GROWING OLD GRACEFULLY

IEEE MANAGEMENT - ENGINEERING LECTURE
 November 21, 1968

 by ISAAC S. BLONDER

To quote from the 7th edition of " Psychology ln Life" by Floyd L. Ruch, a commonly used college Psychology textbook, on page 248: "Although our society is rapidly changing both in technology and prevailing economic philosophy, requiring new attitudes and skills, it can be predicted that an aging businessman will come more and more to react to new problems on the the basis of knowledge, skills and attitudes learned in his youth. Thus, a certain degree of conservatism would appear to be part of the biological and social heritage of mankind. " I see this aging businessman every morning when I'm shaving.

Additionally, to quote a medical authority - "aging is a gentle decline that begins around the 30th birthday. The output of the heart and the speed of nerve impulses diminish by the same amount between the ages of 60 and 70 as they do between 30 and 40. "

There are two basic kind of damage that befall the aging body. One is a gradual loss of cells where, even in the human brain, they do not reproduce themselves. Muscles may actually shrink, connective tissues become stiff, bones brittle. These aging processes seem to be a matter of heredity and degree of physical activity. The better the heredity, the less the aging the more the physical activity, apparently also the less the aging.

Some years ago I had the occasion to question an insurance doctor as to some of the peculiar physical problems he had seen ln the course of examining people for insurance. He described the case of a subway motorman who for many years had sat on a little stool, one foot pushing a floor button and the other doing nothing. Now one leg had varicose veins and the other did not. Which leg had the varicose veins? I'm sure you know the answer - the one that did nothing.

No one literally dies of old age, but generally, the circulatory system is the chief culprit. Perhaps more than 50% of all deaths are caused by some malfunction of the circulatory system.

A very interesting statistic I ran across, shows that the average brain shrinks in weight from 3.03 pounds at the age of 30, to only 2.72 pounds at the age of 90.An individual's reaction time drops by 25% from age 20 to 70.One's powers of inductive reasoning begin to decline at 23, one's ability to recognize numbers at 27, recognize designs at 32, and recognize tones at 45.

Now to look at the individual as a learning machine. One is fortunate, indeed, if at the end of a year from the conclusion of a course of study, that one remembers 5% of the memorized material. You may retain 20% of the reasoning processes involved in the use of this material, and if you have the occasion to refresh your memory by repeating that course, the retention level in a span of 5 years might even be as high as 40%.

Typically, though, those of us who have left school and return to take the identical examinations that we took in our senior year, would probably find that by that first year out of school we would have reduced our grades at least 2 levels, and by the 3rd year, we would have gone below  the passing level.

As you have already heard, one's learning capability decreases with age, starting somewhere around the age of 30. The time required to inject the knowledge into the individual brain is something that age and cleverness and skill cannot change. This is a constant up to the age of 30 and gradually increases thereafter.

If you examine any individual, you will find, I think, that the quantity of knowledge input to the brain is probably at its highest level in his last year in college, based strictly upon the number of hours that he spends in study. Probably at no subsequent period of his career does he truly have the freedom from distraction and the economic capability to spend his time singly and solely devoted to piling knowledge into the mind.  From this point on, the total knowledge content in the brain can only go down. The most annoying aspect of this analysis is that the retained knowledge is also getting obsolete every day that science is striving to improve itself. Also, it seems as if there is an exponential increase of subject content with time. Probably every ten years the knowledge in any field is multiplied by 100.

ln reading psychology books in preparing for this lecture, I found the textbooks, 30 years after I had taken my psychology courses, to be at least ten times greater in every phase that one can describe, whether it is the number of authors, the number of charts, the number of pages, or the number of ideas. This is also true of physics and literally any other course involving. research in science.

Not only does one's knowledge become obsolete with time, but an entirely new field may arise with techniques so unique, that even the basics have to be relearned. me individual may not only have to study this new field in depth, but also to acquire basic new science techniques that he had never encountered in his previous academic career.

No one is going to learn a new mathematical skill quickly and painlessly. Indeed, as I pointed out, as you get older, the hours required to acquire this information become longer not shorter, and yet as you get older, the hours available for the acquisition of such knowledge shrink due to social pressures.

Before we all sink in a sea of sorrow  and drown in our own tears, what can be done to survive? Indeed, how does one grow old gracefully?

The first and most important ray of sunshine in the gloom is that basic individual differences that exists between all of us. That kind of abilities that have been mentioned are happily reduced by comparatively minor percentages over an individual's lifetime, accounting to no more than a 25% reduction in anyone's skill, -while the differences between individuals are far greater. That engineer or businessman who has managed to survive for many years in a competitive environment, who did well in school when he was there, who possesses a drive and creativity to rise to the top in his profession, still will survive very well indeed if he understands who he is and what he has to do. The following suggestions may be helpful in growing old gracefully.

First, attempt less than you did before. Reduce the effort required by reducing the goals. Perhaps there may even be a deliberate reduction to the extent that you think your own abilities have declined.

Next, specialize more in a particular field. Be less of a generalist, If in any one field you concentrate your time, you may actually be able to catch up or stay with the experts in that field, providing it is narrow enough.

Call on experts and consultants. They may be available at reasonable enough fees to provide you the knowledge that you haven't the time to gain.

Concentrate only on the critical problems. Ignore the ones that will pass away anyway with time. If the roof is leaking and it is not damaging the machinery, let it leak. I drive -every day past a building with a windowless floor on top of a thriving business below. He may have a leak in his store but the business still survives.

You may not be able to replace yourself, but you certainly can replace your associates and subordinates. Don't be satisfied with a business that has grown old with you. The :more capable assistants you surround yourself with, the less likely anyone is to notice that you have declined in your own ability.

Reduce the time needed for study by concentrating on the very latest magazine articles and books in which the information has been digested and regurgitated, so that you don't have to do the job the author has done.

Probably the most significant area in the struggle to remain competitive is to watch your competitor closely. He is in the same bind. He is working as hard as he can to survive, and generally, his designs and his techniques reflect the latest state of the art. Build your designs and your capacities upon the latest industry practices rather than in a serial fashion from your own laboratory and your own concepts.

Whatever you do in design, don't get too close to a  marginal design. Save room for error, don't push the state of that art. Derate that transistor output stage, lower the working voltage stresses, reduce the possibility of mechanical fatigue with extra metal, add to the strength of the packaging, double the pages of instruction that go with your product. Admittedly, up goes the cost but down goes the knowledge level required, and the risk.

Rest a little more. Don't run up four flights of stairs at once. Admire the view at each landing, and then take the fourth one,

Along with the hardening of the arteries, it is obvious that you no longer work at the same speed as when you were younger. Better raise those costs estimates and time schedules.

If the picture seems to be black, fortunately, experience usually means more efficiency. It is probably going to be true that if you maintain your companies efficiency level at the average of that industry, and you mix in a little of your own experience, to counteract your own lower efficiency level, the chances are that you will probably do as well as you used to when you had  more energy and stored knowledge.

Generally, in most fields the rich become richer, not poorer. The newer firms have the usual problems of breaking in and the fact that they are staffed by vigorous and young and hungry executives, doesn't mean that they are naturally going to push out the older and tired companies. Older and tired companies have learned how to live with their oldness and tiredness, and they survive very well indeed. All you have to do is make sure that you are one of the survivors.

Having now laid bare the devastating truth that as one grows older, one grows weaker, the compensating factor for survival in the business battle must be accumulated wisdom. Perhaps some of the following comments may display wisdom, They certainly originate from the years of conflict and contemplation that it has been my pleasure to survive. Although the following comments, may seem isolated in content, they are all part of 'what one might generally describe as the conservative, business-oriented viewpoint.

Don't hire relatives or friends. At the best their loyalty prevents other loyalties from originating. At the worst, how do you fire them ?

Heredity is the key to understanding the potential of an individual. Neither your good offices or those of professionals make much difference in the basic potential of the individual. Most changes in his work environment do not affect his output.

There seems to be no place in business for a Liberal Arts graduate. If he does have a place, it is one that has nothing to do with his education , but only his innate capabilities.

Ordinary traditional IQ s the single best measure of a man's capabilities. Motivation is the most valued capability but impossible to measure except on the job.

Should you be fortunate enough to have a critic within your organization, promote him. Up, up and away is the cry. If he succeeds, so much the better.

No business enterprise can continue its existence efficiently without a systematic program of eliminating the least successful. If you wish to have a tenured system, run a school, not a business.

Yes, there is always room at the top. If I bothered to explain this, you shouldn't be interested in a talk on business management,

Managers seem to be born, not  made. If I could recover the hours and the money that went into training programs for supervisors, I would.

Integrity is the trademark of a successful company. Regardless of what the social theorists seem to imply, the highest morality in the United States exists in the corporation, although I'm sure we all recognize the fact that all organizations are corrupt in the strictest sense. Even in the small family unit one will find an individual who does not carry his share of the burden and preys on the work and savings of the other members of the family.

There is never enough knowledge to make a decision. All decisions must be made eventually by the executive on the basis of his well-worn " seat of the pants". The disaster is to wait for enough facts to make a decision, not in making the decision without the facts.

The right man for any job is the one who barely qualifies for it. Typically, one may promote an individual into a job in which he must spend several years before he is able to stay on top of it. This individual, knowing that he took so long to qualify in his position, is not likely to leave and make the position vacant. Crudely, this is what the organization must have for its own survival.

Supervision must go down two levels. The chain of command is easily broken if each link in the chain possesses only the authority to talk to and interview and review the activities of the individual in the chain directly beneath him. A bypass must be provided as a normal operating procedure to go an additional level down, literally to check the activities of the subordinate on a personal basis.

All conversations, all decisions, all operations must be thought out and planned at the extremist level. Certainly, emergencies are rare, but if you don't think the emergency is likely to occur, you will be ill prepared for it when it does. A simple discussion over wages should always be thought of as possibly ending in a strike, since the ability to strike is what originated the discussion over wages in the first place.

One of the proper functions of a Personnel Department is that of a safety valve. Every individual should feel free in strict confidence to discuss their problems with the Personnel Department.

If business were to be operated completely theoretically, then the average firm in a stable market would operate at a zero profit. Yet no company can survive the swings of fortune without operating at a profit during its normal level of activity,

The productivity of the few support the many, Wage rates do not adequately reflect the discrepancy in capability and usefulness of the individual in an organization. If we were all paid according to our value to the organization there would only be a few smiles. Most people might not even be able to support themselves from their contribution to the company's profit margin.

At every moment have a tentative decision formed which is based on the present known facts. However, no opinion should be final as long as new knowledge is available.

Business decisions are not made by business advisors or consultants. They present their facts and/or opinions and then you are required to act as a super expert in their field and second guess their presentations.

Government agencies in general are competent and unbiased except that their decisions are usually based on votes and not on economic factors.

Unions and Union leaders survive by the increasing benefits that they must obtain at every wage reopening discussion, and therefore, a negotiation with them must proceed with that basic recognition of their problem. Collective bargaining is a Government imposed program and involuntary on the part of business who has the most to lose by it.

When engaged in any discussion jump mentally from one side of the table to the other continuously if you expect to be successful on your side of the table.

Self-education is a day by day emergency. It is possible to be noncompetitive with a few weeks of relaxation from the pressures of acquiring knowledge.

If you haven't heard the theory of the corrupt third-generation manager, let me repeat it. The first generation owns the business, the second generation has been disciplined by the first generation to do a job, the third generation knows no moral constraints except their own desire to profit from a business operation, where they are only the employee and not the provider of capital.

With only a few exceptions, the higher you go toward the top of a company the more the hours of work.

All businesses are under-capitalized. The very largest manufacturer, General Motors, was not able to afford a four-door convertible in the Cadillac line when Lincoln had theirs,

If you find everything well organized and running smoothly, look out. For continuing efficiency, all business and people should be overworked to determine that they in truth are efficient. The greatest efficiency probably comes from perpetual work overloads, probably programmed on a random not a periodic basis.

Capital needs do not come from a bank. Risk capital must be obtained from sources that provide risk capital, such as the general public, friends, relatives and the capitalists. For this they have to be paid, with a return on risk capital that should be about 20% to make it worth their while.

Trust everyone and no one. Take everything at face value but as having no inherent value.

The principal obvious characteristic of an executive is stubbornness. Right or wrong, one must stick to a given course. Vacillation is self-defeating, no matter how good the concept, how valid the facts.

A brilliant idea is the smallest contribution to a successful company, but generally a one time necessity most companies live on one single improvement in the state of the art or in one narrow field. New ideas are not then as valuable as sheer hard labor.

Words are one of the lesser tools of management when compared to something substantial like a pay raise.

 No sale of your product is final, until it is discarded by the customer, satisfied that he has obtained his value.

A profit is confirmed only when the business is liquidated, otherwise it can only be called tentative.

Research and development usually do not pay for themselves on a current basis. One fortunate design pays for the years of mistakes and wasted efforts.

Temporarily, new management can show a profit in any losing situation by abandoning all expansion, research and development, and low profit items.

The number one item in the employee's bag of wishes is job security.

40 hours seems to be the optimum work load for the average individual, although some individuals could survive indefinitely on a 48 hour week. Only the strong can endure overtime as a regular diet.

A good worker is not necessarily a happy worker. To concentrate on happiness is certainly a different objective than to concentrate on business efficiency.

A never-ending job, and I repeat, a never-ending job, is the training of your subordinates. Training is as important as all the other things that make up a business work-day.

The first thing a manager tackles is the most unpleasant, unrewarding task on his agenda; exactly the opposite is done by an employee if he wishes to survive.

A constant state of conflict exists between the manager and the managed. Learn to live with it.

Within the management structure, friendships can only exist at your level. Perhaps above, particularly if they are in a different work oriented area, but never below.

The average group opinion is usually wrong for a business decision, but right for a political decision.

The higher the expenditure, the lower the confidence level in the decision making, and the lower hours of study per dollar spent.

Equally successful managers may exist having opposite philosophies. One may involve himself deeply in details, and the other delegates such matters to subordinates. The difference between the two probably lies in the potential for growth. One should not make the mistake, however, of assuming the manager with nothing to do is efficient since he knows how to delegate (whatever that means). His day is wasted if it is not productively filled with training his subordinates to do a better job in what they are doing.

One should always have two goals - the impossible dream - and, - the least one would settle for. Sometime a judgment has to be r.lade when to quit and go on to the next task. An executive must be stubborn but not foolish.