Changing Life Views and Philosophy as you age - Are you ever "right"?

as all of my hopes and dreams have shriveled into tiny stones, i find myself with renewed purpose. as i enter this new chapter of my life, i do so with a burlap bag filled with with the hard, rocky, edges of my past, looking to inflict serious pain on anyone who gets in my way.

 

My views havn't changed. However, I've been more proned to incrementalism as opposed to the mantra of extreme change all at once.

 

I once read an article that proposed an idea that you are fundamentally a different person at every 7 year cycle in your life. Who are you at 7yo, 14, 21, 28, 35, 42, etc. The only thing you retain is memories and even that is questionable since humans are really good at revisionist history.

When discussing this with a friend once, she mentioned to me that our cells have regenerated nearly 100% in this same time frame too. So even on a molecular level, we are new people.

So are you "right"? It depends on who you ask. To complicate matters, if the person you ask is yourself now or yourself 7 years ago, it also depends since you are now a very different person.

Young people are often "wrong" because they lack experience.

However, older people can be "wrong" because they reach conclusions based on experience ...which often doesn't factor all the current conditions and leads you astray.

Moral. People are often wrong. The sooner you figure that out, the better off you'll be. Happiness is about achieving desirable results. If we spend all our energy on being "right", we'll often fail and die miserable.

 

It isn't a matter of right or wrong, it is all about perspective.

 

Yes, I am. I am so old, I am right about everything.

 

Sounded interesting so googled it:

http://dreamhawk.com/body-and-mind/every-seven-years-you-change/

 

I am very rarely right..and my wife who is much smarter and far cuter can attest to that.

Things I thought I was right about, I was wrong...or better said, I wasn't really right.

There's a lot more grey than there is black and white in this world.

Wisdom is coming to grips with the fact that you're rarely, if ever, "right."

 

I think the older I get the more I realize that knowledge is about thresholds of understanding. Just when you think you know something, you realize you're just at the beginning of another threshold and you learn more about what you thought you already knew which gives you a deeper, more complete understanding.

The one thing I do hate about it is the tendency to prejudge situations and people based on your past experiences. I've gotten to the point where I predetermine things just based on someone's looks and their mannerisms. Of course some of that is natural but I wish I could go into every new situation without a preconception of what I was about to encounter. So I could just experience it rather than thinking about it.

 

This. I've moved from conservatism to libertarianism to moderate to fascist over the years. I may roll my eyes looking back on what I did believe, and who knows? Maybe I'll do that in a decade from now.

 

What an excellent comment. Life would be much more enjoyable that way.

 

The longer time goes by, the clearer it is to me that my friends have changed far more than I have.

 

Were you "wrong" before or were you ignorant before? Big difference.

Spoon boy: Do not try and bend the spoon. That's impossible. Instead... only try to realize the truth.
Neo: What truth?
Spoon boy: There is no spoon.
Neo: There is no spoon?
Spoon boy: Then you'll see, that it is not the spoon that bends, it is only yourself.

 

As I get older I find myself questioning myself more and more.

In an effort not to make rash decisions or rely on past experiences or overlook a risk or overlook a potential issue with say a coworker, I tend to over analyze and debate before I decide. I'll seek buy in from others or just ask for ideas in an open dialogue. Now this may not seem bad but often I am worried that I may come off as indecisive, not confident, etc.

The other thing that has really struck me as I've gotten older is how pervasive conspiracy theories are with people, especially concerning the government. Whether it's illuminati or Kingcheetah's vaccine tirade in the hangout, many people just seem obsessed with there being some secret behind the scenes stuff going on.

Baffling to me....

 

‘The man who views the world at 50 the same as he did at 20 has wasted 30 years of his life.’ — Muhammad Ali

 

I feel if that your views never change, there's probably something wrong with them or you're ignoring something that might change them. New studies, evidence, statistics, and changes in societal norms should constantly push your opinions and keep them in flux.

 

In that world, Neo doesn't know there is no spoon until he's told. Up until that moment for him, there WAS a spoon.

To further the Matrix analogies, there was another scene where they guy is eating steak in the Matrix where he said it tasted and smelled like steak. To him, what's the difference? Is he wrong?

Being right or wrong is all about context.

So you are asking, are you right about being right? I say, it depends. As we get older, we understand that better and can navigate to a workable result better. But that workable result doesn't mean you were "right".

 

Ancient thinkers across the world have questioned that paradox of self.

A similar question is the Ship of Theseus.

One interpretation of the Zen Garden is that the last stone the viewer can't see represents himself.

We definitely change as we age. It's part of life and denying and resisting age is as futile as trying to stop the physical passage of time.

If we were immortal, we'd be no different than a rock. There'd be no real desire to grow, learn, or accomplish.