> I feel like peak brain is probably like 22 years old

Ah, but peak wisdom? Much later.

Only because we don't allow ourselves to get serious until we hit like 25 years old imo, and only barely then. Imagine a 22 year old raised among Shaolin monks. Probably would be the wisest person you will ever meet.

I'm not sure. There's value from teachings, but there's a certain type of wisdom that only comes from lived experience. Kind of like in software development - a new grad can read Designing Data Intensive Systems and memorize all the answers for "design Facebook/Twitter/YouTube/etc." interview questions, but someone who actually built a platform with millions of users is going to have a different level of understanding. In my life, I can say that no amount of learning from others prepared me for what I learned about myself during my first relationship.

All the more reason to start earlier, so you have more lived experience on the job by your mental peak at 22. Instead your lived experience is playing Halo or something like that by that point. Or wasting time flipping burgers. Wish I could have dumped all the hours I did in restaurant work in highschool into research. The door was shut though until I got into undergrad even though I was a hard worker and could have picked it up then. A lot of parallels between food service and lab work, I learned after the fact.

Ah if you look at it from the perspective of doing research or other deep intellectual work by 22, I can see your point. Certainly if that is the peak of human mental capability (not something I can argue for or against but I'll take it as true) you ideally would pursue a focused education up to that point that allows you to dive deep into a challenging problem. IMO this is different from wisdom however, and in fact pursuing the variety of experiences and interactions with others that you need to build wisdom will distract from the focus on your research subject.

>fact pursuing the variety of experiences and interactions with others that you need to build wisdom will distract from the focus on your research subject.

I'm not saying go into the cave and toil. You would still do all the stuff you do socially. Just your academic and professional subject matter would be tailored like it is when you reach undergrad and drop certain subjects in favor of your specialty. You still socialize a ton as a researcher in undergrad and grad school and beyond. Research is very much a collaborative effort too, unlike a lot of jobs or academic learning up to that point. That being said I don't think some magic threshold is reached with that when you reach 32 vs 22. Some people famously lack any social skills all their life. Some people are socialable straight out of the womb. This isn't a linear process.

I certainly thought I was smarter when I was younger.

Are you saying you haven't felt increased mental fatigue and "slowness" while aging? What is your secret? Certain supplements? Blood boy?

Are you saying you have felt increased mental fatigue and "slowness" while aging? What is your problem--too much fluoride? Plasticizers? 450ppm CO2 dragging you down? Not enough mental exercise?

Some people peak early then just fade away--much like the football star who was the most popular guy in high school, who spends the rest of his life unloading trucks in a grocery store. Others keep learning and growing and become wiser with every decade. They were smart when young, and become intellectual giants in middle age or older.

So you don't think wisdom is a thing that people acquire as they age?

I can tell you from experience that 22 year old people are generally lacking in wisdom. A few of them have a little bit, but overall 22 year olds are just as stupid as teenagers.

Most people don't have much wisdom by age 22. They do have plenty of hubris though.

If we're speaking about mental capabilities, there's nothing that I could do at 22 that I can't do now being over 50. If anything my wisdom gained from experience makes me more valuable and capable now. Everything you learn makes you stronger, and 22 year olds have not learned much by age 22.

I think wisdom is pretty unevenly learned and its not a guarantee 32 or 42 year olds or 82 year olds have it either. See our well aged POTUS. Either way you don't need wisdom to start working. So many of the "best" minds in various fields started working in that field at like 16, maybe dropped out of college and dug right in. Their initial intellect or specific circumstances allowed them to skip the normal path but really I think a lot of people would have a lot more success if more were allowed to start on real work earlier, and weren't being held back by process like this.

Again, just kind of sucks that you finally hit your stride in your career right as you feel your body and faculties declining with age. I don't think we get senile as soon as people notice you are definitely senile. I think it is a constant slide.

It seems like you think you have it all figured out, but you don't.

>So many of the "best" minds in various fields started working in that field at like 16,

Name them. Also, child prodigies exist but that doesn't mean the rest of us are dummies. You'd also be hard-pressed to find a child prodigy or someone like that as you suggest that is "at the top of their field" that doesn't think someone else is better than they are. There is no real "at the top of their field" in anything.

The only thing that I can detect that has diminished in my old age is my patience for pointless internet interactions like this one. I have better things to do. Goodbye.

> It seems like you think you have it all figured out, but you don't.

This is a better summation of you than him

> overall 22 year olds are just as stupid as teenagers

It's interesting to start by saying that "wisdom is something you accumulate with time", and right after implying that "being 22 is just the same as being 14" (not mentioning the fact that there was apparently a need to be disrespectful to them).

Pretty sure I know a few people "as stupid as teenagers" who would immediately see how this is a stupid take (and who may feel a need to say that this stupid and condescending take probably came from a "grumpy old man").