> My late friend Stan Ulam used to remark that his life was sharply divided into two halves. In the first half, he was always the youngest person in the group; in the second half, he was always the oldest. There was no transitional period.
Agree.
Agree.
If you have peers around your age, and you continue to spend time with them (as friends, colleagues etc) then surely this is false.
I wonder if it’s more of a reference to academia? Most people figure out academia and quit, others want to stay but don’t make it, so the pyramid scheme leads to only one of a cohort surviving?
Sure, my ol' peers are around (sure, the sentence is false in the strict/pedantic sense), but the vast majority of people around me changed instantaneously. Replace "always" with "most of the time" and "instantaneous" with "much quicker than one would think" and such.
In any case, if the claim doesn't make sense to you... it might some day.