On Tue, 2005-03-15 at 03:02, Bruce Byfield wrote: > Peter Kupfer wrote: > > > Not to diverge from this awesome conversation, but I find that this is > > more true than I ever thought. I am 25, and I teach high school > > students, and I look at the action of these people that are 11 - 7 years > > younger than me, and I see some of the things I did as HS student and I > > am now yelling at them for doing. > > Maybe I'm just a slow learner or stubborn, but I always feel saddened > when I observe this tendency, or when I hear people talk about it as if > it was unavoidable. Rightly or wrongly, it always sounds to me like > giving up or acquiescing to the power structure for the sake of an > easier life (and please note that I'm talking in the abstract here, not > about anyone in particular).
I'm 49 now and left the world of working in large scale bureaucracy 12 years ago. My only constraint is earning enough to live in the style to which I'm accustomed which is pretty luxurious compared to many people in the world but not excessive compared to a significant minority of very wealthy people. I gave up a career with a pension and good prospects working for the government to run my own business. Why? Because of the freedom. I have more freedom to fail but more freedom to succeed - success in my terms, my definition not someone else's. If it interests me I can do it, I don't need somone to say its OK. To me that is what is very attractive about the community. We can to a much greater extent use our imagination and just do it. Ok, its not completely without constraints as we have discussed, but most issues are not questions of absolute perfection but of progress and improvement. Is it better, not is it perfect? OOo is not perfect, we need to keep trying to make it better, but its equally not a disaster. How am I different from when I was 25? Firstly at 25 almost all my energy was channelled into competitive sport. Now its much more about understanding people and relationships, in the middle it was about understanding technology. For me this was a natural evolution with age, no doubt it will be different for different people. > I'm less naive than I was as a young adult, and more cynical, I think I'm probably less cynical because I'm less naive :-), but maybe its because I have always believed systems were there to be manipulated, I'm just better at it now because I have had more experience and practice so why be cynical? Its a challenge and a lot of fun :-) > and, I > hope, more experienced and knowledgable. Yet the things I believed > twenty years ago are just as important to me now as they were then, just > in different ways. Big principles, I'd agree, but some things that seemed very important to me at 25 now seem to be rather less so. If you better understand what motivates people you do tend to see things a bit differently, hopefully with greater toleration. I'd say that was less cynical but Iguess it depends. > I used to worry that growing more conservative was inevitable as you > aged. Fortunately, I had several bad examples who were outstanding in > their fields, and it doesn't seem to be happening to me. Not yet - and, > with luck, not ever. -- Ian Lynch <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> ZMS Ltd
