Gray hair fallacy

We assign an authority principle to people who have been doing things for a long time. If you've been at something for 30 years, you must've learned something.

The fallacy is assuming that older people will be good at whatever they claim they are good at.

In entrepreneurship (and especially for scipreneurs), we are surrounded by older people who claim to know what we should do. Sometimes their advice is valuable, no doubts, but in many cases we assign authority to the opinion of someone who has no first-hand experience on what they are saying.

This is particularly troubling for startups who may be looking for early employees or partners. It can be see by the fact that executives are not effectual reasoners.

Someone who is a technology transfer officer probably saw many companies passing under his tenure, but that's purely theoretical knowledge. Venture capitalists make many deals and see many things, but they lack the "from the trenches" spirit.

Before over-valuing gray hair, I think scipreneurs need someone with whom to build.