On Sun, 22 Sep 2013 11:18:21 +0100, Stephen wrote:

> On 21/09/2013 8:10 PM, Jim Henderson wrote:
>> On Sat, 21 Sep 2013 09:11:47 +0100, Stephen wrote:
> 
> 
>> Indeed.  Douglas Adams had a theory about that:
>>
>>
> Pity, he did not have a theory about keeping deadlines.

:)

Well, he sort of did, but it had to do more with the noise they made as 
they went past. :)

>> "Anything that is in the world when you're born is normal and ordinary
>> and is just a natural part of the way the world works. Anything that's
>> invented between when you're fifteen and thirty-five is new and
>> exciting and revolutionary and you can probably get a career in it.
>> Anything invented after you're thirty-five is against the natural order
>> of things."
>>
>>
> It sounds like a good theory but I don't really think that it cuts the
> mustard.

Well, like I said, the ages involved perhaps aren't accurate for 
everyone, but for a large number of people, I think this makes a lot of 
sense.

>> I'm now 43 (as of a couple weeks ago)
> 
> Belated happy birthday.

Thanks!

>> - I think the ages aren't necessarily set in stone, but in principle,
>> this makes sense.  You eventually get to the point where keeping up is
>> too much of a bother, and
> 
> Yes, but at midlife?

Well, like I said, it depends on the person.  I know some people who hit 
that "35" point much earlier, and some who hit it much later.  I think 
the point isn't so much the specific values, but that this happens to 
pretty much everyone at some point.

> I've reached the stage where keeping up with domestic computer tech is
> too much bother. I don't think that it is because I'm nearing retirement
> age but that the effort is not worth the return. Especially, when
> changes are done more in the spirit of selling new products rather than
> for innovative functionality.

Another Adams quote applies:

"We are stuck with technology when what we really want is just stuff that 
works."

>> things were "always" better "back in the old days". :)
>>
>>
> I see the smiley. And I hear it often.

Yup.

> It falls into two categories, IMO.
> Life was better when I was young, people were better educated, more
> polite and had time for others. Better quality of life etc.
> And: Technology is too complicated, things were better when you could
> understand how they worked. Such as a baud rate of 9600, RAM memory 640
> kB. Cars that did not have ABS, seat belts, crumple zones. I cold go on.

Both situations are true - but I think it also is a trick the mind plays 
by idealizing the past as well.  I hear this sort of thing, for example, 
said by pundits here talking about how much better things were back when 
they were kids.  But the average American kid back in the 70s (or 
earlier) wasn't exposed to all the world's problems unless they were on a 
very huge scale.  So memories of the time tend to be far more idyllic 
than the actual time. 

> I've heard it since I was a kid and if you extrapolate backwards...

:)

> 
>> One of a couple things my parents did when I was a kid that drove me
>> crazy. Another was deciding when the one TV programme I wanted to watch
>> that day was on that *that* was the time I needed to be told to go
>> clean my room/take out the trash/whatever. 30 or 60 minutes later
>> wasn't good enough, it had to be done *right then*.
>>
>> Before we had a VCR, it was even worse.
>>
>>
> As long as you didn't repeat their mistakes.

I made a conscious effort not to.  I'm happy to say that our kid is 
pretty well adjusted, too. ;)

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