Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Fifty

jacquesmattheij.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 118 posts

Re: Fifty

#21

Post by Frondo »

andyjohnson0 wrote: post #6

I'll be hitting 50 in a couple of years, and like Jacques I've noticed my tolerance for bullshit and injustice has decreased. I've tentatively put the former down to a subliminal (mostly) awareness of having less time to waste. I feel more focused. I've also noticed that my tolerance for cynicism has decreased significantly in the last few years. I'm not totally sure why, but I suspect that I've come to see cynicism…

37 here, and that is exactly how I feel. I'm hardly an optimist about how a lot of things in the world are going, but world-weary cynicism (the world is shit, it'll never change, everyone is corrupt, etc) grates on me as cloying and juvenile. I always end up thinking it says more about the person than the world itself.

These days, I usually find myself starting to argue and push back against that, and occasionally I do end up coming down to "So the world is shit, you're not even going to try to do anything about it, what in life do you have to be proud of about yourself at this point?"

I feel better for not putting up with it, but it has led to some tense arguments with extended family, friends, hairdressers (haha, seriously).

Re: Fifty

#22

Post by jacquesm »

skrebbel wrote: post #12
skrebbel wrote: post #10

> When I’m in a group of people my own age I feel as though I’m around old people, I can’t help it. This one really rings with me. Unfortunately, many old people act like old people. I once worked at a software agency where even the more ambitious young people acted like old people. Age is just a number, but the only one who decides to fully favour the comforts of the known to the appeal of the new and risky is you.…

By the way, Jacques, I'm really curious about that story about not working for Eckart Wintzen. He died just when I started getting into the software industry at all, but his writings are very inspiring and he's been a force of positive change around me even after his death. Did you write that up anywhere?

No, but I can write it up here and now.

I got to know Eckart because we both invested in the same company ( http://www.infocaster.net/ ) and one day after a shareholder meeting we decided to have a follow up with just him, my business partner Joyce and myself.

Eckart outlined his vision about the things he wanted to do now that he had a 'full toolbox' and lots of time and we saw eye to eye on so many subjects that it got me thinking.

After leaving with Joyce we went for dinner near Zeist where he had his offices and I told her that I was totally stunned by how our ideas dovetailed, only that Eckart actually had the tools to realize his vision.

It's very hard to translate the kind of feeling Eckart radiated but think of it as total focus on improving the world. This very much shows in his various investments, for instance Greenwheels, several medical start-ups, a school and so on, as well as the people that he surrounded himself with (average One thing led to another, we had a brief phone call where I told him I'd be happy to shut down my own stuff and work for him even if it meant a significant reduction in income on my side, he said let's talk in two weeks (after he had gone to France and returned). The next time I saw him it was wadded up in burlap bags (ecologically sound) for his funeral... :(

I'm meeting with Sander (the guy who runs infocaster) later today, not a March passes that we don't think about it. My birthday is the 20th, Sanders is on the 21st and I'm quite sure that in both cases we're thinking more about what could have been than our birthdays.

It's a real pity, genuinely nice people are few and far between, I think Eckart was special in many ways and compared to your average winner takes-all entrepreneur he was a proverbial (and physical) giant.

All this will sound like fawning adoration to those that haven't actually met the man, to those that did it will sound like I'm probably not giving him enough credit.

Re: Fifty

#23

Post by jacquesm »

fsiefken wrote: post #18

Proficiat Jacques, appearently I'll turn 40 next week, it's just another arbitrary number. For example, you're 42 in base-12 (a much beter base). We're all in the same boat... you're old enough te remember Bobby McFerrin (now 65) don't you? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-diB65scQU

> you're old enough te remember Bobby McFerrin (now 65) don't you?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zeW0UcuQKps

Re: Fifty

#24

Post by elorant »

cstross wrote: post #8

I hit 51 next month, and that's ... well. These decadal anniversaries seem to get more onerous each time. 20? No problem, it just means you're not a teenager any more! 30? Okay, you're officially a grownup, but you can still party! 40 was pause for concern, but it isn't what it used to be, the threshold of middle age: that's 50. Oops ... Well, as Terry Pratchett observed, inside every old man there's an eight year ol…

On the contrary, I’m on my early forties and my physical condition is way better than it was twenty years ago. I exercise a lot, eat much healthier food because now I know whilst on my twenties I’d eat any crap that came my way, I have a steady sleeping pattern trying to wake up early each morning so I can make the most of the day and generally speaking I feel like I have at least another twenty energetic years ahead of me.

As for tolerance the funny thing is that while younger I would confront head on anyone that I’d think was bullshitting me. Nowadays I just ignore them. I’ve learned to not give a fuck.

The only thing I find harder as I grow up is to fall in love. It’s not that it doesn’t happen, it just doesn’t happen with the frequency and the easiness it did twenty years ago. But then again that might be a good thing, not to fall in love with every gorgeous woman that crosses your path.

Re: Fifty

#25

Post by cstross »

elorant wrote: post #24
cstross wrote: post #8

I hit 51 next month, and that's ... well. These decadal anniversaries seem to get more onerous each time. 20? No problem, it just means you're not a teenager any more! 30? Okay, you're officially a grownup, but you can still party! 40 was pause for concern, but it isn't what it used to be, the threshold of middle age: that's 50. Oops ... Well, as Terry Pratchett observed, inside every old man there's an eight year ol…

On the contrary, I’m on my early forties and my physical condition is way better than it was twenty years ago. I exercise a lot, eat much healthier food because now I know whilst on my twenties I’d eat any crap that came my way, I have a steady sleeping pattern trying to wake up early each morning so I can make the most of the day and generally speaking I feel like I have at least another twenty energetic years ahead…

On the contrary, I’m on my early forties and my physical condition is way better than it was twenty years ago.

It's a crap shoot. I got hit by metabolic syndrome -- extreme hypertension and type II diabetes. I exercise, I weigh less and am in better shape than I was 20 years ago, but I'm still on a cardiology professor's frequent-flyer list and gobbling meds by the double-handful. Meanwhile, my wife is a four year cancer survivor (another six months to the all-clear, we hope).

The probability of running into a life-threatening or terminal medical condition approaches unity as we age towards the upper limit of human life expectancy (around 114 years, currently). By the time you hit your forties you probably know people who had an unlucky aggressive early-onset cancer; by the time you hit your fifties you can add heart attacks and strokes to that, and less-well-known problems as well. It's all downhill from here, and unfortunately it's not the kind of ride most people enjoy.

Re: Fifty

#26

Post by paulojreis »

niklasni1 wrote: post #20
paulojreis wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yup. Just turned out 30; feel depressed as sh*t.

Hey, hang in there, it's only two more years till you hit your hexadecimal twenties, which is where the real party is!

I keep telling myself that the difference between 1441148399 and 1441148400 is negligible, but to little (or no) avail. :)

Re: Fifty

#27

Post by jacalata »

Frondo wrote: post #21
andyjohnson0 wrote: post #6

I'll be hitting 50 in a couple of years, and like Jacques I've noticed my tolerance for bullshit and injustice has decreased. I've tentatively put the former down to a subliminal (mostly) awareness of having less time to waste. I feel more focused. I've also noticed that my tolerance for cynicism has decreased significantly in the last few years. I'm not totally sure why, but I suspect that I've come to see cynicism…

37 here, and that is exactly how I feel. I'm hardly an optimist about how a lot of things in the world are going, but world-weary cynicism (the world is shit, it'll never change, everyone is corrupt, etc) grates on me as cloying and juvenile. I always end up thinking it says more about the person than the world itself. These days, I usually find myself starting to argue and push back against that, and occasionally I…

> what in life do you have to be proud of about yourself at this point?"

I like to think that at least by not killing myself I've made a huge contribution to the happiness of my friends and family, even if the world as a whole is a hopeless cluster of growing misery.

Re: Fifty

#28

Post by porker »

cstross wrote: post #8

I hit 51 next month, and that's ... well. These decadal anniversaries seem to get more onerous each time. 20? No problem, it just means you're not a teenager any more! 30? Okay, you're officially a grownup, but you can still party! 40 was pause for concern, but it isn't what it used to be, the threshold of middle age: that's 50. Oops ... Well, as Terry Pratchett observed, inside every old man there's an eight year ol…

> If you're under 35, my advice would be to think about that. Do you really want to be locked into doing more or less what you're doing now when you're in your sixties? If not, now is the time to change. The later you leave it, the harder it will be.

Pause for thought indeed. Thank you.

My immediate response though was "how can I predict jobs 20-30 years into the future, when I can't even predict my field in 5-10 years?". I could re-train, but most fields look like they will shrink.

Re: Fifty

#29

Post by david927 »

jacquesm wrote: post #23
fsiefken wrote: post #18

Proficiat Jacques, appearently I'll turn 40 next week, it's just another arbitrary number. For example, you're 42 in base-12 (a much beter base). We're all in the same boat... you're old enough te remember Bobby McFerrin (now 65) don't you? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-diB65scQU

> you're old enough te remember Bobby McFerrin (now 65) don't you? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zeW0UcuQKps

I'll add this favorite: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3CcnDi67qaI

Re: Fifty

#30

Post by thenomad »

andyjohnson0 wrote: post #6

I'll be hitting 50 in a couple of years, and like Jacques I've noticed my tolerance for bullshit and injustice has decreased. I've tentatively put the former down to a subliminal (mostly) awareness of having less time to waste. I feel more focused. I've also noticed that my tolerance for cynicism has decreased significantly in the last few years. I'm not totally sure why, but I suspect that I've come to see cynicism…

Add me to the "decreased tolerance for cynicism" list. It's lazy, it's arrogant, and it's a great way to miss hundreds of opportunities.

Although I suspect that may be less about age and more about the last decade or so on the Internet...

Post reply on HN