Friday, May 23, 2008

Older is wiser. So why do we reject wisdom?

Current research shows that while younger people can retrieve items from their memories faster than older people and concentrate better, this is largely because they have fewer memories to access. So while young people often do have great flexibility and can focus better, older people genuinely do have more wisdom. Yet, American business continues to provide fewer opportunities for older people. It is clear that doing so is as harmful to the business as eliminating people because of race or sex - yet it is routine. I suspect that a company which went out of its way to hire more experienced people (who are probably older) would outperform a company which concentrates on recruiting young people and encouraging older ones to move on.

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