The Age Card

Michael Gartenberg | June 11, 2003, 06:59 AM

On the drive back from Boston I spent some time thinking about an exchange that happened over dinner on Monday evening.

In the course of the dinner, two software developers got into a somewhat heated discussion about certain APIs. Who they were and the details of what was discussed isn't really important though. At one point, the older of the two (and when I say older, I mean someone in the advanced years of their 40s) said somethingto effect of "I have experience with this, I've been there before" or something close to that. The younger of the two challenged, "Are you going to play the age card?".... Age Card? Age Card? I kept hearing that phrase over and over in my mind the last two days.

What's an age card? Is the experience offered by life something to be ignored? The fact is, age is critical in many things. The ability to say "been there and done that and here's why that won't work" is invaluable. Are we in such a youth centered culture, that someone in their 40's who draws upon life experience in support of an argument is playing an age card? Youth has a lot going for it. So does experience and wisdom and those two things typically only come over time.

As Robert Browning said
"Grow old with me! The best is yet to be, The last of life, for which the first was made."

There's something to be said for being older and a certain respect given to those who have achieved something by virtue of having lived through life.