- #1
Mentat
- 3,935
- 3
This was a thread in the old PFs, and I'd like to bring it back. So, everyone, how old are you?
How Old are You? - Revisiting an Old PFs Thread
- Thread starter Mentat
- Start date
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The discussion revolves around participants sharing their ages and reflecting on the relationship between age, wisdom, and respect. Many younger members express frustration with adults who expect respect solely based on age, arguing that wisdom is not guaranteed with years. They emphasize that intelligence and knowledge can exist independently of age, with some younger individuals feeling more mature and insightful than older counterparts. The conversation highlights the distinction between knowledge and wisdom, suggesting that true wisdom comes from life experiences rather than just age. Older participants acknowledge that while age can provide opportunities for learning, it does not inherently confer wisdom. The thread also touches on the challenges of adolescence, including mood swings and societal expectations, while younger members express a desire to be heard and respected for their perspectives. Overall, the dialogue reflects a generational clash regarding respect, wisdom, and the value of experience.
- #2
Ben-CS
Old enough to know better!
- #3
Mentat
- 3,935
- 3
Yeah, you turned on Christmas day didn't you?
- #4
Mulder
- 54
- 1
'Fraid that's classified.
- #5
Mentat
- 3,935
- 3
I am 14, by the way.
- #6
The Grimmus
- 199
- 0
a fresh new 15 ahh smell that new age scent
- #7
Bubonic Plague
- 94
- 0
15 and hating it. I just can't wait to grow old and tell adults to "Shut the **** up" without being told that I'm a little kid and should be respectful or being asked what my school is so they can complain about my obvious distaste for their "helpful advices on my moral code, etc".
- #8
Monique
Staff Emeritus
Science Advisor
Gold Member
- 4,211
- 68
lovely 22
- #9
kyleb
27
and wow mentat, i would have guessed you at least 5 years older than you are. just goes to show how little age has to do with anything.
and wow mentat, i would have guessed you at least 5 years older than you are. just goes to show how little age has to do with anything.
- #10
enigma
Staff Emeritus
Science Advisor
Gold Member
- 1,738
- 20
A quarter century old.
You can also check birthdays and ages of those members who listed them by going to the 'Calendar' up at the top of the screen.
Isn't PF3.0 great?!?
You can also check birthdays and ages of those members who listed them by going to the 'Calendar' up at the top of the screen.
Isn't PF3.0 great?!?
- #11
Kerrie
Staff Emeritus
Gold Member
- 839
- 15
30, a great age
- #12
damgo
23, about as old as I want to get.
- #13
Chagur
- 33
- 0
Just turned 70 ... And willing to get older
- #14
Raavin
- 86
- 0
33 in a couple of weeks
Nah, hopefully I'm a bit wiser now than I was years ago
Raavin
Nah, hopefully I'm a bit wiser now than I was years ago
Raavin
- #15
russ_watters
Mentor
- 23,755
- 11,208
27. And yeah, damgo, 23 is as old as I wanted to get too. Its not working out real well for me...
- #16
Mentat
- 3,935
- 3
Thank you, kyleb. I have spent my entire life (seriously, this was one of my first conscious thoughts) trying to prove that the fact that someone was older didn't make them smarter. I have also learned that it doesn't make them wiser (no matter what anyone says), because wisdom = applied knowledge; so age doesn't bring wisdom, it just brings more chances to develop wisdom.
- #17
Mentat
- 3,935
- 3
I agree (except for the part about telling them to "shut the **** up"). As I see it, a wise person would realize that age doesn't bring wisdom, but there are so few wise people.
- #18
Bubonic Plague
- 94
- 0
Yeah. There are those people, who just because they are above the age of 25, they think that all little kiddies like me must show 'em respect, then they start preaching all about how we must be good little kids, etc. But heck! I give respect only when the person earns it, certainly not because of his/her age.
- #19
kyleb
you are very right; but rest assure, there will be many people telling you otherwise until you are nearly as old as dirt. some people are just not wise like that no matter how old they are.
- #20
chosenone
- 182
- 1
I just turned 32 march 10,so happy birthday to me!1
- #21
Mr. Robin Parsons
- 1,243
- 0
Fourty Seven years old!
Age may not bring wisdom, but it is only age that afford experiance, and it is only experience that can be the soil for the rooting of wisdom.
Experiance, and practical learning, and BOOK knowledge, are really the Fast track to education that lends itself in a direction of being capable of wisdom, in the first place, as all true wisdom is really very, very, old knowledge!
- #22
Galatea
- 35
- 0
You're speaking my mind. 23 as of February :(
- #23
Another God
Staff Emeritus
Gold Member
- 970
- 4
21. And this is as 'old' as I want to get too. I fear that by the time I figure out how to make my body maintain its age, I will already be too old, and so then I will need to find a way to make my body rejuvenate itself 
Mentate and Bubonic, I too have spent my life marvelling at the stupidity of those old 'wise' people who have been so kind as to show me all the ways in which I will never allow myself to be.
I recall being around 15, and being frustrated at not being able to get into a pub or something like that, because I wasn't of a numerical designation that suited the law. The fact that I didn't want to drink alcohol nor smoke cigarettes, (and still don't) and the fact that I am most likely much more mature and intelligent than 90% of the people in the bar didn't mean anything.
(excuse the haughty nature of that paragraph, but its how I felt at the time, and still how i feel. I don't have much respect for people who actually go and hang out in bars drinking and smoking their lives away. I don't deny their right to do it, nor the fact that it is their own form of pleasure, while mine is something completely different, and that in its own right is OK...i still don't like it.)
(this probably has a lot to do with having grown up in a family where several family members and their friends are pretty much useless drunks 90% of the time. You grow up with that, and see if alcohol looks like a lot of fun to u.)
Mentate and Bubonic, I too have spent my life marvelling at the stupidity of those old 'wise' people who have been so kind as to show me all the ways in which I will never allow myself to be.
I recall being around 15, and being frustrated at not being able to get into a pub or something like that, because I wasn't of a numerical designation that suited the law. The fact that I didn't want to drink alcohol nor smoke cigarettes, (and still don't) and the fact that I am most likely much more mature and intelligent than 90% of the people in the bar didn't mean anything.
(excuse the haughty nature of that paragraph, but its how I felt at the time, and still how i feel. I don't have much respect for people who actually go and hang out in bars drinking and smoking their lives away. I don't deny their right to do it, nor the fact that it is their own form of pleasure, while mine is something completely different, and that in its own right is OK...i still don't like it.)
(this probably has a lot to do with having grown up in a family where several family members and their friends are pretty much useless drunks 90% of the time. You grow up with that, and see if alcohol looks like a lot of fun to u.)
- #24
Kerrie
Staff Emeritus
Gold Member
- 839
- 15
at least we have members here appreciating their youth
seriously, i think if continue to learn and understand, "getting older" is not much of a concern...
seriously, i think if continue to learn and understand, "getting older" is not much of a concern...
- #25
RuroumiKenshin
Am I the youngest one here again!?? Cool!
I'm still 13...I'll be 14 in a "few months" (7 months to go)
I'm still 13...I'll be 14 in a "few months" (7 months to go)
- #26
Nicool003
Doesn't every teenager want to prove that age doesn't matter? It would be quite easy to prove... if anyone would listen to us"kids" long enough to see our point! There is that old saying wisdom comes with age. And I think that is partly true. But there is a different between knowledge and wisdom and no one ever said we don't have more knowledge bwahahaha
Anyways I agree with you too if you notice I said i PARTLY believe that saying just because wisdom can also be things you have experienced in your life and since they have lived longer... you know
- #27
Bubonic Plague
- 94
- 0
Whats there to appreciate? Childhood is a totalitarian regime, all we ever do is get ordered around by "wise" adults.
I'd like to correct the adage "Wisdom comes with age", instead it should be "Ego comes with age".
- #28
spacemanspiff
- 11
- 0
22. that's as old as i need to be. it's all down hill from here
- #29
Galaphile
- 2
- 0
31 and smack in the middle of the midlife panic.
- #30
Mr. Robin Parsons
- 1,243
- 0
Is it possible that what you are really missing is that you actually are intimidating to some adults? And that these kinds of reactions from them, are, simply put, their intellectual self-defence mechanisms? That they scurry back into their own safe intellectual environment by plying the ¡°time dependencies of learning¡± against you, just so they can hold onto their own sense of intellectual self worth, in your presence?
Is that, possibly, the answer you need to see/know?