Over the hill and through the woods we go to…
Where are we going, I can’t recall, I may be going senile.

To grow old is one of life’s blessings, but it is not all roses, one day you wake up and find you have injured yourself while sleeping. Maybe today is the day you discover you have knees, and they are very unhappy with the way you have treated them over the years. Or maybe this is the day you realize that you can't keep up with all the new things and changes happen around you daily.

Sometimes, as I reflect on growing older, and the older I grow the more I seem to reflect, not because I am fearful of the aging process, or that I am worried about my final outcome (hint I love Jesus). I reflect because I ask myself what I have done to set the next generation up for success?

What can (or should) I be doing with the time I have left to help others?

In my career I have watched the birth and growth on an entire industry. I have seen how the technology we made has had a profound and lasting impact on what it means to be a human, and how you interact with the world. Those who come after us do not have this same luxury, they are lacking the wisdom earned through these gray hairs.

Each year that goes by, it becomes clear(er) that I have forgotten more than I (or they) know. With age and experience came a price that must be paid. I don’t know all the latest and greatest things happening, new tech, new vulnerabilities, new exploits. Who does? The good news is, it doesn't matter as much as how you deal with them. How you deal with them hasn't changed much in the last 30 years.

Experienced professionals have stories to tell, advice to give, and lessons they learned the hard way. They have so much to share!

Are we doing enough to mentor those coming up in the industry? Hopefully before our minds leave us, spending our waning days rocking in a chair reminiscing about the good old days. You remember yelling at people in your house, “Hey I am on the internet, hang up the phone”, or that one time we waited 4 hours for a .jpeg to download?

Those were days when you knew what was on your network and could explain what it was doing. "Googling it" wasn't an option.

I find myself pondering this question as I grow older, I ask myself about the legacy we're leaving for the next generation. Believe it or not, they ARE looking to us for guidance and leadership.

What lessons have we learned, technical and non-technical, that we want to pass on? There's a story, purpose, and lesson behind every scar.

In an industry that is as competitive as ours, based on secrecy, are we doing enough to equip the young'uns with the hard-earned knowledge that no book or class can teach? There's something about being in the heat of the batter. If we don't share our knowledge, then the same mistakes will be made over and over again.

Maybe this is why we're still trying to get people to backup their data?

I enjoy growing old because I value the experience I've gained and the scars I've earned. There are the joyous moments and there are the painful ones too. Like the title of one my favorite western films, "the good the bad and the ugly".

Although I may feel like a lost shoe on the side of the highway, we should wonder, where it came from, how in the F did it get here and does it still serve a purpose.

I used to wonder why all the old people seemed to be cranky and fed up with the world, and each day this worldview makes more and more sense.

Join us tonight for a discussion on aging, the impact it has on us as humans and security professionals and most importantly, what are we doing to pass on the experience we have to the next generation.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a2__8xIIa2A

Evan, Chris and Ryan