You're never too old to learn a thing, or two. You're not born with knowledge, instincts yes, knowledge comes from exploration. One of the things I've noticed about people is that as we get older strange behaviors about knowledge creep in. When you are young you ask questions to learn, you explore options and ways of thinking naturally, nothing is set in stone, but as you get older this societal pressure starts weighing on you to just know things. You become embarrassed to show your ignorance. So instead of saying I don't know about that, tell me more, we pretend we know something, we adopt other people's perspectives or we don't talk about it at all. When you were younger and you weren't interested in something, you spaced out or maybe wandered off right? It was only the pressure to know something, like a test that forced that knowledge. Even today we are guilty of that same thing. I mean how many times have you caught yourself wandering during a "boring" conversation or presentation? If something doesn't interest you what is your motivation to learn?
We are all motivated by our personal interests, does knowing this help me in some way, or if I don't know this will it have a negative impact? As I get older I realize learning for me is more about listening and connecting, trying out new perspectives, feeling confident and helping others. It's not about my resume.
I wish people would put less weight on what they know and more emphasis on the exploration of knowing. I think when we feel bad about what we know or don't know we are forced to decide without that exploration, it limits our thinking. I believe it's ok not to know something and we should all be a little more receptive to that. If people could admit more freely that they don't know, maybe more exploration for the right answers could be done.
And I know everyone has experienced that sensation of loosing the desire to help someone who "knows" everything. We may even be guilty of being that person sometimes.
Just a thought, I don't know.
Admission: I'm not sure I have a handle on the English language, structurally. I expect my punctuation makes people cringe. I probably should take a writing course, but for now I'm just exploring. Try not to take it personally. Also, I suck at remembering names and I like to blame that on fibromyalgia but I'm pretty sure I just haven't learned that skill, yet. Oh and I've basically stuck my head in the sand when it comes to politics, not sure why, maybe it's just too overwhelming. I am open to learning though.