Learning can be hard work. As we age we generally NEED to learn less to live successful lives. We’ve made our own mistakes and have learned from those others have made. There comes a point where it’s not worth the effort required to learn something new that we don’t need to know in the first place!

That’s one of my own theories on the subject anyway.

Another is… my brain is similar to a bathtub. Long ago my “tub” was full of information. Anything new poured in means something old runs down the drain. I get kinda picky about what gets poured in these days because I’ve got a lot invested in my “old” knowledge and don’t want to lose it!

Or…

It could be I’m just “bone idle” - lazy beyond redemption. In earlier years I “covered” by looking as if I was busy. Now, in retirement, I’m not expected to keep working like a dog. I just live up to, even beyond, these expectations, that’s all.

Don’t believe it. Lots of this research is tentative.

I am about to enter my eighties in a year or so. I was the first in 1981 or 2 to buy a PC in the place where I consulted, and it was almost the first in the jurisdiction. I even did a major financial review program in dBase because the money for the project evaporated. I was not a programmer.  I may be wrong, but I think the thing is still working (my brain, that is. The PC has long gone to the junkheap.) I could go on, but in regard to Rumsfeld etc, maybe it’s because there was some limit on brains was already in place. Craftiness is not necessarily brains; even animals have it. Be kind to George: maybe he is dyslexic. . . well, maybe not
Cheers