in print, two small press novels out, my first New York house book out this coming June, three more books scheduled in the next two years after that. I’ve also won several major awards, and have been a Hugo and World Fantasy Award finalist.
In other words, I’m generally considered successful by my peers in the field, and by the critical establishment.
But I couldn’t get arrested, let alone sell a story, until I was 37. I spent ten years working at this, to no avail whatsoever except the joys of practice, then spent the last six years breaking out like crazy.
So, as a writer, I was utterly unsuccessful in my 20s and most of my 30s, but in my late 30s (and now my 40s) I became increasingly successful. It sometimes bothers me that I didn’t come to this point in my career sooner — I have a sense of the number of years, and books, available to me, and would liked to have leveraged the nearly two decades of functional, productive adulthood I spent on other pursuits that held far less meaning to me.
The counterargument of course is that I had to live long enough to have something to say. It’s one I like to trot out every now and then simply to convince myself.
I think you are a better parent if you have your children later than earlier.
I think you are a better parent if you have your children later than earlier.
Pro cyclists don’t usually hit their stride until their 30′s — the endurance peak hits around 28 and lasts until 32 or 33 (per “common wisdom” — I don’t have the data to back this up). Combine that with the time to develop the strategic skills, and I’d say that a cyclist who hits the pro ranks in his early 20′s isn’t going to really bloom until 30.
Pro cyclists don’t usually hit their stride until their 30′s — the endurance peak hits around 28 and lasts until 32 or 33 (per “common wisdom” — I don’t have the data to back this up). Combine that with the time to develop the strategic skills, and I’d say that a cyclist who hits the pro ranks in his early 20′s isn’t going to really bloom until 30.
With age, one surely gets better at contemplating. Not to say this always happens, but if it happens, it’s with a fair amount of experience.
But I disagree with the equation age = experience. I’m not that old, and still I find myself more experienced (or even wise)(but unfortunately not modest) than people much older than me.
In the end, “age” remains the amount of time one has spent alive, and some people use it one way, some another.
With age, one surely gets better at contemplating. Not to say this always happens, but if it happens, it’s with a fair amount of experience.
But I disagree with the equation age = experience. I’m not that old, and still I find myself more experienced (or even wise)(but unfortunately not modest) than people much older than me.
In the end, “age” remains the amount of time one has spent alive, and some people use it one way, some another.