Aging Slows Down the Mind But It Also Thinks 'Better'

The typical view of old geezers is some wastrel babbling about nonsense and dribbling on himself.  That's an effective way to dismiss Uncle Harold but, wtf, he always cheated at pinochle anyway.

(Ed:  does Uncle Harold actually exist?)

Well, he did but then he argued with a fire truck about who had the right of way and (sob) he lost.

(Ed:  is that true?)

Nope.

(Ed: are you an old geezer babbling?)

Yes ... but I thought about it a lot.


There is some actual science behind this so perhaps we could get on with that.  (Science Daily:   How our brain slows down the effects of aging)

At first that seems obvious in terms of the brain slowing down but read further since it addresses what the brain does about that fact of slowing.

(Regarding older people) they pay more attention to the details and look more closely than younger people. This is also confirmed by the eye tracker, which records in which direction the participants are looking. "To a certain extent, the brain is able to slow down negative effects of aging by increasing its level of attentiveness," summarises Schenk.

- Science Daily

From my own reference, earlier days of gettin' jiggy with big iron computers were exciting; they were cracklin'; they were poppin' but that doesn't interest me at all anymore and my focus is much more toward consideration of things to the deepest depth I can manage.  I didn't consciously make that decision but rather my brain to some extent made that change for me.

Be extremely careful of subjective evaluations of that nature.  There is not clear thinking in the idea, 'well, the sciencers said it; I see evidence of that in my life; it must be true."

The evidence from my own life would be regarded as 'anecdotal' by scientists and it doesn't matter much what cousin Ezakiel experienced either.  That type of anecdotal evidence and subjective experience is what leads to 'science' of the nature, 'I saw a woman on welfare driving a pink Cadillac so all women on welfare drive pink Cadillacs.'  That kind of false science is endemic in America, particularly in Washington and Dixiecrat witch burnings, and hence the advisory on subjective thinking.

Even though subjective thinking has perils there's still some value in terms of the luxury I perceive in having the time / ability to consider things at great length.  One of the greatest frustrations of this age is in seeing painfully obviously how little other people analyze much of anything.

- Insert generic rant on vacuous bubbling on social networks for no purpose other than passing time -

(Ed:  isn't this just a generic weep about the young 'uns just don't have respect for their elders?)

No, that's really not the situation since Millennials, at least the sharp ones, seem to have a keen awareness of Washingtonian corruption, etc.  It's the Middlers who have no respect for the Elders because they're even worse about 'knowing everything' than teenagers.

(Ed:  like you were so much better!)

I probably wasn't but that makes all the more sublime the appreciation of it now, doesn't it.