

I'm not young enough to know everything - bootload
http://weblog.raganwald.com/2005/10/im-not-young-enough-to-know-everything.html

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brlewis
I'm 39, and I understand where the "unconscious incompetence" comes from.
There's a constant stream of fads that claim to be something new. You look at
each one and find it's something you knew already. Repeat this for decades and
you become conditioned to expect that there's nothing significant coming,
ever.

It helps to be paranoid. If you constantly expect that the next big thing
really _will_ change the game and make your accumulated knowledge obsolete,
then you keep your guard up. I don't have any tips for cultivating paranoia.

~~~
yters
I keep a couple scorpions loose in my house. Getting ready for work in the
morning is always a thrill.

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gibsonf1
It's strange - I have the same attitude to new ideas now at 42 (with a wife
and young child) that I did in my early 20s. If anything, I'm more open now to
transformative ideas then I was then. I've started a startup :) I think maybe
the "advantage" I have now is a career in another field, so that the
programming world is to me now as it would be to someone in their early 20s.

As far as the stamina argument, as a building architect, I have evolved a
large ability for extreme focus and no sleep. Multiple all-nighters are not
uncommon on project designs that inspire me, but in terms of sheer
productivity, I think all-nighters are not a good plan unless you are riding a
wave of energy and creativity, in which case to stop would be foolish.

On the LISP argument... I'm having alot of fun programming with it, and it's
doing everything we could possibly want, so I don't see a need to change
except for the herd instinct argument. And whats really nice, the further we
evolve our application (now well over 26K lines), the easier it is to change
the app and add features. :)

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henryw
I liked this quote:

When you're 22 ... You're "consciously incompetent." ... [But at 42,] You're
at incredible risk of thinking you know things when ... You don't know, but
you don't know you don't know.

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edw519
I've noticed 2 kinds of people on this forum. Those who want to learn and
share and those who want to show everyone how much they know. I've also
noticed there are "younger" and "older" members. I suspect that there is very
little correlation between age and "know-it-allness". In fact, there is
probably a "johari window" to be found here, the 4 types:

\- Younger/Share & Learn: Go Getters

\- Younger/Know-It-All: Naive & Insecure

\- Older/Share & Learn: Experienced

\- Older/Know-It-All: Out to Pasture

~~~
rms
I am definitely both a Go Getter and Naive & Insecure.

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arvid
The problem with age is that you know enough to know that you know diddly. The
young, on the other hand, are ignorant of scope of their ignorance.

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alaskamiller
I'm not old enough to understand everything

