>>The older you are, the more time you've had not only to gain concrete skills, but to learn to abstract your existing skills and knowledge to apply to other things.
Unfortunately the older your are, you are less flexible, less adjusting, running short of energy, you can't take risks as you have a family, you can't work too hard or push yourself too much because there are health risks associated with that. The list goes endless. Its not a very comfortable position to be in old age.
As some one who is in 20's and watching people in their 40's(My uncles) and my father(in his 60's) I can tell you the only chance we engineers have is to make loads of money, real estate and savings before we are 40-45. Else we are screwed. That unfortunately is the most blunt way to put it.
You may believe in whatever you may like about experience coming with old age, but your employers will take raw passion and energy over accumulated experience any day.
Your best bet is to make a lot of money and be safe or risk going through a lot of pain when you grow old.
I suspect this sort of thinking, which places tremendous pressure on youth, is one of the reasons young people are consistently more unhappy than older people. (1)
I don't spend as much time on work as I did when I was younger, but I get a lot more done. I have also learned a few things about how to motivate myself (eg, delayed gratification)
If you're trying to live a good life, your best bet is probably not to focus entirely on making a lot of money, but to find what makes you happy. As a physician, you get to meet old people. Now that I know some old investment bankers, I don't envy the ones who focused on making tons of money. They can't climb the stairs to their ocean view bedrooms, they can't fit into their British sports cars and they never have time to drive them. Managing the paperwork of their assets becomes their full time job.
My dad is a 68-year-old engineer, he seems happy, and making more than ever as a consultant. The fact that he likes restoring hot rods works well when the money guys find out and they can exchange pictures of Shelbys.
Best advice for growing old: buy a one-story house. You can get to your bedroom and your kitchen.
> As some one who is in 20's and watching people in their 40's(My uncles) and my father(in his 60's) I can tell you the only chance we engineers have is to make loads of money, real estate and savings before we are 40-45. Else we are screwed
Bull Shit. Stereotypes are just stereotypes. If you follow one you will be one. I am 41 year old engineer(programmer) & Entrepreneur. One project I am coding now has Java, C++, Go all together. The younger programmers in my team were sort of scared to touch C++ part. I am encouraging one of them to learn Go.
I do two projects at a time, one of my own and another for a client. Support the former a bit with the consulting money I get from the latter.
I wrote the above to counter your ageist myths. You are younger and I presume flexible enough to correct them :-)
Unfortunately the older your are, you are less flexible, less adjusting, running short of energy, you can't take risks as you have a family, you can't work too hard or push yourself too much because there are health risks associated with that. The list goes endless. Its not a very comfortable position to be in old age.
As some one who is in 20's and watching people in their 40's(My uncles) and my father(in his 60's) I can tell you the only chance we engineers have is to make loads of money, real estate and savings before we are 40-45. Else we are screwed. That unfortunately is the most blunt way to put it.
You may believe in whatever you may like about experience coming with old age, but your employers will take raw passion and energy over accumulated experience any day.
Your best bet is to make a lot of money and be safe or risk going through a lot of pain when you grow old.