You can't teach an old dog
As a Gen Xer I grew up with some common misconceptions, truths that were uncritically accepted. One of these was that talent is something you either have, or you lack. Another was that it's much easier to learn new skills when you are young, before you reach adulthood ideally.
So if you're over 20, and you were not blessed with talent at birth, and didn't spend your childhood wisely acquiring skills for your future self to use - well, that's too bad. You're out of luck.
Malcolm Gladwell's Outliers was instrumental in changing the belief that talent is something you're born with, and introduced the idea of the "10,000 hours of practice" into the culture. A good thing IMO, and a concept which changed my life because I realised that I could acquire and improve skills by working at them.
But the belief that the young learn better and faster than the old is one that I think is still prevalent. I certainly believed it.
But then something happened that changed my mind.
I went on my first skiing trip with my wife and two teenage sons. I was 52, and my boys were 14 and 17. Common sense would dictate that the teenagers would pick up the new skill much faster than their dad, and by the end of the first week they would be running rings around me.
But that's not what happened.
My wife was already an accomplished skier, so the boys and I took lessons together every morning with a private instructor, and then we all got together in the afternoons to ski as a family. And the three of us who were beginners all learned at more or less exactly the same pace. We had different styles, different approaches to learning, but we were all very obviously at a similar level by the end of the week. And when we had the chance to return for another week a couple of years later, same story.
The teenage boys and the middle-aged man all picked up the physical skills required for skiing at exactly the same pace. Age apparently was not a factor, and certainly not the obstacle I expected it to be. And I'm not a sporty person, the only exercise I do with any regularity is walking the dog.
I don't know about you, but I found this to be really surprising. It went against every expectation I had.
I always knew I could pick up mental skills quickly, if I worked at them, because I have been doing that my entire life - both professionally and in my hobbies and interests. The training courses I make require deep learning, in a fast-changing landscape, and so I'm constantly learning and researching. Outside of work, I have for years been learning to play and write music, and have pursued a lifelong interest in drawing.
I decided to learn to sing in my forties. Again, not something that you are supposed to be able to do at that age. Most people would tell you to give up, you're wasting your time. But you can learn a skill at any age, it all hinges on how much effort you are willing to put in.
Average life expectancy in the UK is 82 years. Many of us are going to live into our 90s and maybe even beyond. The notion that we should stop learning, at any stage in our lives, let alone less than halfway through the average lifespan, is absurd. Studies show that people can still acquire knowledge well into old age.
So if you're an old dog like me, be sure to keep learning new tricks.