The content is exactly what the title says.
Beyond that, this is a column with no particular insight.
Around the end of the year, year-end drinking parties inevitably pile up.
Not only with friends — there are also parties with people you don't know well, and parties with clients.
At a gathering hosted by a close friend of mine, I hit it off with someone I'd never met and talked for a while.
He said something like this:
"The world is full of older guys. No matter how much money they make or how high their social status is, young people don't think, 'I want to drink with that older guy!' Nobody wants to hear an old man's stories. Once you've earned a certain amount, you should make friends with people your own age who you get along with, and stop bothering younger communities. Aren't there way too many older guys who don't realize that?"
Obvious, maybe — but yeah, I thought he had a point.
It's not that drinking with work connections is always boring. Even with clients, there are plenty of parties I'd gladly go to if invited.
On the other hand, there are also plenty of older-guy business owners who start bragging about their network — "I'll introduce you to this CEO I know" — and when they actually take you along, it's hopelessly dull.
Boring I could almost forgive. What's unbearable is that they seem to think "time spent in that community" is somehow valuable for younger people.
Clearly you'd be better off sleeping at home.
If young people show up, maybe it's because there's a stake — work they might get, and so on. Same structure as the nightlife industry. Even setting that aside, the community itself is still boring.
And even if you do land a job, I've never had a good experience taking work from an older guy who acts like he's doing you a favor by giving it to you. You shouldn't engage with that.
The other day, some guy in his 50s or 60s posted on social media something like: "Drinking with older guys my age is boring. So I try to drink with young people as much as possible." And I thought, "Ah — this person has no idea that he himself is boring. He probably thinks young people enjoy drinking with him, unlike those other old guys."
Becoming an old man is unavoidable, I think, so I'll get there someday too.
I don't want to become the kind of person who subjects younger generations to long, tedious talk.
I don't want to become a delusional old man who thinks talking with him has value — when everyone else is only sitting there reluctantly because of some stake in the relationship.
Whether you make money or succeed, relationships with friends you actually enjoy being with, and hobbies you can lose yourself in without bothering others, matter far more. You shouldn't cling to the crazy fantasy that people get value just from hanging out with you.
This isn't only about boring older-guy drinking parties — it's also about not forgetting humility, and about not getting swept up by clearly wrong values that somehow pass as "correct" in a world where older people are the default.
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