From: borasky@ogicse.ogi.edu (M. Edward Borasky)
Newsgroups: misc.jobs.misc
Subject: Re: Observations at software firms
Date: 24 Jul 92 18:07:52 GMT
Article-I.D.: ogicse.40508
Distribution: usa
Organization: Oregon Graduate Institute (formerly OGC), Beaverton, OR

In article <1992Jul22.210440.15681@mv.mv.com> kgg@mv.mv.com (Kenn Goutal) writes:
>Bottom line:  *On average*, somewhere between 30 and 40 your brain turns
>to mush, to put it baldly.  More specifically, it doesn't work as creatively,
>nor does it have the stamina it once had;  single-bit and multi-bit failures
>become more common as brain cells die and are not replaced.
Of course, you have to realize that Gauss at 75 probably could do more math-
ematics than I could at 17 (the age at which Gauss became a mathematician -- I
was 19).

I've heard this argument before.  I think B. F. Skinner actually did some
testing and measurement on the subject.  My belief is that only the speed
changes as one gets older, barring diseases of the nervous system, of course.
What happens is that as we get older, we have MORE information stored in our
long-term data base.  When a query presents itself, we have to search through
a larger data base and get more matches.  It's still probably an N*LOG(N)
process; if it weren't, we'd all stop thinking at a certain age because we were
doing bubble sorts or N^2 searches!

Another myth is the old one about "most people only use 5% of their brain
capacity; the other 95% is not used."  Although we don't know all that much
about storage mechanisms in the PHYSICAL brain/nervous system, 30+ years of
research in artificial intelligence have given us a great deal of insight into
the LOGICAL mechanisms that the brain MUST use.  The holographic analogy,
neural nets, alpha-beta search, the whole idea of relational data bases and
such -- all of these mechanisms show a slowing as capacity fills, but ALL of
the available "equipment" is in use at some time -- information is always
moving around in a finite space.

It also depends a lot on how you treat your nervous system.  Vitamins, alcohol,
nicotine, caffeine, sugar, salt and such all have effects on the way the
nervous system functions.  The newer psychiatric drugs like Prozac also have
PROFOUND effects.  I'm sure many of us in NetWorld know the story of Paul
Erdos.  He appears to be using (at least the last time I heard) amphetamines
to keep his nervous system functioning at the speed it did when he was younger.
>
>It might be cheaper in the long run to put everybody over <pick some age
>limit> into retirement, and quit spending corporate and government money
>trying to pretend that they are still useful.
I think the current recession is business's way of getting around the move of
mandatory retirement from 65 to 70, and is a signal that the baby boomers
have won a number of tournaments against slightly older folk.  Large companies
have disguised WIDESPREAD ILLEGAL AGE DISCRIMINATION with this recession; I'd
like to have access to the records of companies like IBM and Digital that have
had massive purges over the past few years.  I think even an amateur statis-
tician could find something; I'm surprised no one has done it.  But watch out!
The older folk who have taken care of their nervous systems, when they do 
turn up in positions of power again, will not buy from the big companies who
treated them so cruelly.  I've already heard some stories of companies losing
business because of the way they have behaved during the recession.
Organization: Office of Planning & Budget, Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA