Too old to learn?

For thousands of years it has been believed that the young learn from the old. But has the situation finally reversed? Do the old now have to learn from the young? Such a thought is an uncomfortable one but which needs a to be seriously considered, in the light of the present system where knowledge is expanding so fast that it is said that the total volume of knowledge in the world doubles every ten years. If this is true than a man who is 60 years old and whose grandson is 15, will have had 50 percent less to learn at 50 than his grandson would have at 15. In this case, unless Grandpa is a man who is constantly educating himself, there would be a lot he could learn from his grandson. However, one thing that is said that cannot be learnt without an elder is experience. The old would have ‘been there, done that and bought the T-shirt’ while most of the young have to teach may be theoretical or with little experience to back them up. Even in ancient texts like Plato’s dialogues, it comes about that the young learn from the old as much as the old learn from the young. When looking at a problem, the old can see it from their experience and perhaps only from that perspective. This may or may not be useful to the situation of the problem. The young looking at the same problem may be able to see the problem from a fresh insight, without the baggage of stumbling experience; which may actually act an obstacle to the problem. Then again, they would be lacking in experience, which may be crucial in solving the problem. Hence we see that in certain situations, neither the old nor the young have the advantage. As a conclusion, what may work is a combination of experience from the old and creativity from the young.