I'm now 35 and today in a survey I had to tick the new box 35-50. Do I have more in common with people at 45 or 50 than those at 25? Sometimes I think I definitely don't, but then I feel young still. So, what would I want to tick, maybe a 30-39 would suit me better. I have a lot more responsibilities than I had ten years ago, I had a house then, but now I have a family and I'm more senior in my job.
Yet I don't feel that much in common with people a bit older, but maybe that is unfounded, most of my collegues at Nature are early twenties to later forties, certainly plenty of people are off having children. So maybe that is the key issue, not my age, but commonality in life experiences. State of job, enthusiasm for the new, having a child. More than a tickbox, but harder to capture in a survey. Having a family at 20 is very different to mid-thirties. As ever context is the important thing.

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