Age is just a number. Age is a state of mind.

Yes… until someone actually asks for yours.

Which my daughters do. To every neighbour, at full volume.
Some neighbours freeze, forget how their faces work, then look at me while their brains do the numbers.
Truth? Shave off a decade? No! Too greedy. Shave five…?

I jump in: “You can’t ask people that!” and it's usually laughed off with "Ah, kids... eh?"
Crisis averted.

Then, a few days ago, someone I’d just met asked me exactly that.
“How old are you?”

Didn’t bother me, so I told him, despite having aged 20 years in the last ten.
(Ah, kids, eh? Indeed).
What surprised me was being asked.

But what if it does bother you?

Kids are curious, and some grown-ups are clueless.
You don’t owe anyone your birth certificate, but you also don’t need to shut down the conversation. You can deflect without making it awkward.
Try these (served with warmth and a smile):

Smile, keep it light, and no need for an apology.
Then change the topic.
Boundaries protected, and chat kept alive.

Avoid this, though: “How old do you think I am?”

Unless you’re emotionally prepared for the answer.

4 October 1970.

Raspy-voiced Janis Joplin dies in a Hollywood motel. She’s 27.

Sixteen days earlier: Jimi Hendrix. 27.
Nine months later: Jim Morrison. 27.
Add Brian Jones, Kurt Cobain and Amy Winehouse.

Six legends with the same grim membership card.

The 27 Club.

I spent my long-haired student days with most of these blasting through my cheap plastic headphones.
Pop culture turned 27 into a cursed, tragic milestone.

The science, thankfully, disagrees.
There’s no unusual spike in musician deaths at 27. We humans just love spotting patterns in the dark.

The music, though? Brilliant conversation fuel.

Shared musical nostalgia always beats usual weather or weekend chat.
And you don’t need to know the back catalogue.

💡 PRO TIP: Don’t know them? Ask: “What song should I listen to first?”

💬 FOLLOW-UP: “Which musician would you bring back for one more album?”

⛔ DON’T SAY: “Where was this club when [disgraced rock star] turned 27?”
(So... who did you mentally put there?)

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“How old would you be if you didn’t know how old you were?”
(Satchel Paige, US baseball player, 1906-1982)

👇 Answer at the end.

Remember the cassette tapes from earlier?

Turns out I wasn’t dating myself. I was trend forecasting.

Gen Z has raided your junk drawer.
Early 2000s digicams, CDs, DVDs, iPods, wired headphones, flip phones.
(Wisely dodging floppy discs, though).

The generation raised on frictionless digital life is deliberately putting some friction back in.

Twenty years ago:
“Why is this photo so goddamn grainy?”
2026:
“OMG, the aesthetic. So authentic.”

Makes sense. No notifications, algos, doomscrolling, subscriptions, ads or ragebait.
Buy a thing, and own a thing that does just one thing.

Remember that?

The numbers: nearly two-thirds of young consumers say they want to go more analogue this year.
The generation born in an ocean of social media is using social media to find ways of using less social media. Brilliant.

Cross-generational small talk is notoriously dodgy ground, but retro gear hits the spot.

Looks like the future needed a rewind button.

One you actually have to press.

💬 FOLLOW-UP: What piece of tech first blew your mind?

⛔ DON’T SAY: “Bring back the fax machine!” (Paper jam PTSD is real.)

Ever wonder why your shutterless smartphone makes a mechanical camera click? (Not just to stop perves).
Or why the ‘save’ icon is still a floppy disk?

That’s a skeuomorph (SKYOO-uh-morf). Greek for ‘tool shape’.
Sounds like something slimy from Alien, but is actually old design cues baked into new tech because familiar feels easier.

We buried the physical objects, but kept their ghosts around for comfort.

💬 FOLLOW-UP: “What old-school design do you still love?”

Not quite Halloween, but...

ETH Zurich built a robotic hand that scuttles around on its fingers, inspired by Thing from The Addams Family.
(The jingly-jangly piano music is not helping).

Remember “Talk to the hand”?

Used to be an insult. Now it’s a research grant.

💬 FOLLOW-UP: What would you send it to do?
(Still thinking of that disgraced rock star?)

For when your brain needs a biscuit.

A 13-year-old boy wishes to be ‘big’ and wakes up as toy executive Tom Hanks.

💬 FOLLOW UP: What's your favourite Tom Hanks movie?

A) 😬 Yup — some opinions cannot be unheard (27%)
B) 🤔 Depends what it is (40%)
C) 🧠 No — smart people believe stupid things too (33%)
D) 🇫🇷 What? Emily in Paris IS a masterpiece (0%)

💬 Your Two Cents

S: “Depends on the subject - a guilty pleasure TV show, no. An evangelical belief on any number of current affairs issues – yep."
C: “My buddy started dating this girl. She said her favorite band of all time was ZZZ (can't remember the band name, but my friend had never heard of the band). He decided to listen… found them to be more than awful. Needless to say, it didn't work out with her. lol”
S: “…the opposite halo effect is just as illogical, Hitler kissing a baby doesn't make him any less Hitlery.”

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