We're Not Dogs. We CAN Learn New Tricks

Ditch the old stereotype of being "too old" to learn; here's why you're actually set up for success to learn and do more now.

Dec 19, 2024

I may have chosen a dog-based metaphor because I’ve been looking at pictures of adoptable dogs for a few weeks now. I understand why people volunteer to foster dogs - their eyes are so expressive, their faces full of hope. You just want to save every one of them.

For those readers who know me, this feeling I’m sharing about dogs may come as a surprise. I’m always very honest with my friends about not being “a dog person” when I spend time around their doggie pals. I like dogs (well, some of them), but I’ve never wanted to be with one every day.

I’m a cat person who always says, “I raised a human, I don’t need to parent a dog.” And I revel in my ability to take off for the weekend with a wave to my kitty and his ample bowls of food and water. Give him a patch of sunlight and he’ll just sleep away the time while I’m gone.

Pretty surprising, isn’t it, that I want to change my entire pet-owning philosophy at this point in life and try something new?

Truth is, it’s my son who is looking for a dog to add to his life. But like any card-carrying Boomer parent who’s over-involved in all their adult kids do, I’m all in helping him with the search.

I’ve even volunteered to help with training and dog-sitting in the early months of his pet-parenting journey to ensure the two of them adjust to a mutually happy lifestyle and settle into long-term cohabitation.

I’ll have a lot to learn about caring for a dog, and I’ll be stretching my well-established comfort zone to bring a dog’s energy, need for attention, and barking-even the happy kind- into my life.

But I know I can. Because I’m not the dog in this scenario- I’m the human. And as an older human, my ability to learn new things is greatly enhanced by all of the old stuff I already know.

We Can Now Choose the Right Tricks

I’m not really learning an entirely new trick by bringing a dog into my life. I’ve been around dogs for years- when I was growing up, my family had many dogs. I remember what their basic needs are to keep them healthy and thriving.

My memories and retained knowledge of how to help them behave to their best abilities- creating a schedule for their activities and keeping a routine- start flooding in to inform me even though I’m starting a now unfamiliar new task.

This is what social scientist, Harvard University professor, and best-selling author Arthur C. Brooks describes as my “crystallized intelligence.” In his book, “Strength to Strength: Finding Success, Happiness and Deep Purpose in the Second Half of Life,” Brooks says crystallized intelligence is using the “stock of knowledge” I’ve already learned.

Unlike fluid intelligence, described as “raw learning,” crystallized intelligence increases as we age and keeps trending up and up, continuing through our 70s. It’s our massive file cabinet of all we’ve learned and all we’ve experienced combined with the wisdom from life experiences.

Are you still in the upward arc of crystallized intelligence?

Our wisdom is the type of learning not found in any books, but an area where those of us older than we once were excel.

Thus, as we grow older, it’s not that we can’t learn new things. We can. And we’re best suited and scientifically built to take what we know, add related new information and combine it with our unique wisdom gained from what we know. We can then use this crystallized intelligence to improve daily living experience and create our current “prime of life.”

We might also find we’re holding a type of intelligence and a body of information that when shared, can improve the quality of life for others.

Lead With Wisdom and Layer in Learning

You may not think about this as you read my newsletter but a year ago, this publication didn’t exist.

I wasn’t writing anything on Substack or even consuming the writing of others on the platform. What is now part of what I do each day, I had to learn, implement, and keep practicing over and over until it became retained knowledge for me to do more effortlessly.

I did all this all in the last 8 months of this year at age 62.

Yet, I didn’t have to learn how to be a writer, where to find ideas to write about, how to edit and spellcheck, or where to find photos to accompany my stories.

On a much broader level, I also didn’t have to learn things like how the internet works, what an email is and how people use them, or understand the difference between a website and an app.

I already knew all of this because I’ve been writing and publishing articles and newsletters as part of my various jobs over four decades. I also spent a lot of my working years overseeing the design and layout of print magazines and brochures.

This bank of knowledge is part of my crystallized intelligence, upon which I could then build learning new ways to use this wealth of knowledge. I had to learn the functions of this platform, how to navigate the Settings area of my Dashboard (weeks of learning in that one, right?), how to preview my work for proofing, and what a “Note” is and its’ value.

The Note is one of many mysteries to learn about on Substack.

But here’s the thing- I was so passionate about doing this, that I willingly put in hours and hours in an unfamiliar place and asked strangers for help so that I could learn new information. I needed to gain that fluid intelligence that’s no longer easy for me to do, but that I had to have to make this work.

That was hard but not impossible. Using my bank of crystallized intelligence to build on was absolutely vital to making it possible.

To use another old-school metaphor, I didn’t have to invent the wheel to create this Substack newsletter. I just had to find a way to make my 1999 wheel fit a 2024 car.

Let’s call me an old(er) dog who is trying a few new ways to do her old tricks, just in case you want to bring back the enjoyable image of a cute dog that goes with that now-disproven old saying.

Just like the dog, my motivation for bringing my trick game up to date is to earn more treats. While some of those may be monetary, a lot of the treat is just doing what I love because it’s a talent I’m proud of. Sharing it in public makes me feel really productive- it’s a feeling that I am giving back and contributing to the world.

And I’d like to think I can show a few other old(er) dogs that their tricks are also still valuable when shared with the world.

Have you found a new way to use your skills, experience and wisdom to a new phase of your prime of life? Leave a comment below to share your experience as an experienced new beginner.