Now that zompist has kindly posted my German translation of that post ( https://zompist.wordpress.com/2022/10/1 ... ma-altern/ ), I thought I'd post a pdf here (inside a zip file because the board software only allows me to post pictures or zip files) that has the original English version and the translation side by side as columns of a table. Perhaps people who know one of those languages and are trying to learn the other might find it useful.
(As you can see, almost every paragraph of the translation is longer than the corresponding paragraph of the original. From experience, I'd say that's not a special trait of German, but a general feature of translations.)
IMO if there are any discussions of Zompist's Aging post, they should have their own thread
Re: IMO if there are any discussions of Zompist's Aging post, they should have their own thread
Reviving this thread because I was wondering if people had more observations on growing older in general, how aging changes you, and all that. Here are some more of mine - thinking a bit about the differences between current me and teenage me.
I'd say one of the biggest changes between teenage years and middle age is that you no longer have your life ahead of you. That's a pretty trivial and banal observation, of course, but it's still true, and I think that nothing can really prepare you for that change, even if you start out knowing it theoretically on an intellectual level.
In my experience, most people mellow out a bit over time. I myself am a lot less interested in making crass sarcastic and cynical remarks now than I was as a teenager.
There are some things that only experience can really teach you. I find it a bit difficult to put them into words, though.
Politically, I moved a bit more to the left on some issues, and I generally lost the respect I used to have for conservatism. I was never a conservative myself, but when I was younger, I used to think that maybe there was something to their constant claims that they're more mature and more understanding of life than their opponents. Let's just say that the last 20 years have thoroughly cured me of that idea.
The biggest change in my politics was probably related to my attitudes towards sex- and sexuality-related matters. Now, I've always been very much for the cultural changes in that regard that happened in the decades before I became a teenager. But when I was in my teens, I thought that the changes that had already happened in that area by that time were enough, and that no further changes would be needed. Well, what can I say, I was young and naive.
I'd say one of the biggest changes between teenage years and middle age is that you no longer have your life ahead of you. That's a pretty trivial and banal observation, of course, but it's still true, and I think that nothing can really prepare you for that change, even if you start out knowing it theoretically on an intellectual level.
In my experience, most people mellow out a bit over time. I myself am a lot less interested in making crass sarcastic and cynical remarks now than I was as a teenager.
There are some things that only experience can really teach you. I find it a bit difficult to put them into words, though.
Politically, I moved a bit more to the left on some issues, and I generally lost the respect I used to have for conservatism. I was never a conservative myself, but when I was younger, I used to think that maybe there was something to their constant claims that they're more mature and more understanding of life than their opponents. Let's just say that the last 20 years have thoroughly cured me of that idea.
The biggest change in my politics was probably related to my attitudes towards sex- and sexuality-related matters. Now, I've always been very much for the cultural changes in that regard that happened in the decades before I became a teenager. But when I was in my teens, I thought that the changes that had already happened in that area by that time were enough, and that no further changes would be needed. Well, what can I say, I was young and naive.
Re: IMO if there are any discussions of Zompist's Aging post, they should have their own thread
My political views have varied as I have gotten older in an not-entirely predictable fashion. I was an anarchist as a high school and college student, as you all know. Then I shifted to the center, and ended up in the "defense" and space industries (I even got a clearance and did a job interview at an NSA contractor, seriously). However, in more recent years I have shifted back leftwards and now definitely consider myself a democratic socialist. However, I am not really at home with much of the modern-day "anti-oppression" left, for lack of a better term, and in different ways find myself simultaneously to their left (on economic matters - I consider them to be mere social democrats at best) and to their right (on social justice matters - I strongly dislike their implicit view that what value one has as an individual is determined by one's race, gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, etc. - and that who is better is just what the right thinks inverted).
Yaaludinuya siima d'at yiseka wohadetafa gaare.
Ennadinut'a gaare d'ate eetatadi siiman.
T'awraa t'awraa t'awraa t'awraa t'awraa t'awraa t'awraa.
Ennadinut'a gaare d'ate eetatadi siiman.
T'awraa t'awraa t'awraa t'awraa t'awraa t'awraa t'awraa.