An old dog trying to learn new tricks. That's my life these days. This is especially true in technology. I see it all the time in my day job where I manage teams of software developers. I haven't written a line of code in decades but at least I understand what goes on conceptually in programming and other technology. It is orders of magnitude more complicated than it used to be for a number of reasons, including security, interoperability, and just outright scale. Because of the complexity there is much more specialization today -- no more sitting in your home office and creating a word processor from scratch. You can be back-end (database), you can be front-end (web, generally), you can be a security specialist, etc. It's dizzying the number of processes and concepts that must affect your work, but I maintain the not so unreasonable delusion that were I deep in the details of a given specialty everyday, I could keep up just fine. And if something is explained conceptually to me, I can grasp it.
But there are hints and allegations that I may have reached a limit. Lately I have been trying to understand blockchain and not doing very well. I have a decent understanding of bitcoin, the crypto-currency for which blockchain was invented (I think). I understand public and private keys, I understand what bitcoin mining is, I kind of understand how validation works, I even sort of understand how a blockchain is built out of a complete history of transactions that cannot be altered. What I don't understand is what value it offers in any sort of activity that isn't completely digital. I also don't understand the value it provides over current systems of enforcing contracts beyond decentralization which, it seems to me, is of questionable value in legit circles.
Now: anyone who happens to stumble across this who is well-versed in blockchain is probably either laughing or gritting their teeth, and I don't doubt that had I a good understanding of things the answers to these concerns might be clear. Despite all my investigation so far, I haven't found the knowledge I'm looking for.
Explainers tend to fall into two camps. One, they are superficial and get all hand-wavy about things like they are talking to grandma about the tubes of the internet. Or two, they delve into the topic but throw vocabulary and concepts at you without explanation. I remain convinced that if I just found a well written source I would have no trouble with this. I would be able to get it.
Ah, but there's the rub. Would I, or have I hit the limit? Is the problem with the literature or with my old dog brain finally rubbing up against something it cannot grasp? For those of you wondering what it is like as you reach the upper limits of middle age -- this is what it's like. At every point of confusion the question of whether the world has finally moved beyond you is like a low-level hum in the background.
I think the situation is that I have a vague mechanical understanding of blockchain and I haven't yet made the intuitive leap to how it can be broadly applied in such a way that it allows functionality that our current systems don't (or that is very expensive in our current systems). And I think if I keep looking into it, I'll stumble into something that crystallizes it for me. So, no, I do not think I have hit my limit.
But then, who does? A crotchety old dude who can't remember his address and goes around bitching about how Bill Clinton is ruining the country still believes he is sharp as a tack. The blue hair in the cataract glasses with the glacial reaction time is convinced she's a safe driver. I delude myself that I still have a 34-inch waist and I could run 5k under 25 minutes. I have an image of myself as alert, fit, and competent, but everyone around me could be thinking, "Poor guy, he's losing it."
Still, what else is there to do? Writing yourself off from possibilities and growth is just the self-fulfillment of failure. It's the final reconciliation with the inevitable, there-by encouraging it. I may not live forever, but I must behave as if I will. It's my only hope.
Addendum: On the other hand, in the last year there has been considerable progress in developing a vaccine for Alzheimer's and an outright cure for cancer. Maybe I will live forever after all. This has to be terrible news for Millennials who may end up with Boomers like me leaching Social Security from their paychecks and telling them how they ruined music for decades to come.
More addendum: Speaking of not keeping up... There is an app called TikTok using which you can record video of yourself lip synching to songs and share them with friends. It has been downloaded 1 billion times. I had never heard of it. Sigh.
