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There can be mathematical correlations, i.e. a numerical relationship, between many things without any implication of a cause and effect relationship

A mathematical correlation may exist between the number of slugs entering your garden on a given rainy day and the number of times your cat goes to the litter box but that doesn't prove that if your cat suffered from diarrhea that slugs would line up waiting to get into your garden.

A mathematical correlation is simply a play on numbers. It has no relationship to cause and effect although many seem to think it has. One terrible assumption that has been made for political purposes recently, for example, is that because there might be a mathematical relationship between global temperatures and recent activities of man that there is also a cause-and-effect relationship. Simply by going back a little further in history it is easy to demonstrate that there is no relationship to man's activities but that there is a strong relationship to the behavior of the sun.

Leaving that aside let's address the question asked in this Helium category in a more sensible way: "does how old you are make you more interesting?"

The answer is most definitely NO. I cannot emphasis the response more clearly. NO, absolutely NO!

For example, many old people are retired. That means they have relegated their active life to history and they quickly become less and less interesting to others because they lose touch with present day reality, the challenge of day-to-day tasks and discussions with contemporaries. Generally they live entirely in the past, or in their daily challenge on the golf course, and they contribute nothing to society. They are retired and simply awaiting death.

On the other hand there are older people who remain socially and mentally active and enquiring. They could often be more interesting than most people because they have opinions based on extensive experience. Clearly a person who has traveled throughout his or her life and has learnt to appreciate other cultures and other practices will have far reaching views and opinions. They could be very interesting both there is no direct relationship between interest and the number of years that they have lived.

There is a far better chance that people with greater experience, whatever their age, could be more interesting because they can bring more arguments and opinions to the party especially if they have any sort of renaissance attitude.

If you find a person like that cultivate a friendship it may do you the world of good.

Learn more about this author, John Graham.
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