From the title I expected a wishy-washy, pseudo-inspirational blog post and instead my entire concept of success was shaken up and realigned. Great post.
Does life end after 35?
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Re: Does life end after 35?
#72Earlier quoted context omitted.
Getting 40 made me just feel old. I no longer have as much energy, keeping my weight got harder and let's not forget the annoying loss of hair. Additional experience is somewhat nice, but doesn't make up for it. Then again I spend most of my 30's getting out of debt because of a failed startup. Which might have given me a more negative view on life (last time I could afford traveling around was ~10 years ago).
Shave your head. That's one problem solved.
Good advice, I'm in my latter 20s and I'm already there.
Re: Does life end after 35?
#73Actually, maybe I am being short-sighted ... but what I get out of this article is that his grandfather WOULD (could) have been just as 'successful' as he was in his 60s much earlier in life if World War II and Mao had not ruined possibilities for his generation. If he had been allowed to do research from his early 20s wouldn't it still have been possible for him to be just as successful at it? Maybe his 30s would ha…
I think that it's fair to say he could have made a bigger contribution in a more permissive environment. What I had initial tried to do with this piece was explore the notion of how we define success. I think the success that my grandpa achieved late in his life was a happy byproduct of being able to apply him self through his career. The enthusiasm he poured into his work prior was the real personal reward and not necessarily the recognition he gained.
These are still unpolished thoughts. I want to explore more fully in a future post.
Re: Does life end after 35?
#74I often worry about whether my startup clock is running out. I'm closer to 30 than 20, finishing up graduate school, and for the most part feel young. But other than the pediatrics ward, the only other time I start to feel my age is when attending some of these startup events. What I try to keep conscious of is knowing what's reported in the media and what isn't, which are often 2 completely different worlds. On Tech…
> Experience still matters, as unsexy as it is. Absolutely. I think what really makes the difference is whether people also carry the youthful mindset of always being ready to spot problems, and do something about it. I have seen plenty of people with more experience than I have, who have lost the sense that they can actively make things better. It's the people who have experience, and still feel they can shape the w…
> whether people also carry the youthful mindset of always being ready to spot problems, and do something about it.
I don't think that's a particularly youthful mindset. Indeed, much of the trend of Silicon Valley right now is the opposite: spot places where you can apply a "social something" even if there's no real underlying problem.
As a practical matter, people who are young tend to lack the experience to know what are the actual problems of the world. Does a 22 year old know what are the things that would, say, improve the efficiency of Intel's designers by 2x? What are the bottlenecks in their workflow or the roadblocks they deal with? They have no idea. Most actual problems, the hard ones, are encountered in contexts that young people have no experience with.
I posit that the youth worship in Silicon Valley has nothing to do with their aptitude for "problem solving." Rather, it has to do with the fact that: 1) advertising is the bedrock of Silicon Valley 2.0; and 2) The 18-25 demographic has long been key to the advertising industry. Who knows better than young 20-somethings what will sell to other young 20-somethings?
Re: Does life end after 35?
#75From the title I expected a wishy-washy, pseudo-inspirational blog post and instead my entire concept of success was shaken up and realigned. Great post.
Thanks, that's kind of you to say. I admit, it's a bit "link-bait" but my other attempts at a title were either too cryptic or long winded.
Re: Does life end after 35?
#76The key though from this story is this bit "Having only been allowed to complete his undergraduate degree, he spent decades doing whatever research and teaching came his way."
One the key differentiators is whether or not people are willing to continue learning. People who learn continue to be useful, people who stop learning eventually aren't. (useful that is)
Re: Does life end after 35?
#77His advice to me: Don't be in so much of a rush. Be easier on yourself. If you connect with this idea, you may want to check out the book The Inner Game of Tennis : http://www.amazon.com/The-Inner-Game-Tennis-Performance/dp/0...
Thanks! I'll look into that. I've been trying to explore this topic in other domains recently. I find sports coaches have done a great deal of exploration into the effects of personal attitude especially in managing one's emotional reactions to outcomes.
Re: Does life end after 35?
#78Top managers are traditionally drawn from the ranks of 50-somethings. Sure, that's partly due to a retirement age of 65, and partly a function of institutional ladder-climbing. But not just that. Someone in their 50s has a few decades of experience. Almost every situation or problem reminds them of something they've already seen or solved before. Intuition or gut instinct draws on experience, therefore it improves wi…
Yes, my grandpa actually said that when you are young you are freer creatively and take greater risks. This doesn't always lead to better outcomes but it gives you access to opportunities you wouldn't get later in life. Likewise, as you've pointed out, when you are older, your experience opens a different set of doors.
Re: Does life end after 35?
#79In the west everything is more focused on the individual. I have to succeed at X. I deserve Y. I have to put my stamp on the world. etc. etc. Not sure this is the best path to happiness.
Is that focused on the individual? Putting your stamp on the world, success - those seem to me like they might be very social measures. By contrast, the only people I've found it worthwhile comparing myself with, on any sort of regular basis, are me yesterday, last week and last year. Am I stronger this year than I was last; do I know how to do more? And that, while being a highly individual focused way of doing thin…
There must be only a few behaviors more self centered than wanting to put your stamp on the world. It is all about you, even if you do not care for anyone to know, it is about you.
Re: Does life end after 35?
#80A similar question was asked on Quora recently: https://www.quora.com/Silicon-Valley/What-do-people-in-Silic... Some of the companies and founders' ages compiled from the answers: - Zynga: 41 - LinkedIn: 36 - Salesforce: 35 - Intel: 41, 39 - Qualcomm: 52, 50 - Juniper Networks: 42 - Wikipedia: 35 - Pandora: 35 - GigaOm: 39 - Zipcar: 42 - TechCrunch: 35 - Craigslist: 42 - Netflix: 37
I know that LinkedIn culturally didn't work crazy hours to get where they were - does anyone know, are any others listed that started out as '9-5' organizations?