202304031233 Repeated success requires adaptation

What you did to become successful is likely to be counter-productive when applied at a later date.¹

There are two things at play here.

First, the "old expert" often fails to keep up with the times. The context around them shifts and the advancements even in their areas of expertise change what, how, and why things are done. They often become set in their ways and can end up not just irrelevant, but outright wrong. This can be for many reasons like ego, pride, lack of motivation, arrogance, or just rapid progress.

Second, because we have gained some success by doing things a certain way, we're likely to be biased to believing that we're capable of knowing the "correct" way more than others since there were people who were not successful while we were. This closes our minds to novel, creative solutions and fundamental changes in our fields.

It's important to use our time regardless of our successes to continue being creative (202211030958 Creative accomplishments happen over time). We should avoid being overly cautious for fear of losing our successful position (202408060133 Caution and perfectionism hurt progress). We should strive to 202208211426 Work with people who know they don't know and be one of those people ourselves! We need to adapt to the changing world in order to have more success and not be blockers for future generations of thinkers. 202308271043 Be an early adopter of interesting things to learn widely and integrate good new ideas.