Monday, May 11, 2009

Gaining Wisdom at Any Age

Mark Twain and a number of other distinguished commentators are routinely enlisted to show that we acquire wisdom as we grow older.

When you are younger, you may interpret their comments to mean that we acquire more information. That's an easy call. It stands to reason that if you hang around long enough, you'll have more information.

I wonder, however, if we appreciate the extent to which we gain wisdom. How many of you have, after the age of 40, found perspectives on and rules of life that you regard as a profound improvement over your earlier viewpoints?

Do you expect to make similar discoveries over the next ten years?

I have and I do.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

The way I see it, the most important component of wisdom is perspective. The ability to see how things fit together into the proverbial "grand scheme" and assess the relative impact of actions is just as important as raw intelligence. Employers should key in on that.

Michael Wade said...

Deron,

That's a very wise observation. Over time, I have marveled at the number of minor things that once worried me.