Fun fact: STDs are common in young adults and in 55+ communities - the reason behind this is left as an exercise for the reader.
https://www.aarp.org/health/conditions-treatments/news-05-20...
According to my mother, is because nobody in her retirement village is afraid of getting pregnant anymore.
When you are younger, you have a community of people and friends who push, pull, and otherwise shape you.
When you are older, there is no community. That’s an oversimplification, but it’s close enough.
So there’s no pushback about “hey man, that’s enough about your hobby.” There’s no influence to curb any parts of your personality. It’s just you, instead of being in a health community, living in a kind of void, in between your interactions w others.
Now it’s true there are people (say, your parents) who continue to exert influence. But it’s like the number of people actively involved w you falls from 100, to like 5. In terms of true peers who are your age - they number may very well fall to 0. So the amount of eccentricity, or really indulgence of personal preference above every other consideration, skyrockets.
I'd like to believe this was true, but much of Asimov's late works, particularly the final "Gaia" sequels to Foundation, were terrible.
The sheer breadth of his output (which went way beyond robot scifi) is impressive though.
I agree that a lot of late Asimov isn't as great as some of his foundational (heh) works.
From your own perspective, you have less of an interest in pursuing entirely new projects because the horizon of good experiences from those gets shorter, and as you have said you also gravitate more experience towards the things you have pursued, which unlocks other experiences on its own.
Orson Scott Card once said that Asimov was one of the few writers who kept improving in old age, because most others would fall into the trap of indulging in their eccentricity and assuming that the image people had of them was already set in stone.
I'd say it's helpful to always keep a slight distance, even from things that become increasingly foundational to your life. True bitterness comes when you cease to believe that new generations are actually capable of enjoying their things the same way you did yours in your youth. As long as you don't lose your capacity for theory of mind or refuse to believe that time goes on, you'll be fine.