Do people get smarter as they age?

[oxymoronic]

Being smart and knowledgable are two different things. For example, I can calculate the impulse from a rocket engine while it lands as a no brainer if you just give me the mass of the craft and velocity once the engine is toggled. Does this make me smart or knowledgable? Could be either/both depending of what I already know. All you need to solve that is a single formula and the absolute basics in vector algebra(not really the algebra either since it's a linear motion). Impulse is the integrated force with respect to time aka int(F)dt or simply the difference in momentum aka mass x velocity. See how easy it was?

now tell me what a girl is

[mittacc]

now tell me what a girl is

Such fun. Much cool. Very comeback I study mechanical engineering, what do you expect lol? Not to mention the thread

[Mormolyce]

As dumb people age, they seem to get dumber. Or maybe they're as dumb as they ever were, but are now out of date, stubborn and cranky to boot.

But really, it comes down to the individual.

[Anevers]

I've always felt that smarts was information gathered while intelligence was ones ability to process and gather said information. So using that it would stand a good chance that people would get "smarter" as the longer you live the more information you acquire, but people wouldn't get more intelligent as they age.

Just my take on the question.

[Deleted]

Our CPU gets a little tired and the cooling fans get clogged up, but we keep filling the hard drive so we just have a lot more content in there - and in the end, that's what makes for a better, more entertaining computer

[Celista]

From what I can recall from a graduate course I took on the topic....crystallized intelligence increases through middle adulthood and remains stable late in life. Fluid intelligence starts to decline in middle age, but this could be due to environmental factors--challenging your brain through new and complex problem-solving tasks can stave off this type of cognitive decline. Resilience and wisdom increases as you progress through the lifespan. Cognitive processing speed declines, sometimes starting in early adulthood (hence why your video game/driving reaction time changes as you age). Memory strategies, such as organizing information in order to perform complex tasks, changes with time. Memory recall changes also occur, such as your ability to recall information in your long-term memory as well as the amount of information that you can hold in your working memory.

Nutrition is a factor, stress is a factor, overall health, etc are factors as it relates to cognitive decline with age.

[Super Kami Dende]

Age doesn't exactly bring higher intelligence, though it often brings experience.

Knowing better isn't always a "smart" thing, it can often be an experience thing.

[Deleted]

I believe so, up to a point. I started growing smarter at around 22 and it kept going until about 35 where i seemed to have plateaued. I don't think my IQ appreciated noticeably over that period but i believe i got better at processing information and expressing my self. Perhaps i only appear smarter because I've gotten better at verbalizing my thoughts in a clear and concise manner. Or maybe i have just gotten better at not saying stupid shit since it's been many years since i looked back at cringed at something ignorant or foolish i said. (Not counting my online posting naturally).

I've gotten worse at memorization though.

[frogger237]

[Deleted]

Age doesn't exactly bring higher intelligence, though it often brings experience.

Knowing better isn't always a "smart" thing, it can often be an experience thing.

Yeah i know a lot of very smart young people who i would consider to be fairly "dumb" in a general sense. Or rather they lack the experience to apply all that knowledge and smarts. I know they are probably smarter than me but they just come across as such nitwits at times. I suppose i was the same at one point.

[Slant]

Over the years, I've heard quite a few people use their age as an argument in support of their claims. "I am twice as old as you, I know better!", "You have very little experience; live 20 years more, and then you will get it", etc. I've never seen it as a valid reasoning. Here is my theory on how people's minds develop as they age.

During childhood/teens people form their vision on how the world around them works. That vision naturally comes with strong confirmation biases. As people live more and more, those confirmation biases convince them in that their vision of the world is right. As such, they do not really get smarter or more knowledgeable; they, instead, become less open-minded to the points of view that disagree with theirs, less objective, less fair. Sure, they might become more skilled in their profession or certain life areas - but overall they do not become smarter. As such, their opinion isn't any better than an opinion of a young person.

Do you agree with it? Do you think the young should always listen to the old due to the experience and knowledge of the latter, or that they should give the priority of their own ideas, even if they are not backed by years of experience and observation?

Smarter? Not necessarily. Wiser? Probably yes. When they talk to you about experience, they usually have a point. There are some things that I've witnessed (the hype around the fall of the Berlin wall) first hand that others born afterwards just can't fathom. They don't know a time when literally everything - including world peace - was in our grasps. And we threw it away...

[Powerogue]

They get smarter as they gain experience and knowledge on a subject, which age obviously contributes to since those things take time. That doesn't mean there aren't plenty of adults as ignorant as any child about the world around them.

About the only thing age seems to guarantee is cementing of your preconceived notions of how the world works, which if anything damages your ability to learn and grow unless you overcome it through force of will.

[Hooked]

Everyone is smart until they have bills to pay. Thats why college kids are so naive, they dont have any worries. For the families in america that actually have to pay bills every month or lose everything, Im voting Trump, He is the globalists kryptonite.

[Slant]

Everyone is smart until they have bills to pay. Thats why college kids are so naive, they dont have any worries. For the families in america that actually have to pay bills every month or lose everything, Im voting Trump, He is the globalists kryptonite.

Globalism is what raised the US from a backwater rural trash nation to superstardom. I'd be careful about hating on it if I was American...

[TheDestinatus]

You don't get "smarter", you get wiser perhaps if you're lucky enough to avoid mental illness. Your IQ doesn't continue to rise as you get older.

[Blobfish]

You become more Conservative as you get older.

I used to be a bit of a lefty.. esp in my 20s


As I matured and achieved more assets and knowledge about issues, I became more conservative.

[Drunkenfinn]

I'm turning 28 next month and I'll be the first one to admit that I was an absolute dumbfuck 10 years ago.

I might have been "smarter" as far as some academic stuff is concerned but yeah... There's different kinds of smartness in this world and then there's also wisdom and experience which you gain as you age.

I'd say yeah, you definitely get smarter as you age.

[Aori]

Smarter? I don't feel any smarter in my 30s, I actually feel the opposite. I have however acquired quite a bit of knowledge. As for the whole older you get the wiser you become, eh.. I dunno. I've always been "wise beyond my years" not much has changed.

[Dezerte]

Wisdom may go up, but so does stubbornness and they are at odds with each other.

[Dsc]

Globalism is what raised the US from a backwater rural trash nation to superstardom. I'd be careful about hating on it if I was American...

No. It was the free Market in America, that allowed innovators to innovate. Tesla, Edison, Ford, Carnegie. and Wright brothers When we were pushed into the "Global marketplace" thanks to WWI and WWII we dominated because the infrastructure, and mindset was already ingrained. In the Global marketplace we dominated while unchechecked playing by our own rules allowed by military supremacy. (think petro dollar) Only now that the Marxist Professors who were imported into our Ivy League schools from the University of Fredericks Germany, seeped into our education, political and media systems creating rot and undermining us as a nation as Khrushchev predicted are we remotely in a weak position.
Globalism and allowing ourselves to be dictated to by un-American enemy foreign interests will be our downfall.