New thoughts on the word “Old”

“Dude, your computer is ancient. That thing has to have come from the stone-age.”

In the modern word, “Old” means bad.  “Old” has connotations of “outdated,” “outmoded,” “irrelevant,” “inefficient,” “inferior,” and so forth. 

“New,” on the other hand, seems to mean “better,” “relevant,” “effective,” bigger, better, faster, stronger. Newer computers, cell-phones, games and etc. are better than older ones. But does that apply to ideas as well? Often we (modern people) think so.  “Cutting edge solutions” and the like.

But is that really the case?

A hundred years ago (and even more recently than that) the word “old” wasn’t a bad thing.  “Old” also meant “tried and tested,” “reliable,” “mature,” and “refined” (think of fine wines and cheeses). “New” was just the opposite. “Untried,” “risky,” etc.  

I think this is very interesting. New ideas are not always better than old ones. (If you even believe in new ideas, most “discoveries” in politics and philosophy have been around for millennia.) "Nihil novi."

Just a quick thought.  Listen when old people talk.  You stand a good chance of learning something valuable.  Don’t throw out old ideas just because they are old. Some things don’t get outdated.