Are You old?

[001]

Hi

It is global theme
But say me what do You think about at Yours country

When we became OLD? I see that all media focused at 20 years men. Huh, I`m 65 and still can make electronics but how long?

[rstofer]

I'm 73 next month and I still manage to get by.  I work hard studying/reviewing math to keep up with my grandson's ME program.  I still know a wee bit about the fundamentals of EE and I have a lot of fun with Ordinary Differential Equations and my analog computers.  I buy/subscribe to math tutorial programs and it seems a lot more fun now that it doesn't count.  I really struggled with ODEs back in the dark ages of slide rules.  It's interesting that we are still "guessing" at a solution.

I still play with math using Fortran or Matlab with the intent to pass the processes down to the budding ME.

OTOH, I'm not as durable as I used to be.  My German Shepherd Dog knocked me down yesterday and it really hurt.  I simply don't bounce as well as I used to.  My wife won't let me race boats or motorcycles any more and I kind of miss the adrenaline rush.  My Dr. says I shouldn't even get an adrenaline rush - bad for the heart.  I miss the crazy days of my youth.  Well, not so much youth, I was still racing hare scrambles (dirt bike) in my early 40s and small hydroplanes into my mid 40s and sailing San Francisco Bay with a fresh breeze (30 knots kind of thing) well into my early 60s.  It isn't fun unless the rail is in the water and the bow wave is crashing into the cockpit!

Overall, I'm doing pretty well, considering...

[rstofer]

“Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside in a cloud of smoke, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming "Wow! What a Ride!"

― Hunter S. Thompson, The Proud Highway: Saga of a Desperate Southern Gentleman, 1955-1967

[tpowell1830]

In answer to your title's question, no, I am not old. I am, however, 65, but I can still do anything that I could do in my 40s and I am twenty something in my mind.

[cdev]

The quest for engineered negligible senescence is definitely making real progress.

We should all embrace the idea of everybody living a significantly longer and healthier life, because its quite possible. Actually, the technical problem of human mortality may be conquered someday. Perhaps in our lifetimes. And then, if that happens, everything changes. The way everybody sees everything changes. Another world is possible.

[IanJ]

I'm 53....but feel old....it's been a bad year for me healthwise......however, it makes you take stock and reprioritise, and for me that means MORE electronics.....whoop whoop!

Ian.

[basinstreetdesign]

I'm 73 next month and I still manage to get by.  I work hard studying/reviewing math to keep up with my grandson's ME program.  I still know a wee bit about the fundamentals of EE and I have a lot of fun with Ordinary Differential Equations and my analog computers.  I buy/subscribe to math tutorial programs and it seems a lot more fun now that it doesn't count.  I really struggled with ODEs back in the dark ages of slide rules.  It's interesting that we are still "guessing" at a solution.

I still play with math using Fortran or Matlab with the intent to pass the processes down to the budding ME.

OTOH, I'm not as durable as I used to be.  My German Shepherd Dog knocked me down yesterday and it really hurt.  I simply don't bounce as well as I used to.  My wife won't let me race boats or motorcycles any more and I kind of miss the adrenaline rush.  My Dr. says I shouldn't even get an adrenaline rush - bad for the heart.  I miss the crazy days of my youth.  Well, not so much youth, I was still racing hare scrambles (dirt bike) in my early 40s and small hydroplanes into my mid 40s and sailing San Francisco Bay with a fresh breeze (30 knots kind of thing) well into my early 60s.  It isn't fun unless the rail is in the water and the bow wave is crashing into the cockpit!

Overall, I'm doing pretty well, considering...

Yeah, what he said. 
And I'm 68

[CatalinaWOW]

i have infuriated people for years by taking an engineering approach to this.  In the developed world the life expectancy for men is in the 75-85 year range.  Divide that by three.  During the first third you are young.  The middle third (drum roll) you are middle aged.  And the last third is old.  Time beyond those three thirds is bonus time.

It infuriates most 26-40 year olds when I point out to them that they are middle aged.  And most of those in the 50-60 group are just as mad with their assignment.  Only the young group and those old enough to realize it doesn't really matter can accept this point of view.

As an aside, the Hunter Thompson approach is wonderful if you know the day of your death a priori.  Most of us aren't so fortunate so it is wise to leave a little life in the body just in case you don't pop off at the appointed time.

[vtwin@cox.net]

54 next month.
My kids (1st marrage) are 29, 24 and 20.
My wife is 37.
She's 3 months pregnant.

Feel old? Sometimes. I don't view myself as 54. I think of myself as my wife's age. Then something happens and it takes me a lot longer to recover than it did when I was 37, and I'm reminded of the fact that I'm not 37 any longer.

[tomato]

In answer to your title's question, no, I am not old. I am, however, 65, but I can still do anything that I could do in my 40s and I am twenty something in my mind.

Does that mean you loudly complain to others about yourself for being a *&#^@ millennial?

[bsudbrink]

I've got to get the hell off my damn lawn!   

[rdl]

The only good thing about being old is remembering your youth.

[xrunner]

When we became OLD? I see that all media focused at 20 years men. Huh, I`m 65 and still can make electronics but how long?

Am I old?

Compared to a star like the Sun - no.

Compared to an ant - yes.

[Wolfgang]

Hi

It is global theme
But say me what do You think about at Yours country

When we became OLD? I see that all media focused at 20 years men. Huh, I`m 65 and still can make electronics but how long?

Its easy. Viennese proverb: Age starts when regrets are replaced by desires.

[NiHaoMike]

On an age scale where Naomi Wu and Rinoa Super-Genius are on one side and Micah Elizabeth Scott is on the other, I'm pretty much exactly in the middle. (That's 30 for those who don't like solving math problems.) Yet I think of myself as most like Micah as far as engineering skills go, albeit in a different field - I largely specialize in power electronics while Micah seems to be mostly into advanced programming.

Dave once did a video of an electronics hobbyist who is still doing it at something like 100 years of age, a record that is likely to stand for a long time. Sagan and/or Huxley are good contenders for setting records at the other end of the scale, if they haven't already done so.

[ninjagin]

I decided that this would be my very first message in the forum: a reply, and a "thank you".

Thank you for asking! I turned fifty this year.

I started losing my hearing and my hair and going gray when I was forty, but I didn't -=feel=- old. My girlfriend tells me that sometimes I dress like I'm thirty, but I was wearing sneakers and shirts and pants and sweaters when I was thirty, so she's right. Not much has changed on that front. I don't let my hair grow long anymore, and I don't grow beards anymore. It's too much fuss, but I don't think that makes me old.

I didn't really -=feel=- old until this year. It was a combination of things, really: sore knees, sore feet, my cancer diagnosis. In the grand scheme of things I think I'm still picking up speed, really. I started the electronics thing very late -- just a couple months ago. There's so much to learn, still, and so much to do and so much left to make and share. I'm still moving. I'm not done, yet.

(Check that... I'm done eating brussels sprouts, so that part is complete.)

So no, I'm not old. I just feel old sometimes. It goes away when I'm at my bench or in the garage, thankfully.

Thanks again,
== Randall

[med6753]

To op...like you I'm 65 but don't feel it (most of the time  ).

As I've gotten older, possibly wiser, definitely more grouchy I've found a saying to be absolutely true:

"Old age and treachery will beat youth and speed every time"

Stay sharp my friend. 

[Red Squirrel]

Mid 20's is when I realized I was really starting to get old.  When I hit 30 it was pretty much "yep, it's official, I'm old".  I'm 32 now.   Though really I find once you reach a certain age you then say the next one is old and you're still young.   When my hair starts falling out or going gray I think that is when it's going to be official. 

Time goes by so freaking fast though, it's crazy.  I don't even know where my 20's went.   Life is like a roll of wire, the closer to the end you get the faster it goes.

[Bud]

Life is like a roll of wire, the closer to the end you get the faster it goes.

Brilliant! very EE-ish  

[alpher]

53 here, and I agree, time flies much faster as you age, who knows it may be going asymptotal by the time you die.
2018 was a bad year for me as well.

[Peabody]

Objectively, yes I am old.  72.  But I still go to the gym every day and lift weights, and recently checked off another bucket list entry by being a nude figure model for an artist.  On the other hand, the sciatica recurrences are becoming more frequent, and I'm dealing now with my first cancer diagnosis - just skin, thankfully.  So, you know, you keep on keeping on as long as you can, recognizing that "that day" is not far off.

Any day now, I may just try surface mount.  :-)

[GreyWoolfe]

62 next month.  All the indiscretions I visited upon myself in my youth have come back to hang out with me.   Snap, crackle and pop getting out of bed most mornings.  Hearing loss in certain ranges, back to those indiscretions.  I was going grey in my 20's, thankfully not going bald.  Premature grey, not baldness in my family.  Curmudgeonly, most definitely.  On the flip side, I am still more than healthy enough to work almost 50 hours a week.  An awesome son and daughter-in-law.  A stepdaughter and son-in-law who have finally come to the conclusion that I am not an @ssh0l3 and actually a pretty nice guy if you treat me right.  An amazing woman who puts up with my crap and encourages me.  2 wonderful dogs that are I my constant companions when work doesn't pull me out of the home office.  Some days I feel my age, some days I feel twice my age.  Some days I approach life like a dog; if you can't eat it or screw it, piss on it and walk away.  I almost died at birth and have had other close calls.  Every day is a gift no matter what happens.

Finally, let's not forget the child-like delight I still get opening up packages that come to the house from evilBay and other nefarious places.  My Donagan OptiVisor was my excitement for the day today.  Soon, my DMM Check + will be here.  Hopefully, I don't pee on the floor with excitement.

 

[MarkF]

    A MAN IS LIKE THE TRAIN

• At 20 years he is like the local - It stops at every station
  
  
• At 30 years he is like the special - It stops only at the large towns
  
  
• At 40 years he is like the express - It stops at the big cities only
  
  
• At 50 years he is like the old locomotive - It stops often to water
  
  
• At 60 years he doesn't leave any more - It remains in the yard

[Brumby]

Time goes by so freaking fast though, it's crazy.  I don't even know where my 20's went.   Life is like a roll of wire, the closer to the end you get the faster it goes.

In a similar vein, it has been my observation that time passes at a rate proportional to your age.

To look forward to a time one year hence:
At age 5, it is forever
At 10, it looks like it is forever
At 15, it seems a long way away
At 25, it is within sight
At 40, gosh, that came around quick!
At 60 - Oh, that was last week?

[Nusa]

I figure you're not old until you start complaining about new-fangled gadgets.

On the flip side, you know what some of those old tools the kids can't even identify are good for.