Naked Science Forum

General Discussion & Feedback => Just Chat! => Topic started by: syhprum on 14/12/2011 20:32:11

Title: Age problem
Post by: syhprum on 14/12/2011 20:32:11: I seem to have been born at the wrong tine for computer technology, too young for Zeus, ENIAC, Bletchley park etc but too old to understand all the subtleties of modern software.
Title: Age problem
Post by: RD on 14/12/2011 20:58:33: Allegedly intellectual abilities peak in the mid-twenties :¬( ...

Quote
The peak of capacity for both fluid intelligence and crystallized intelligence occurs at age 26. This is followed by a slow decline.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intelligence_quotient#IQ_and_age (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intelligence_quotient#IQ_and_age)
Title: Age problem
Post by: Geezer on 14/12/2011 23:31:45: Quote from: syhprum on 14/12/2011 20:32:11
too old to understand all the subtleties of modern software.

The reason you don't understand the subtleties of modern software is because modern software is about as subtle as a sledge hammer.
Title: Age problem
Post by: CliffordK on 15/12/2011 00:48:09: Quote from: RD on 14/12/2011 20:58:33
Allegedly intellectual abilities peak in the mid-twenties :¬( ...
Quote
The peak of capacity for both fluid intelligence and crystallized intelligence occurs at age 26. This is followed by a slow decline.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intelligence_quotient#IQ_and_age (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intelligence_quotient#IQ_and_age)

I believe there are multiple factors. There may be a hard to define factor of "Wisdom" that would peak somewhat later, perhaps in the 40's or 50's. Unfortunately it may not help an old dog learn new tricks.

Personally, I believe there are benefits of having worked with the computers through the 80's, 90's, 2000's, and up to the present.

For example, there are a few very handy DOS tricks that the younger generation "point & clickers" might never have learned.
Title: Age problem
Post by: syhprum on 15/12/2011 06:25:01: I was fortunate to work for Hell in the late seventies and for commercial reasons due to the impending takeover by Siemens they where using R30,s a IBM360 clone that gave me a good in site into proper computers before micro processors took over and made them to complex to under stand
Title: Age problem
Post by: CliffordK on 15/12/2011 08:10:19: Quote from: syhprum on 15/12/2011 06:25:01
I was fortunate to work for Hell in the late seventies and for commercial reasons due to the impending takeover by Siemens they where using R30,s a IBM360 clone that gave me a good in site into proper computers before micro processors took over and made them to complex to under stand

Oh...
the demise of the mainframes.

My Mother was a System's Analyst, but now seems to have periodic issues with a Mac... [xx(] not that I can explain that choice for a Home PC.

Perhaps there is something to the point where one makes the transition from Mainframe OS to PC OS.

One of the things that I have is an approach to computers that there is nothing I can do that can break it. And, sometimes, I even fix things. [^] Often I would rather hunt for the answer than take the easy way out such as reformatting.

Different generations of software all essentially do the same thing, they just scramble how they do it. I suppose I am having some issues with the shift from MSFT to Linux. Not that I didn't have some UNIX a long time ago, but there was a bit of a gap in my experience between the old UNIX and modern Linux.