Is it really 'old-timer syndrome'?

Now that I'm approaching forty, I feel like I'm standing at the threshold of the age where people start calling you an 'old-timer.' That's exactly why I wanted to take a moment to organize my thoughts and talk about it.

'Old' doesn't necessarily mean 'bad'.

First of all, the premise that 'new is right and old is bad' is just wrong.

For example, there's this vibe like, 'You're not using Slack these days?' or 'You're still using email to communicate?' But email has its own merits, and depending on the person or the situation, email can actually be the more appropriate choice.

It's shortsighted to say that something is bad just because it doesn't use the latest methods.

So, what exactly is an 'old-timer'?

In my view, an old-timer is...

'Someone who is convinced that their current style is always right and refuses to change anything about it.'

To be specific, they refuse to engage with new things. They absolutely refuse to bend their own methods. And then, they force that on younger people.

Things like, 'In our day, it was like this,' or 'I've been doing it this way for 30 years.' Trying to crush the challenges of younger people just to justify themselves—that is definitely what I would call an old-timer.

But there are reasons for old methods, too.

The reason older people value old things is that they are the result of trial and error. Since the 'current way' is what remained after trying various things, failing, and succeeding, the precision is likely quite high.

Take sales methods, for example. People say, 'Cold calling is old-fashioned' or 'It's all about social media now,' but people who have achieved results through cold calling have the know-how they cultivated there. I think there are definitely skills you can only learn face-to-face, like reading someone's facial expressions to adjust how you speak or knowing how to handle a rejection.

Also, the level of conviction in the same method is completely different between a 20-year-old and a 50-year-old. If you've succeeded three times, you might think, 'This seems like it might work,' but if you've succeeded 100 or 200 times, you can really believe, 'This is correct.' And if you have the experience of failing with other methods, you feel that way even more strongly.

So, in a sense, it's natural for older people to seem stubborn. There's a reason why their values have solidified.

But there is no such thing as 100%.

Even so, if you start thinking that your way is 100% correct, you become unable to accept other opinions.

Times change, and sometimes things stop working. Using the sales example again, since COVID, many companies have found it difficult to do cold calling. If you stop at 'My way is the right way,' you won't be able to adapt when the environment changes.

That's why the older generation also needs to maintain an attitude of incorporating new ways of thinking.

And young people, just a little bit...

Conversely, young people shouldn't dismiss old ways out of hand either.

I understand the urge to say, 'Isn't that outdated?' But if you think about why that method has lasted so long and what value it holds, you'll often find it's surprisingly logical at its core.

For example, things like 'reporting, communicating, and consulting' might feel stiff to young people today, but they are systems designed to prevent trouble before it happens. They are the result of decades of experiencing various failures, shaped into a form that says, 'If you do this, you won't have a major disaster.' Once you know that background, you realize it's not just some old custom.

The opinions of people who have gone through trial and error hundreds of times are, after all, often very helpful.