A few days ago, I was putting the bins out whilst it was raining heavily and, weather being a Proustian madeleine, I remembered sitting in an A level politics class as a 16-year-old and the thrill of discovering that there were countless brand new ideas (to me!) and ways of seeing the world.
That memory disappeared. But it was renewed by a piece in the Times by Howard Jacobson on the pitfalls of growing old. I fear that he misses the biggest one - that, as we grow older, the world no longer seems new to us. Ideas that were once fresh and exciting become familiar and jaded; this is true not just in our chosen vocation, but in art and especially music too. Of course, there are always new ideas in any field - but these are only a small percentage of the total, and many of them are plain bad.
We stop asking what can we learn and ask instead: what can we teach?
Worse still, the need to scrabble for a living reinforces this process. Because there is a large demand for the illusion of certainty, we exaggerate what we know, and repress our youthful desire for novelty and uncertainty, as we pander to this demand.
Take, for example, these pieces by Bill Emmott and Wolfgang Munchau, both of which predict a weaker euro. The problem with these is not that they are wrong - though there‘s a 50-50 chance of that. It’s that, especially in Mr Munchau’s case, there’s insufficient acknowledgement of uncertainty and of ignorance. They key question to ask of any forecast - what’s the margin of error? - goes unanswered. (Clue - in FX forecasting it is enormous).
The problem here is not that Messrs Emmott and Munchau are bumptious prats - though they might be; I don‘t know them. It’s that the combination of the ageing process and economic pressures tend to turn us into bumptious prats - especially those with the misfortune to fall into “distinguished careers.”
For me, this is a big reason why I’m looking forward to retiring - only nine years to go, Inshallah. When I give up work, I can give up my (pretty vague) pretence to know things, and spend more time learning and reading. I can become mentally young again.
Better to be young and stupid than old and stupid - barring death, these are the only alternatives.
That memory disappeared. But it was renewed by a piece in the Times by Howard Jacobson on the pitfalls of growing old. I fear that he misses the biggest one - that, as we grow older, the world no longer seems new to us. Ideas that were once fresh and exciting become familiar and jaded; this is true not just in our chosen vocation, but in art and especially music too. Of course, there are always new ideas in any field - but these are only a small percentage of the total, and many of them are plain bad.
We stop asking what can we learn and ask instead: what can we teach?
Worse still, the need to scrabble for a living reinforces this process. Because there is a large demand for the illusion of certainty, we exaggerate what we know, and repress our youthful desire for novelty and uncertainty, as we pander to this demand.
Take, for example, these pieces by Bill Emmott and Wolfgang Munchau, both of which predict a weaker euro. The problem with these is not that they are wrong - though there‘s a 50-50 chance of that. It’s that, especially in Mr Munchau’s case, there’s insufficient acknowledgement of uncertainty and of ignorance. They key question to ask of any forecast - what’s the margin of error? - goes unanswered. (Clue - in FX forecasting it is enormous).
The problem here is not that Messrs Emmott and Munchau are bumptious prats - though they might be; I don‘t know them. It’s that the combination of the ageing process and economic pressures tend to turn us into bumptious prats - especially those with the misfortune to fall into “distinguished careers.”
For me, this is a big reason why I’m looking forward to retiring - only nine years to go, Inshallah. When I give up work, I can give up my (pretty vague) pretence to know things, and spend more time learning and reading. I can become mentally young again.
Better to be young and stupid than old and stupid - barring death, these are the only alternatives.
And yet, isn't it often said that the young have too much much faith in their own stance and capabilities, and too little appreciation of risk? Isn't it the case that we grow more conservative as we grow older, because we grow to understand the fallibility of ideas, plans and ambitions? We allegedly become more Burkeian in politics and more Hayekian in economics.
Or perhaps those are just truisms peddled by conservatives, and the reality is much more complicated. Maybe growing older involves greater appreciation of risk, but less appreciation of uncertainty, i.e. it involves the replacement of existential questions with scientific ones.
And then again, on the other hand (err.. the third one it seems) I often wonder about the Bob Dylan line "oh but I was so much older then/I'm younger than that now", which I assume is a reference to sheer seriousness of 20-year-old civil rights campaigners of the early 60s, in contrast to the more hedonistic period that would follow.
Posted by: Will Davies | March 08, 2010 at 05:38 PM
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Actually only toothache matters.
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…”
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What is your job?
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Sailing to Byzantium
Posted by: RH | March 09, 2010 at 12:29 PM
Yeah but now I know what things on menus mean.
So all is well.
Posted by: alanm crisps | March 10, 2010 at 05:01 PM
When you are 75 years old you will realise that it all doesn't matter.
Actually only toothache matters.
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