Why Do People (Usually) Learn Less as They Get Older? - Scott H Young

When we’re able to learn from the example of other people, practice extensively ourselves, and get reliable feedback, rapid progress results. Yet, when one or all of these factors are inhibited, improvement often becomes impossible.

The older adults are often far more motivated to perform well. They try harder. They engage more. They are more serious, more present, more involved. To them, the performance matters a great deal. It says something about their mental capabilities—and they are out to prove that they haven’t lost the touch as they’ve aged. Not so younger adults. Ther

However, as your skill develops, it’s often no longer enough to simply follow the examples of others; you need to experiment and find your own path. Part of the reason for this is that the early part of learning a skill tends to be the best trodden and supported, as everyone begins at the same place. As your skills develop, however, not only are th

If you don’t improve by working smart, continuously learning, and continuously experimenting, you could find yourself out of work before you know it.

Yes, our ability to learn isolated facts is indeed limited and probably decreases with age. But if facts are not kept isolated nor learned in an isolated fashion, but hang together in a network of ideas, or “latticework of mental models” (Munger, 1994), it becomes easier to make sense of new information.