The wisdom age gap

You can’t shortcut wisdom. You can have the fastest car, the loudest opinion, and the biggest wallet, but meaning doesn’t bend to urgency.

When you’re young, everything seems to be about more is better. More success, more followers, more food, more friends. And it makes sense. You’re building a worldview with limited inputs. You don’t yet know how it feels to have a life so complete that it tips over.

You can have preferences without perspective. You like the car because it’s fast, not because you’ve spent hours in traffic, realising comfort beats horsepower when you’re stuck at a standstill. You chase more food without knowing the joy of just enough. You dream about wealth without understanding the peace of having “enough” instead of “more.”

Experience teaches you what books and podcasts can’t. The slow grind of time gives you friction—the resistance needed to sharpen your understanding. You start to see that not everything you can have is something you want.

That’s not cynicism. It’s clarity.

It’s realising that joy can come from less. That you can trade noise for silence, and be richer. That you can let go of chasing and finally feel grounded.

This is the age gap wisdom no one warns you about. It doesn’t come with your birthday candles. It sneaks up on you after heartbreaks, job switches, meals alone, quiet moments, and messy days that eventually make sense in hindsight.

So, if you’re younger and don’t quite get it yet—that’s okay. Keep going. You’re not behind. You’re in the process. Meaning will arrive right on time.

And if you’ve seen the shift already—smile. You’ve earned the peace that comes when enough is enough