I really don't want to learn anymore!

[michigangeorge]

As a high mileage 63 year old I think I've reached the point where I just do not want to clutter up whats left of my brain with things I do not find enjoyable. Maybe I'm spending too much time on the internet and absorbing too much information but I want things to be simpler. I know what I find to be fun in boat work but no longer have any interest in learning about electrical systems even though I have a project which needs an entirely new electrical system. Same goes for metal work. Same for engine work. I'd like to own a classic car but don't want to wrench on it. I'd like a new sail and some canvas work but don't want to learn how to sew.
They (whoever the hell they are) say you should never stop learning but I'm not certain I'm buying it :-(
Any others feeling this way?

[George Jung]

Re: I really don't want to learn anymore!

While not quite as 'seasoned' as you two, I'm at an age where I enjoy learning those things I'm interested in, and saying 'to Hell' (Pauls neighborhood) with most of the other stuff. That's freedom.

[PeterSibley]

Re: I really don't want to learn anymore!

A friend's father recently learnt Spanish so he could read some 18th century Spanish poetry, he was 96 then, he's 99 now.

[Soundbounder]

Re: I really don't want to learn anymore!

Memory Full....Andy Rooney wrote a humorous essay about this in the mid 1990's. Unfortunately, I can't find it online

[wardd]

Re: I really don't want to learn anymore!

hang around here, you'll learn nothing of any use

[RichKrough]

Re: I really don't want to learn anymore!

Use it or lose it is what the neurologists say.

[Chip-skiff]

Re: I really don't want to learn anymore!

If you don't want to learn, you probably won't.

I'm the same age as the OP, with an educational background in languages, linguistics, anthropology, and literature. At present, I'm enrolled in a second MA program, studying indicators of past water levels in a bedrock canyon (also the local whitewater mecca). I've worked as a field hydrologist and know a bit about that, but now have to expand into fluvial geomorphology (how flowing water creates landforms) and lichenometrics (using lichens to measure environmental change).

Lichens are fascinating. Now I notice them wherever I go, not just on cliffs and boulders but on grave markers and shipwrecks and trees in city parks. Learning new stuff means I have to forget some of what I learned earlier, I suppose. But I don't seem to miss it. Learning new things is one of my highest pleasures in life.

[leikec]

Re: I really don't want to learn anymore!

I don't want to learn anything--except stuff I want to learn....

Jeff C

[Vince Brennan]

Re: I really don't want to learn anymore!

Learning English and Anglo concertina since I can't play strings anymore, thinking about the Uillean pipes since you don't have to have good lung control ( but maybe not as elbow joint on right side is a bit gammy...)

Joined a couple of trivia sites and am working on my E.A. status for IRS...

Neighbor's wife went back to school (just for the hell of it) to learn Russian and now teaches it and is a court translator... not bad for an 82 year old.

What was that bout being retired?

[Draketail]

Re: I really don't want to learn anymore!

Vince,

I saw a gentleman in Ireland who had converted his Uillean pipes to play from the left side. Took a minute of head scratching to see how he had re-routed the plumbing.

There's hope for you yet!

[Willin']

Re: I really don't want to learn anymore!

I like learning some stuff, but I hate being a novice at anything. At my age I expect me to be able to do everything expertly while looking effortless and graceful. That's what's keeping me off snowboards.

[Keith Wilson]

Re: I really don't want to learn anymore!

I really like learning new things, but I'm beginning to think we need a delete function to make room for new stuff.

[Nicholas Scheuer]

Re: I really don't want to learn anymore!

The only thing I don't like about "learning" is all the folks who, following an event, or an effort, say "we certainly learned a lot". Translated into the vernacular this increasingly trite phrase really means they f-----d up, and weren't fired or divorced.

Otherwide, I go along with "use it or loose it", already posted above.

[Canoeyawl]

Re: I really don't want to learn anymore!

Use it or lose it is what the neurologists say.

Neurologists and Urologists...

[Bruce Taylor]

Re: I really don't want to learn anymore!

Goya learned lithography in old age, and used his newly acquired knowledge to make the print Aún aprendo ("still I learn"):



I seem to be a dopamine addict of some kind...a compulsive learner & serial obsessive. Getting older doesn't seem to be changing that. These days, I'm preoccupied w/ getting up to speed on the taxonomy of ciliated protozoa. I've had to learn enough German to read the older texts, and enough cell biology to make sense of the newer ones. Next step is to learn enough html and PHP to assist my son in putting up an interactive ciliate identification website.