I used to think that age equated to percentage of life lived, thus I thought that most people live to close around 100.
But it also made me think that people only get old when they’re like 80.
I mean like actually “old”. The “old” adults were referring to. At that age I considered those 14/15 year old 9th graders old, just a bit different “old”.
As a child, I came to consider 40 to be basically dead and pointless, a withered husk clinging to life and a sense of relevance like the flagpole of a sinking ship.
As someone about to hit that mark, I still haven’t seen any new information that changes my opinion on that.
Our cognitive ability peaks around our late 20s. We humans love to delude ourselves about our mortality with comforting thoughts like “well my experience makes up for it, herp derp,” but that’s just something to help us sleep at night as we degrade at an ever accelerating rate.
I don’t disagree. But between experience, resources amassed, and relationships built by the time you turn 40, it’s often possible to have a greater actual capability despite your slightly reduced theoretical capability.
Basically when you’re in your 20s you might have a bit more cognitive horsepower, but you typically lack some emotional and financial tools to leverage that horsepower more efficiently.