The tendency of old age to the body, say the physiologists, is to form bone. It is as rare as it is pleasant to meet with an old man whose opinions are not ossified.

Curiosity keeps the mind young

We all know someone who hardens with age—not physically, but in their thinking. They've accumulated decades of certainty, and flexibility starts to feel like weakness. The irony is that while our bodies naturally stiffen as we get older, our minds don't have to follow the same script. Yet most do.

What makes this observation sting a bit is recognizing it in ourselves, even young. How often do we mistake consistency for integrity, holding onto an old position not because we've thought it through recently, but because changing our mind feels like admitting defeat? The older we get, the more mental real estate we've invested in our viewpoints. Abandoning one feels like watching money burn.

The pleasant surprise in meeting someone old who can still genuinely shift their thinking isn't just that they're flexible—it's that they've somehow stayed curious. They didn't mistake experience for wisdom, or accumulation for understanding. They kept asking questions instead of just storing answers. That's rarer than we'd like to admit, and worth noticing whenever we find it.