Waiting till your older and more experienced

[TomTougher]

I've heard people, including teenagers, say that you should wait until your older before you start stuff that's new because that way you have more experience. Stuff such as driving, dating, watching certain movies, staying out late, ect. that you should wait until you're older before you do that stuff because when you're older you've got more experience. Well I would like to make this clear, no you do not have more experience when you're older. Here is why.

Take driving for instance. Lets say you start driving at 15, in some states the driving age is 15. Now, in some states the driving age is 16 so you might say that by starting at 16 you have more experience. No you don't. The fact of the matter is that it doesn't matter when you start whether its 15 or 16 or 60 or any other age in all cases you've got zero experience. Somebody who has never driven before has zero experience driving and it doesn't matter what their age is. When you start something new whether its driving or anything else you start at zero experience, that's what it means to start something. So starting to drive at 16 doesn't mean you have any more experience than if you start at 15.

Now, somebody who starts at 15 vs somebody who starts at 16. The 15 year old, by the time they're 16 they will already have a year of experience vs somebody who is just starting at 16 and has no experience driving. So that means, starting at 15 will give you an extra year of experience by the time your 16 and so it will give you that advantage vs. starting at 16. Something to think about.

[Luminous]

I agree with all the points you made, but I don't think you understand what 'waiting until you're older and more experienced' actually means. Nobody expects you to get better at driving when you're not driving. It means more life experience. You mature with age and will be a more responsible driver than you were a year or two before if you wait. For example, when you're 15 you might be more likely to text and drive than when you're 16, because you've seen your friends get into trouble for it or thought more about it because you're more mature. This is especially true for teens who change so rapidly, you're really a different person when you're 15 and 16.

[TomTougher]

I agree with all the points you made, but I don't think you understand what 'waiting until you're older and more experienced' actually means. Nobody expects you to get better at driving when you're not driving. It means more life experience. You mature with age and will be a more responsible driver than you were a year or two before if you wait. For example, when you're 15 you might be more likely to text and drive than when you're 16, because you've seen your friends get into trouble for it or thought more about it because you're more mature. This is especially true for teens who change so rapidly, you're really a different person when you're 15 and 16.
You are right about having more life experience but here's the thing, life experience isn't just a matter of how long you've lived, its also a matter of what you've done while youre living. If you sit around and do nothing for a hundred years you will have hardly any life experience even at the age of a hundred. On the other hand if you go out and do stuff with yourself and learn new things you can have tons of life experience at a young age. One of the best ways to learn and to mature is by actually doing stuff that requires you to be responsible such as driving although there are tons of other stuff that would fall under that category too. If anything somebody who starts driving at the age of 15, they will be a more responsible driver at 16 than somebody who at 16 is just starting out. As well as having an extra year to learn the necessary knowledge and skills to properly operate a car they've also learned to be responsible by doing that. Of course when you start learning to drive you don't just hop in a car and take off, you start with classes in a classroom and only after adequate classroom time do you get to operate a car and that is done under the supervision of an instructor sitting in the passenger seat. Then, after you have enough experience driving with an instructor you can take the road test and if you pass you get your license. Its certainly a good thing to have to go through all those steps before driving on your own but there is no reason a 15 year old can't go through all those steps and a 16 year old can. By going through those steps you practice responsibility which can be applied to not only driving but to life in general as well.

Now as for teens changing rapidly, teens change relatively slowly compared to younger children. Sure there is a difference when you're 15 vs. when you're 16 but there is a much bigger difference when you're say 7 vs when you're 8. Babies change the fastest. In just a month a baby can double in size and within a year babies can start learning to talk and walk. So teenagers change quite slowly compared to younger children.

[Karkat]

I agree with Hannah in that I think you're taking the meaning of the phrase the wrong way.

When you're older, you have more maturity and life experience, and therefore should have more wisdom. It might be easier to take on tasks that require extra caution or maturity.

Also, you never sit around on your ass doing nothing. A 100 year old will always have more life experience than a teenager. They will have seen decades go by, gone through love and loss, aging, working, making mistakes, learning. A teenager has only just begun.

[TomTougher]

I agree with Hannah in that I think you're taking the meaning of the phrase the wrong way.

When you're older, you have more maturity and life experience, and therefore should have more wisdom. It might be easier to take on tasks that require extra caution or maturity.

Also, you never sit around on your ass doing nothing. A 100 year old will always have more life experience than a teenager. They will have seen decades go by, gone through love and loss, aging, working, making mistakes, learning. A teenager has only just begun.

The 100 year old vs the teenager was an exaggeration. What Im saying is that yes, as you get older you do generally get more experienced and wiser but there is more too it than that. Just because somebody is older doesn't mean they have more experience. Its not just the time you've been on the planet that matters but also, what you do with it. As you've probably noticed, there are some younger people who are more experienced than some older people. And what Im saying is its good to get a head start and you can do that by taking on stuff that does require responsibility as you said so yourself when you mentioned tasks that require extra caution or maturity. Driving is just one example, there are tons of things you can do to grow, develop, and gain experience in life.

[Canadian Dream]

I've heard people, including teenagers, say that you should wait until your older before you start stuff that's new because that way you have more experience. Stuff such as driving, dating, watching certain movies, staying out late, ect. that you should wait until you're older before you do that stuff because when you're older you've got more experience. Well I would like to make this clear, no you do not have more experience when you're older. Here is why.

Take driving for instance. Lets say you start driving at 15, in some states the driving age is 15. Now, in some states the driving age is 16 so you might say that by starting at 16 you have more experience. No you don't. The fact of the matter is that it doesn't matter when you start whether its 15 or 16 or 60 or any other age in all cases you've got zero experience. Somebody who has never driven before has zero experience driving and it doesn't matter what their age is. When you start something new whether its driving or anything else you start at zero experience, that's what it means to start something. So starting to drive at 16 doesn't mean you have any more experience than if you start at 15.

Now, somebody who starts at 15 vs somebody who starts at 16. The 15 year old, by the time they're 16 they will already have a year of experience vs somebody who is just starting at 16 and has no experience driving. So that means, starting at 15 will give you an extra year of experience by the time your 16 and so it will give you that advantage vs. starting at 16. Something to think about.

You are right about having more life experience but here's the thing, life experience isn't just a matter of how long you've lived, its also a matter of what you've done while youre living. If you sit around and do nothing for a hundred years you will have hardly any life experience even at the age of a hundred. On the other hand if you go out and do stuff with yourself and learn new things you can have tons of life experience at a young age. One of the best ways to learn and to mature is by actually doing stuff that requires you to be responsible such as driving although there are tons of other stuff that would fall under that category too. If anything somebody who starts driving at the age of 15, they will be a more responsible driver at 16 than somebody who at 16 is just starting out. As well as having an extra year to learn the necessary knowledge and skills to properly operate a car they've also learned to be responsible by doing that. Of course when you start learning to drive you don't just hop in a car and take off, you start with classes in a classroom and only after adequate classroom time do you get to operate a car and that is done under the supervision of an instructor sitting in the passenger seat. Then, after you have enough experience driving with an instructor you can take the road test and if you pass you get your license. Its certainly a good thing to have to go through all those steps before driving on your own but there is no reason a 15 year old can't go through all those steps and a 16 year old can. By going through those steps you practice responsibility which can be applied to not only driving but to life in general as well.

Now as for teens changing rapidly, teens change relatively slowly compared to younger children. Sure there is a difference when you're 15 vs. when you're 16 but there is a much bigger difference when you're say 7 vs when you're 8. Babies change the fastest. In just a month a baby can double in size and within a year babies can start learning to talk and walk. So teenagers change quite slowly compared to younger children.

The 100 year old vs the teenager was an exaggeration. What Im saying is that yes, as you get older you do generally get more experienced and wiser but there is more too it than that. Just because somebody is older doesn't mean they have more experience. Its not just the time you've been on the planet that matters but also, what you do with it. As you've probably noticed, there are some younger people who are more experienced than some older people. And what Im saying is its good to get a head start and you can do that by taking on stuff that does require responsibility as you said so yourself when you mentioned tasks that require extra caution or maturity. Driving is just one example, there are tons of things you can do to grow, develop, and gain experience in life.

Ok, I understand your point of view, but you're not looking at the right idea. When someone says you should wait until you're older, it's because the possibility of being affected at a younger age is higher. For instance, if I were to start driving at the age of 15 rather than 16, yes it would give the advantage of time given to practice, but such a young age has risks associated to it (even at 16, I'm just using that age as an example). The brain takes a long time to develop, and the reason everyone tells us to wait until you're older is because when you're older, your brain has had more time to experience and analyze how life works, and can apply this to other skills later on. Of course there isn't going to be any difference in experience whenever someone starts driving for example, but the older person will probably have a better and more considered point of view on safe driving compared to the younger one. Why do you think so many teenagers die from impaired driving accidents? Their brain isn't developped enough to see that oh well drinking alcohol and driving is a potential hazard to their life. I totally understand your point of getting experience earlier, but we are told those things to prevent the potential alteration in behaviour for the future. When your brain is more developped, it allows you to make better decisions in general. You gave the example of dating? Well I can tell you right now there is going to be a big difference between the reaction of the 14 year old girl breaking up versus the 20 year old girl breaking up. Your point tells me that it would be the same thing, but I can assure you that breaking up at 14 is going to be much harder to cope with than to break up at 20, because as I explained before it's all about decision making. And I agree, it is always better to get experience earlier, but when something like safety comes into play in my mind safety comes first, because if you don't take it in consideration you may not be able to take advantage of that early experience you're talking about. It's all about keeping everything straight until you're able to analyze and understand the world in a way that won't lead you to harm yourself in any sort of way. So maybe you should take in the fact there is a future, and if you care about it in any sort of way I suggest you listen to the people around you that have patiently waited and are now successful in life.