older, better?

Is it a myth that people slow down as they get older? In my experience, complex ideas now seem simpler, I'm better at solving problems, and generally I'm faster at learning new things. I'm certainly more critical of my ideas, but my sense is that the ones that get through my filters are better than the ones I would produce a few years ago.

Someone once told me about a class they took with Gerry Sussman, one of the great teachers here at MIT. One day he came in and started writing equations on the board. As he went on the equations got more and more painful to follow, and eventually one of the students gave up and asked him, how can you possibly understand this complex stuff? Gerry's response was, "Well, I couldn't when I was your age -- but when I turned 26 I grew three new registers."