Why do old people think because they're old they know better? Intelligence does not change with age. The only difference between two equally intelligent younger and older people in wisdom is the amount of time spent creating insights on a topic.
by 
Tsamaya is on semi-retirement
ANSWERS: 14
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Older people think they know better because they have spent time gleaning wisdom from life experience.
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Experience is what they have.
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Life teaches you. Every day you life you learn something. By your reasoning, you are saying that someone is just as smart at birth as someone who just received their PHD. The IQ could be the same, but that is it. You can't claim intelligence based on your ability to learn, only on what you have learned.
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Come back in 20 - 30 years and ask that question again. We'll talk then.
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Intelligence is your ability to understand. Not how much you know or how smart you are. Most "old" people think they know more because in a lot of cases they do. They have more life experiences, have been exposed to more informaiton, spent longer learning...the list goes on.
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Experience! If you've lived through it then you can speak from first hand experience. Think about anything you've experienced. If you talk with someone who hasn't had that same experience you would know more about it, right? So....the older a person is, the more experiences they've had.
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Because we've learned that rhetorical questions are proof that there is such a thing as a stupid question.
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They still know better. Just as you will.
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Because, well, they DO know better. Intelligence is the ability to learn things. Knowing better is already having learned it. You may be intelligent, but they know better.
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Yes, but don't discount experience. Often when a person has lived through a situation, they get additional insights and understandings.
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It takes time to experience life and to learn so more often than not, age does equate with wisdom. Even knowledge isn't enough, as wisdom only comes from knowledge that gets applied and understood, again, those need time to develop.
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One reason might be because of their life experiences. Intelligence has nothing to do with it. That difference you allude to is very important. You can learn a lot from some of our older folks that have seen much more than you have and have learned from the school of hard knocks.
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Intelligence DOES change with age. The more experiences you go through, the more you learn. Whether you learn from lessons or not is up to each of us but we are meant to. How can intelligence not grow with age? You are not born knowing what you do now. Life has taught you.
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Well, hypothetically, let's say you are charged with murder and facing the death penalty. Now your choices of attorneys are only two: the 25 year-old whippersnapper who barely passed the bar exam and has never represented a single capital defendant or the wizened 60 year-old esteemed defense attorney who has successfully gotten off every defendant he ever represented. Your choice, but I know who I'd pick to represent me. People with more life experiences are just that: people with more experiences. Young people just don't have the experience although they may be quite intelligent. I consider myself an oldER person at 58, but I don't necessarily think I know better about everything. Some areas are my expertise, others are not. Just because I lived a long time doesn't make me smart. The fact that I have used every day as an opportunity to learn something is what makes me smart.
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