| NovaScotian |
08-28-2009 11:10 AM |
Quote:
Originally Posted by fazstp
(Post 549150)
So I can look at my forties as more of a plateau relative to the subsequent decline? I'm not sure that meets my definition of optimistic :D.
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Optimism has to be tempered with a touch of realism, fazstp, but I was thinking of physical decline not mental decline. I gave up hot-dog mogul bashing in my forties because I began to injure myself, injuries took longer to heal, and my reflexes weren't up to the level I liked to push them to.
But there's another component to aging; if you are a thoughtful person, you become wiser; gain wisdom. Bertrand Russell, one of the twentieth century's great mathematicians and philosophers, said that of the all factors that comprise wisdom, he put a sense of proportion first – as he put it "the capacity to take account of all the important factors in a problem and attach to each its due weight".
In the same essay he said:
Quote:
Most people would agree that, although our age far surpasses all previous ages in knowledge, there has been no correlative increase in wisdom. Wisdom has not kept pace with knowledge because of the exploding extent and complexity of the specialized knowledge required in professions like engineering.
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In a speech to a graduating class of engineers some years ago I said:
Quote:
Originally Posted by NovaScotian many years ago
It is said that greatness comes to gifted mathematicians in their youth when they are not yet encumbered by too much wisdom and will gladly take on what wiser heads think impossible. Philosophers, on the other hand, reach their peak in old age, when they have accumulated the wisdom of a thoughtful lifetime lived. But great engineers are at their most capable and creative in mid-career - not too far from their education, but wise enough to apply it properly. Later, with increasing wisdom, they often become great managers instead of analysts and designers.
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Life has phases. |
