Question for other old people

[dennis thompson]

So explain what your point is. I don't perceive grouchiness just people expressing their personal experiences. Not pissed off in the slightest. Just trying to figure out how talking about one's current status in the shop and in general makes us grouches.

Because maybe we should be thankful that we got old, because maybe we should be thankful that we have a shop to go to, because being polite is the right thing to do and shouldn't stop just because we're old, because maybe we should go out to the shop and make something instead of bitchin and moaning

[Rich Engelhardt]

PS: Pearl of the day....You wanna hear God laugh? Just tell him YOUR plans.

Yep - I heard that one a few years back & it still makes me smile because it's so spot on. .

The other one I love is, "No matter how good looking she is, there's some guy tired of putting up with her ..crud." If I had known that one earlier in my life, it would have saved me endless problems!

I know I'm going to piss some people off but to paraphrase Ed Norton, the sewer worker, on the Honeymooners (the funniest show ever) when he was talking to Ralph Kramden, the bus driver," GEESH what a bunch of grouches"

No - not at all. Imagine for a second this is the local watering hole & we're all gathered there sipping our beverage of choice. While some of us are whining about what life has dropped on us at the moment, other's such as yourself are happy about something - possibly a , "Pow! Right to the moon Alice!" cartoon you saw on the internet - which had a picture of a woman sitting on the moon wearing an Alice name tag - and no other captions.
Only people our age would catch that.

[Curt Harms]

After 18 months of virtual teaching and now being retired I have realized it i a waste of time to try to figure out all the ins and outs of a computer program. I finally realized it was not my fault if the computer messed up. I am a college educated adult and if it is not easy to figure out it is the programmers fault.
The first few times I could not connect online I felt bad that I had to walk with my laptop to the tech room on campus. But it took the experts several minutes to clear up the issues. One time the entire district,and I think the entire nation.could not connect with their students for 2.5 days. Not my fault. Not my problem.

I've read where the philosophy at least at one of the Tech darlings (facebook?) is "move fast and break things". They have the second part down pat. Fixing what they broke? I guess that's on the to-do list ..........

[John K Jordan]

Has anybody else gotten to the point where...

You just don't want to (to be polite) - mess with stuff - anymore?
...

I'm 71, retired at 56 after 30yrs at the same organization. Don't know if that qualifies as "old".

I find myself getting more mellow as I get older, more willing to let things go that used to annoy me in my dealings with people.
My dear mother always said it never costs anything to be polite.

I don't know why but I have always loved problem solving. Also have always loved teaching!
Fortunately I still like to "mess with stuff" and approach complicated things as a challenge, love to take on new things - recently set up a new video production system, video editor, 3D printing, drone photo/videography.
If I get frustrated with something I make myself step away, do something else, and come back to it later.
I don't mind assembling and repairing mechanical and electrical things (almost anything but plumbing!)
Incubating and caring for little peafowl and guineas (and about 50 other animals) is time consuming but rewarding.
Having lots of equipment here for moving dirt and maintaining the pastures and property gives me lots of opportunity to for maintenance and repair - have good tools, welders, mill and such and not afraid to use them!

My biggest problem is I get tired (exhausted) easier than I did when younger. I joke that I had a whole lot more energy back when I was 70.
However, I walk 4-8 miles a day, move 50lb bags of feed and hay bales, and can still race a teenager up the hill from the barn! (I don't always win though)

The second biggest problem is time - 24 hours seems far shorter than it used to be!

I do get impatient with
- automated answering systems that send me in circles
- representatives who are not honest but tell me things intended to soothe or postpone things rather than fix the problem.
- software with poorly designed user interfaces (I specialized in UIs so I'm sensitive about that) - however some developers are open to suggestions.
- some of today's music (what ever happened to harmony?)

I think several things help me with my outlook on life - spending time with small children, teaching new skills (especially to teens and young adults), staying alert for needs and ways to help others (including fixing their things), and taking a few minutes out of every day to play some music, read, relax, and meditate.

Yikes, gotta go candle some peacock eggs, check the waterers, mess with the horses, spot spray some persistent nasty weeds in one pasture, pick the blueberries (coming in now!), and do some weed whacking around the house before it gets too hot! Good clean fun.

JKJ

[Roger Feeley]

I can't remember who said this.
"People don't want computers, they want computing."

It was some guy years ago selling the idea of the 'Thin Client' computer. The idea was that the computer on your desk was only powerful enough to drive the screen, keyboard and mouse. The real brains would be on the server. In some ways, we are getting there but mostly, our computers just keep getting bigger and bigger.

But I have kept that quote in my mind over the years as a programmer. Any time one of my reports wanted to make something adjustable, I made them justify it. We did out best to keep the basic interface lean and mean.

[Mike Henderson]

I can't remember who said this.
"People don't want computers, they want computing."

It was some guy years ago selling the idea of the 'Thin Client' computer. The idea was that the computer on your desk was only powerful enough to drive the screen, keyboard and mouse. The real brains would be on the server. In some ways, we are getting there but mostly, our computers just keep getting bigger and bigger.

But I have kept that quote in my mind over the years as a programmer. Any time one of my reports wanted to make something adjustable, I made them justify it. We did out best to keep the basic interface lean and mean.

That's a variation on a famous quote from Harvard professor Theodore Levitt, "People don't want to buy a quarter-inch drill bit, they want a quarter-inch hole".

Mike

[Jim Becker]

I can't remember who said this.
"People don't want computers, they want computing."

I generally agree with this comment, even for those of us who are technically adept...while we might ooh and ahh over something spiffy, in the end, it's about running the applications we want/need to use to acceptable results.

It was some guy years ago selling the idea of the 'Thin Client' computer. The idea was that the computer on your desk was only powerful enough to drive the screen, keyboard and mouse. The real brains would be on the server. In some ways, we are getting there but mostly, our computers just keep getting bigger and bigger.

Now that last line I don't agree with. In general computing platforms have been getting smaller and smaller while at the same time becoming more and more powerful, computing wise. What's generally getting larger are screens, both because they are more affordable than ever and because they permit one to use that available computing power better in the quest to satisfying the "computing" desire that more and more includes multi-tasking, even for casual use. While there are organizations that still are using "thin client" machines or similar remote virtualization technologies, we've moving into an interesting place where computing is more generally split between the device and the remote resource, depending on what computing is needed. An interesting off-shoot of of the thin-client idea is Google Chrome OS that's on many budget laptops...very little computing is done locally. It's all in the cloud using web-based UIs and hefty back-end computing that's distributed through many different data centers. Our iOS and Android devices are very similar in that respect, but even though a large percentage of the actual computing gets done "out there somewhere", the processors in these small devices are more powerful than many legacy desktops and laptops that many folks still hang onto!

[Alex Zeller]

Last night one of the channels on TV had the Honeymooners on. I was thinking that the cancel culture would of prevented it but I guess not. Funny how some shows get black balled while others escape.

[Mark Blatter]

I had to put on a new roof last year due to hail. Someone suggested I put on a metal roof as it would have a 50 year warranty and last forever basically. I asked why? I am 61 and will be dead before I need a new roof. Some things are just no longer worth the cost.

I am still interested in planting trees, but more so tomato plants, so fewer perennials, and more annuals.

[dennis thompson]

Last night one of the channels on TV had the Honeymooners on. I was thinking that the cancel culture would of prevented it but I guess not. Funny how some shows get black balled while others escape.

I've often wondered about this, Ralph was always saying: " one of these days Alice, pow, right to the moon"

[Roger Feeley]

I find that in my old age, I've just stopped caring what other people think. I don't argue. I just go my own way.

[Lee DeRaud]

One reason is that I take a nap after lunch and that takes time out of my day.

That's not a bug, it's a feature.

[Lee DeRaud]

One of the biggest changes with age is I know we are living in our forever house. Just last week I realized it was fine to cut up a four foot scrap of copper pipe to get two 6" long pieces. I will probably never use that full length in my life anyway.
No longer any need to save for a rainy day.

And then there's my hoarder-ish storage bin full of exotic wood "shorts" (AKA scraps).
Not to mention the 30-year supply of unread books on my Kindle...

[Lee DeRaud]

I've moved through several stages of hobbyist woodworking, started with furniture for my wife, filled the house and moved on to toys for my grandson, and now make models for myself.

When my dad got out of the Air Force, he went through a similar series as his arthritis got worse: building houses, building pools, building pool decks, building custom pool furniture...you get the picture.

[Lee DeRaud]

It was some guy years ago selling the idea of the 'Thin Client' computer. The idea was that the computer on your desk was only powerful enough to drive the screen, keyboard and mouse. The real brains would be on the server. In some ways, we are getting there but mostly, our computers just keep getting bigger and bigger.

My favorite bit about that whole thing was that the people pushing it acted like it was new...obviously not old enough to remember the terminal/mainframe era.
(Hint: I'm old enough to remember when "terminal" meant "teletype".)