Redefining "senior moments:" Aha!

According to Suzanne Stinnett, culture change student and author of Little Shifts, the healthy aging brain is a lot like new social media: "Adaptive, highly integrated, self-renewing, making use of accumulation of data."

Unfortunately, we tend to look at the older software of the mind the same way we look at older technology. "We view a tech tool that has been around for ten years as a dinosaur – and if it is still useful, smart, and engaging, we’re in awe."

Stinnett makes an argument for more awe, less ugh, and defines a senior moment as:

The moment of “aha” when yet another innovation comes together as a result of our activated brains. When a senior citizen provides an integration of concepts, a brilliant innovation, or makes some connection that no one else could think of. The product of an experienced brain which is functioning at a high level. Only people who have been around the sun fifty times or so are capable of these moments.

Aha!